Slaven Bilic: No one mentions it when substitutions work, but get it wrong and you're alone

On your own: Bilic was criticised for throwing on Andy Carroll against Spurs
Action Images via Reuters
Slaven Bilic29 September 2017

When I was asked at the start of this season for one wish to be granted, I replied that I wanted stability. Unfortunately, we haven’t yet achieved that goal. We are still in a period of turbulence, but I remain confident about the future.

The season didn’t start well for us — there is no sense in denying it — so it was never going to be calm and cool after that.

We had to do something — and we did. We changed things a little and the result was four points and two clean sheets from two games — three if you count the League Cup win over Bolton. That calmed things down a little, but then one defeat, at home to Spurs last Saturday, and the winds are blowing again.

At one time in the match it was 3-0 and it looked bad. It was never a 3-0 game, as we proved when the players showed great character to battle back to 3-2. If anyone was going to score another goal at the end it was us, but time ran out.

We were very disappointed. I thought we had done well until a 10-minute spell when we made mistakes for the first two goals. You can’t make avoidable errors against Spurs because they are clinical. They will punish you, as they showed against us and in the Champions League this week in Cyprus.

Now the turbulence is once again with us, but we are determined not to let that one result blow us off course.

We lost, yes, but, as against Southampton, we came back from conceding early goals. That, for me, shows we have good character and that we are a fit team.

We must keep that concentration. You can’t afford, when you play against the top teams, to lose your concentration and discipline, to leave the position where you should be for 90 minutes.

There was some criticism, also, of my decision, when Michail Antonio had to leave the field, to bring on Andy Carroll. We had options and I decided on that one. I also brought on Arthur Masuaku, who crossed the ball for our second goal, but no one seemed to mention that, just as they didn’t talk about me bringing on Andre Ayew for Chicharito against Huddersfield before he scored.

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That is football. When a substitution works — and they don’t always work, no matter who is the manager — everyone would have done it, but when it doesn’t immediately go well, then you are on your own.

That’s life.

We have some matches in October which, on paper anyway, give us an opportunity to pick up points, move up the table and switch off that spotlight which is on us, at least for a while. After Swansea at home on Saturday, we have the international break, and then we go to Burnley, followed by Brighton at home and then Crystal Palace away. We also play Spurs in the Carabao Cup.

These are crucial games and, with everyone back from international duty fit and well, we are confident. We shouldn’t think too far ahead, though. Let us just focus on this match against Swansea and see where we are after that.

The match on Saturday is the final one before the players — and we have a lot of them — go away to represent their countries. Sometimes teams are a bit cautious in these pre-international break games. No-one wants to lose because, if they do, they have to live with it for the next couple of weeks; you don’t have another game to make it up a few days later.

We are not absolutely sure how many players will be going. We are still waiting for confirmation on some, because they are on stand-by.

Back here, we will have a couple of days off, but then be back training. In the last international break, we also worked on fitness levels, and it worked well because we looked strong against Huddersfield. Winston Reid, for example, has to go to Japan for a friendly for New Zealand but he has to play because their next game is a qualifying tie.

The same questions about my future resurfaced after the Spurs game. There is no way for me to change that, and I am not going to moan about it because I have a job I love at a club I love, so what good does moaning do?

It’s a simple story. If we win some games, those sorts of questions will be packed away in a drawer — but it will never be locked. It’s been going on for a long period now but I’m not tired, it won’t affect what I do.