West Ham boss Slaven Bilic talks about his striker conundrum

Hernandez
Hernandez

West Ham have made a stuttering start to their 2017/18 campaign, but things are looking to take an upturn following two good results against Huddersfield Town and West Brom respectively.

The Hammers won their first Premier League game of the season against Huddersfield, and followed it up with a 0-0 draw away to Hawthorns.

The focus now shifts on to the EFL Cup where West Ham will face Championship outfit Bolton Wanderers.

Bilic is facing an interesting problem at the moment. With Andy Carroll’s return to full fitness, he has two main strikers at his disposal, and neither of them can be dropped.

Hernandez is a goal poacher and his qualities are best utilised by feeding him good deliveries in the box. Carroll is a tall and powerful striker who loves to operate inside the penalty area as he cannot add pace to his game.

It is a tactical conundrum for Bilic, and he admits that he cannot use both the players at their natural position. He says it is “hard to do that”, and “almost impossible” to implement.

“It is very hard to please everyone. It is possible of course, I think about that the most but it is hard to put them in their ideal positions,” said Bilic, as quoted by Football London.

“It looks really good on paper and is easy to do that but then it is hard to have three at the back, plus Antonio, Arnautovic and Ayew, it is almost impossible.

“It is nice to have the options but you want them all on the pitch at the same time so of course I am thinking about that. OK, Chicharito is not playing in an ideal position but I spoke to him, he is a great lad and we have priorities and we need you there. He is doing the job, that was a priority now we have to keep the stability, we can’t lose it.”

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