West Ham United manager “?Slaven Bilic has urged his players to pull themselves out of the “comfort zone” that has resulted in their sluggish start to the season.
Bilic spoke about the need to turn their form around “?at his pre-match press conference ahead of Saturday’s encounter with West Bromwich Albion.
The Hammers have won just one of their four Premier League games this term, and were beaten 4-2 at home by Watford last weekend despite being 2-0 up after 33 minutes.
Bilic has also seen his charges exit the Europa League at the qualifying stage for the second year in a row.
And the former Croatia manager believes his first-team squad have taken it easy so far this campaign after performing well throughout 2015/16.
He said: “We’ve already spoken about it (the slow start to the season).
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“It’s very easy to get into what I call a comfort zone, to get out from overdrive.
“It’s like being in cruise control, when you’re on the motorway and you drive like that and you become sleepy.
“It’s the same in football, in marriage, in a company. If you’re in a comfort zone it’s not good.
“Some people think it’s just being calm in yourself. No. That’s totally different. You have to be at it.
“We were like that most of last season. But we didn’t have it in a couple of games this season.”?
Bilic added that his side is not immune to under-performing, and used two of last season’s underachievers as a warning to his first-team squad that nobody is safe from failing to push on from the previous campaign.
4 – West Ham have managed four headers on target in the Premier League so far this season and scored from all of them. Precise.
He said: “Chelsea lost it last year. Manchester City lost it last year, and didn’t achieve.
“OK, City qualified for the Champions League but it wasn’t good enough, and it was because of being in a comfort zone.
“No team can play in the Premier League like that “? we are not the kind of team that get away with it because of the quality they can put on the pitch.
“We’re not that team, 100 per cent.”?
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