Bilic - We reacted strongly

Slaven Bilic felt his players showed a good reaction against Everton and says he cannot be unhappy with only taking a point from the 1-1 draw at the Boleyn Ground.


The West Ham United manager was determined to see his side bounce straight back from their 2-0 defeat against Watford last weekend and felt they played as a team for the full ninety minutes.


Manuel Lanzini scored a wonder goal on the half hour mark but the Hammers failed to stop Romelu Lukaku getting on the scoresheet once again when he grabbed an equaliser just before half-time.


There was more bad news in the second half when influential duo Dimitri Payet and Enner Valencia were both forced to leave the field through injury, but Bilic felt his side showed enough character to take something from the game.


Bilic said: “It was a good performance from us and it was important after the game against Watford to come back and show a good reaction in front of our own fans. I cannot be unhappy with the way the team played.


“I thought for ninety minutes we looked as a team. We are never happy with a point, especially when we play at home, but we tried and had chances.


“We played against a very good team and I have to praise the players.


“It was a cheap goal to give away. We lost the ball deep in their half and at a time when we didn't need to lose it.


“But I thought our two central defenders played really well against him and the other forwards."


Bilic had nothing but praise for Lanzini once again after the talented forward produced a great piece of skill to direct the ball past Tim Howard into the corner of the net.


Bilic added: “He has got it. Some of our players prefer to pass the ball when they are in and around the box and we want them to shoot more.


“For his goal the ball went in exactly where he wanted it to go. He has that skill and the power and he is a good player.”


The worrying news for Bilic and the Hammers fans was the injuries sustained by Payet and Valencia in the second half.


The West Ham manager says he will wait to see the results from their scans before they can make an assessment on how long they will be ruled out of action.


“I don't want to talk about the latest news until we see the scan. The latest can be very different to what the real news is so I would prefer to wait until we have the results of their scans.


“It doesn't look good. The first one on Dimitri was a bad challenge, the second one was on Enner's ankle although he did get the ball.


“It was a big blow for us to lose both of them because we had been planning to play both of them together at some stage in the game.


“But the two injuries stopped us a bit. We would have been more creative and more dangerous.


“We can only hope they are going to be okay for the Spurs game but the latest doesn't sound very good. I hope that is not the case.”