Jose Fonte says West Ham United need to build on the solid base a three-man defence gives them and find ways to break down resilient opponents in future.
The Hammers looked secure at the back for the second successive game in Saturday’s goalless draw at West Bromwich Albion, where they made it two clean sheets in a row following the 2-0 home win over Huddersfield Town.
But, at the other end of the pitch, Fonte and company struggled to break down a Baggies team that was not just well-organised, but also sat deep in their own territory to restrict the space available to their visitors.
We should have won, but we have to take the clean sheet and the point
Jose Fonte
“There is a lot of disappointment in the dressing room because we felt, and I think everyone saw, that the game was there to be won,” he said.
“Having said that, West Brom made it really difficult. They didn’t really come out to play, they were only playing on mistakes and defending very, very deep and frustrating us and making it difficult for us to play in the last third of the pitch.
“But, having said that again, we had two or three good chances to score but we didn’t manage to do it. We should have won, but we have to take the clean sheet and the point.”
Bilic opted to send on midfielder Marko Arnautovic when centre-back James Collins was injured early in the second half but, rather than switch to a more attack-minded formation, he simply moved his players around to new positions in the same 3-4-3 system.
Fonte had no issue with his manager’s tactical decision.
“Some people might say, perhaps we could have changed or gone a little bit more offensive but, in my opinion, first and foremost you have to keep clean sheets and if you don’t concede, you know that’s the base,” the Portuguese explained.
“We feel very comfortable and very secure when we play like this and now it’s just about working the system and trying to find solutions when we play against teams like this, to break them down.
“We have the pace, we have the quality players, we have the players who can create, so I feel certainly that this has helped us, like last year, when we had a very good run with this system. We like it and the results are coming, so we just need to keep working on the training ground, improving and finding ways to break teams down.”
One moment which could have opened up more space for the Hammers to operate in came midway through the second half, when Ben Foster raced from his penalty area before bringing down Chicharito.
Referee Paul Tierney decided the offence was worthy of a booking rather than a sending-off and allowed the Baggies goalkeeper to stay on the pitch.
Again, Fonte had no issue with the decision.
“On the pitch, we felt it was a sending-off, but having seen it, if the touch was a little bit more straight, we could have argued that it was definitely a red card, but the touch was a little bit too much to the left, so we can’t focus too much on that one, unfortunately.
“The decision didn’t go our way. It was a frustrating game, but we have to take the point.”