- West Ham manager Slaven Bilic was disappointed after a quarter-final EFL Cup exit against Manchester United
- His side conceded two early goals at the start of each half, contributing to a 4-1 defeat
- Ashley Fletcher did score a first half equaliser – his first goal for the Club
Slaven Bilic was left frustrated after his Hammers side conceded early goals in both the first and second half in a 4-1 EFL Cup quarter-final defeat to Manchester United on Wednesday.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic opened the scoring two minutes into the tie at Old Trafford before Ashley Fletcher equalised, grabbing his first for the Club with ten minutes left in the half.
But it was the same story in the second period as Anthony Martial converted from close range on 48 minutes and this time the visitors had no reply.
Instead, Martial and Ibrahimovic both added to their tallies on the night to secure the Red Devils’ place in the semi-finals.
After Sunday’s gritty performance at the same venue which saw the east Londoners pick up a crucial Premier League point, Bilic was this time left disappointed.
He said: “We can’t have a slow start against them because they are very good when they are one up. They have those kind of players.
“After the slow start, we recovered and looked good but you can’t do the same. And we did. They totally deserved it then after that. You just can’t have that kind of a start in a game like this.
“They are really good on the counter attacks and all that but that happened to us in the first half and then we recovered and started to play after 25 minutes. They played with more energy and quality and a bit more passion.”
Wing-backs Michail Antonio and Aaron Cresswell were both replaced due to injury and the boss provided an update on the pair.
“Cresswell’s injury doesn’t look that bad. His groin felt very tight and hopefully it’s just fatigue from Sunday. With Antonio, hopefully it’s the same but we don’t know yet.
“We have a tough game on Saturday and we have a couple of players who came off injured, but we wanted to preserve players for then and Dimitri Payet also.
“It is unbelievable that when we get a couple of injuries like the ones we got today [after them all this season] and it’s very tough for us now.”