West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic has revealed that it was simply a tough decision to substitute Javier Hernandez in the Hammers 2-0 win over Huddersfield on Monday night.
The Crotian boss controversial decision was met by boos sections of West Ham fans at the London Stadium, however his call proved to be effective as Andre Ayew came on for the Mexican international and made all the difference.
Ayew assisted Pedro Obiang’s opener before scoring himself to give the Hammers their first EPL win of the season.
Now, Bilic has made it clear to every doubting Thomas that he didn’t think the former Manchester United player was having a poor game and that his side needed some fresh energy to encourage a result.
Bilic has quoted by injury expert Ben Dinnery on his personal Twitter account on Tuesday said: “It was not because Javier did not have a good game – it was a time to get fresh legs on the pitch.”
Bilic on replacing Hernandez: "It was not because Javier did not have a good game – it was a time to get fresh legs on the pitch." #WHUFC
— Ben Dinnery (@BenDinnery) September 12, 2017
Writer’s digest
From all perspective, Bilic was 100 per cent correct to take off Hernandez. However, the London Stadium boss simply shouldn’t have had the thought of staring the £16million striker out of his comfort zone on the left side of the attack.
I believe if the Hammers want to play Hernandez and Andy Carroll up front, that will only be possible if Bilic is looking field something that resembles a 4-4-2 formation. The Mexican seemed to have just been forced out wide just to accommodate his team-mate and that was very poor management from Bilic. Well, it doesn’t matter because his side won at the end of the day, but Huddersfield were bound to see their good start to the league loosen at some point. The Hammers’ trip to West Bromwich Albion this weekend will be a much tougher test.