Bilic refuses to talk further about Payet: ‘I said it already’

West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic agreed with co-chairman David Sullivan’s criticism of his team’s performance vs Bournemouth Thursday morning, vowing that his side will “improve” from their loss at the Vitality Stadium.

In his weekly press conference, Bilic declared the Hammers are in need of a bounce back against a rejuvenated Leicester City squad, as the defending Premier League winners travel to the London Stadium after their tie comeback win against Sevilla to advance to the Champions League quarterfinals.

“I wasn't happy with our Bournemouth performance and the players know that. We are ready to bounce back,” he said. “We have to improve. They know that we didn’t do well enough in that game. We are ready for that.”

The Croatian manager was the latest to slam Leicester owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha’s decision to fire Claudio Ranieri. However, Bilic would backtrack a few moments later, indicating that the Foxes have been superb under new manager Craig Shakespeare by winning all three games with him.

“I said after they changed their manager what I thought about it, and still I don’t understand it,” he said. “But if we are talking about the performances and results, they have got what they wanted. Still, for me, it was a bad decision because we are talking about Claudio Ranieri who did everything very, very recently with them.”

“It’s that kind of job and is in the nature of the job and you [the manager] are going to be the first one to pay the price. Unfortunately, nobody can say that it was the wrong decision because these last three results have been brilliant for them and the team has been brilliant.”

Bilic also refused to get drawn further into Dimitri Payet’s comments that he left West Ham because he was “bored” with the tactics. He emphasized further that he was done talking about the French international.

“Last year and this year, we are creating chances, we are maybe playing too offensively. Definitely not that (playing too defensively).”

“That story is finished. I said it already.”

Watch Slaven Bilic’s latest press conference below.