Why Slaven Bilic's Are Struggling This Season .

By Ewah Chika.

Why West Ham Is Struggling In The Premier League.

No West Ham fan envisaged what transpired at Upton Park last season following the appointment of Slaven Bilic as Sam Allardyce's replacement.

Bilic had previously had spells at Spartak Moscow , Besiktas and the Croatian national team with no trophy to show, yet this did not stop him from becoming an instant success at West Ham after his 2-0 win over Arsenal in the opening game of last season. Bilic's West Ham did not only win big games, after beating the likes of Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal, they also played an exciting and entertaining brand of football that wooed neutrals going on to finish sixth in the league.


Despite moving to a bigger and state of the art Olympic Stadium and spending excessively to recruit the likes of Dede Ayew, Simeon Zaza, Gorkan Tore, Sofiane Feghouli, Mosuaku and Alvaro Arbeloa, the East London side have struggled to replicate last season's form presently lying 18th in the table scoring just seven goals and conceding 16 goals in seven games thus far.

Though so many reasons can be attributed to this loss of form one of them is the inability of Bilic's wingers to do their defensive job by protecting their defenders as opposition wingers and defenders regularly double up on the defenders. This has cost the team points making it easier to penetrate their defence given the sluggish nature of James Collins and Angelo Ogbonna who have slow recovery rate.

Another reason is the inability of the attackers to convert their chances as compared to last season when they conceded at an alarming rate yet outscored their opponents. To buttress further, last two weeks West Ham had only one shot on target compared to Southampton's nine, coupled with their eight chances to Southampton's 19 in the 3-0 home defeat. This is partly due to the lack of intensity in the opponents final third as the likes of Andy Carroll and Sahko are currently sidelined with Zaza and Ashley Fletcher unable to perform at the top level required. This season, West Ham's  14.5 shots per game is ranked  16th in the Premier League in addition to their 2.8 per game shots on target (16th in the Premier League) showing their lack of decisiveness and precision in the final third.

Another factor, is their relocation to the Olympic Stadium which though bigger and modern is lacking the intense and compact nature of Upton Park. What West Ham appears to have gained in commercial and financial terms by abandoning Upton Park, they have at the same time lost in sporting terms as the players see themselves as the visiting team in the Olympic Stadium.

"Something has got to change there massively (Olympic Stadium), because every game you play away from home is tough, and if they find games tough at home because they still don't feel like it's their home game..... It could be a long season for West Ham," were the words of Jamie Carragher after West Ham's home loss to Southampton.

Having achieved massively as underdogs last season with the likes of Leicester City and Tottenham, West Ham surely needed to up their game as opponents must have studied their quick transition from defence to attack and set-piece prowess which unfortunately they are yet to improve on. Having the likes of Dmitri Payet, Mark Noble and Cresswell perform impressively last season, which papered many cracks on the tactical walls of Bilic, it appears that this isn't the case this case this season as Noble particularly has been woeful and the team's worst midfielder player this season . What this entails is that for West Ham to start winning games there is need for Payet, Lanzini and Zaza to improve drastically upfront.

For now, it appears the board and club owners are in no hurry to oust Bilic who was a revelation last season, yet this is no guarantee that he will remain in charge if results do not improve starting with their away game on the 15th against Crystal Palace.