Jurcevic - It's like a dream!

Nikola Jurcevic described his role as West Ham United assistant manager as being ‘like a dream’ following Saturday’s 2-1 win over Chelsea.

The Croatian joined forces with compatriot Slaven Bilic just a few weeks ago, and has yet to lose since his arrival in east London, helping inspire the Hammers into the Barclays Premier League’s top three.

Speaking to West Ham TV, Jurcevic spoke of his pride at what he, his fellow staff and the Club’s players are achieving at present.

“At this moment we are really happy,” said the 47-year-old. “It must be like a dream because we won against a really big club. Our performance today was really perfect.

“From the first minute, all the team fought very well and were helped by our fantastic supporters.
Everyone is so happy today!”

Under Bilic, Jurcevic and first-team coach Edin Terzic, West Ham have developed a new philosophy whereby they go out to try to win every game.

This positive attitude saw them tear into Chelsea from the first whistle, leading to an opening goal for Mauro Zarate, a red card for Nemanja Matic and Andy Carroll’s introduction and powerful late winner.

“We worked hard for the last three or four months and we have found a really good team – not only the first eleven but also another seven, eight or nine who are ready to help our team,” he continued.

“We had players who came in and helped us to win this game. We have also a great atmosphere in the team, along with discipline and hard work and all together, these help us to be in this position.”

With a little more than 20 minutes remaining, Jurcevic and Bilic were deep in thought in the technical area, before Carroll was called back from his warm-up to enter the fray.

By that time, Chelsea’s ten men had equalised through Gary Cahill’s scrambled equaliser, and West Ham had regrouped but were finding a winner difficult to come by.

Enter Carroll, whose presence and desire led to a brutal, unstoppable header from Aaron Cresswell’s left-wing cross with eleven minutes to go, chalking up another outstanding win for the Hammers.

“Every time during the game we have short discussions about situations about what we can do with 15 or 25 minutes to go,” he said.

“We had a feeling and made this change and we were lucky with this change because Andy Carroll scored this important goal for us.”

Jurcevic and Bilic worked together previously with Croatia, Lokomotiv Moscow and Besiktas, where they were used to trying to win every game.

That approach has now arrived in east London, where the Hammers look like a confident force to be reckoned with under the new managerial team.

“I think everybody expects great things from us this season because of our start and because of our wins over big teams – Arsenal, Man City, Liverpool and now Chelsea,” he explained.

“It’s like a dream but we want to stay on the floor, stay stable and have good training without silly things for the players.

“Our plan is to be good from game to game and we can have a successful season.”