West Brom were comfortably – and so worryingly – beaten by Fulham at Craven Cottage on Monday evening. First half goals from Bobby Decordova-Reid and Ola Aina proved more than enough to see off Albion who are now in the relegation zone. Slaven Bilic and Albion haven’t tasted victory since they saw off Derby County at The Hawthorns in their promotion run-in – 11 games ago. And manager Slaven Bilic looked broken and disappointed after the loss.
Slaven Bilic said “It was very disappointing obviously. I said before the game we were looking forward to it because the last couple of games we have played really well. We looked really good in training. We had a lot of intensity, a lot of quality, but when we needed to produce it on the pitch we didn’t do it. We were good for 25 minutes, but after that they were stronger than us, sharper, quicker, better passing. Better one against one. They got into those areas where it matters – where you can make a difference and that is what really hurts, that we didn’t deserve a thing from this game. We can’t say we were unlucky, we can’t say that we missed chances. No. They were much better than us. It’s not me being let down but I do feel very frustrated. This is not what it looked like – we were looking forward to this game because we had looked good. We were aggressive in the last couple of games, we had confidence, we had shape, belief. We were growing as a team. But tonight, no. Everything starts with work rate. I know the result can determine the work rate. You are okay, the game looks even and then suddenly you are 2-0 down, it kills you a bit. That’s not good when, to the eye, they’re doing more than the others. It looked to me like that, and it can’t be the case. This is the Premier League and we are the team who can’t rely on quality only. We have to dig in and work hard, as we’ve done in the last couple of games. If we don’t do that we have no chance. I don’t question the commitment in general. I told you it looked really good, but tonight we didn’t have it. We were not good enough.”
