sk-logo
hero-image

Bilic disagrees with Ranieri sacking despite Shakespeare wins

Slaven Bilic of West Ham

West Ham manager Slaven Bilic insists Leicester City's sacking of Claudio Ranieri was a "bad decision" despite the club's resurgence under the Italian's successor Craig Shakespeare.

Leicester have won all three of their games since Ranieri's departure, with Shakespeare masterminding a 2-0 victory over Sevilla on Tuesday that sent his side into the quarter-finals of the Champions League with a 3-2 aggregate triumph.

All of Shakespeare's victories have come at home, however, and ahead of Saturday's Premier League meeting between the sides at London Stadium, Hammers boss Bilic hit out at Leicester's treatment of title-winner Ranieri.

"No one can say it was the wrong decision, the three results have been brilliant," said Bilic.

"Still for me it was a bad decision, Claudio did very decently with them. But it's the nature of the job, you are the first one to pay the price.

"I said after they changed manager what I thought about it and still I don't understand it. But if you talk about results and performances, they got what they wanted.

"Leicester are a different team to a few weeks ago. Their result against Sevilla was a great result for English football. Leicester play simply, but it's productive. They are again, now, playing like they did last season. It's electric."

West Ham are winless in four matches and Bilic said he agrees with the assessment of joint-chairman David Sullivan, who criticised the team's performance in Saturday's dramatic 3-2 defeat at Bournemouth.

"It was a comment for that game and for that game I said also that we could not be happy with the way we performed or the way we conceded all three of their goals, especially the last one," said Bilic.

"Of course we have to improve and we have to bounce back. I am the first who wasn't happy with that performance and the players know that. They were not happy after the game in the dressing room, of course, they were gutted and disappointed and frustrated and they know that we didn't do well enough in that game.

"We played against a good opponent, of course, but when they missed the penalty and we scored the goal, we were basically in the ideal position to build on that early result, and we let it slip away from us. Then we came back and we conceded at the end of the game a very naive goal from our point of view.

"We have a game against Leicester now and we have to bounce back and we are ready for that. It is very important for us. We had turned the corner but, as I was saying, it's not finished because there are so many points and things to fight for between now and the end of the season.

"We only have one win in six and this is a good opportunity because we are under pressure and we have to win the game. We believe that we can win the game and we're going to do everything to win it."

You may also like