West Ham form at Boleyn Ground is no concern for Slaven Bilic after Stoke draw

Slaven Bilic may have another headache with West Ham's injury nightmare - their home form

 

JUST like the injury crisis that has sparked drastic measures, West Ham now need to find a cure for their home malaise.

 

Slaven Bilic has brought their training ground relocation six months ahead of schedule due to the standard of the pitches. They leave their Chadwell Heath headquarters today to move down the road to their half-finished Rush Green academy base.

Perhaps the West Ham manager should consider a similar premature move from Upton Park to the Olympic Stadium.

Just two wins on home soil all season is threatening to leave co-owner David Gold's prediction of a top-six finish looking fanciful.

 

You have to go back to mid-October since West Ham last won at all. That was against Chelsea.

On their travels, the likes of Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool were all beaten but their form has tailed off.

Bilic said: "It's not a concern. I would be concerned, and it's the point where a manager should be concerned, if the team is not playing well.

"The players will come back and sooner or later we are going to start winning again. It wouldn't be normal that we didn't miss players like Payet, Lanzini, Sakho, Moses. We knew that we would miss them."

In an entertaining stalemate, both sides will feel hard done by that neither won.

Mauro Zarate rattled a post late on but it was Stoke, who have now kept their seventh clean sheet in nine games, who were the more fluent and carved out the clearer openings.

Marco van Ginkel was guilty of a shocking miss early on before Marco Arnautovic's deflected free-kick bounced back off the bar.

Substitute Mame Biram Diouf was twice denied by goalkeeper Adrian late on for a Stoke side missing the injured Xherdan Shaqiri but not lacking in ideas.

Man-of-the match Adrian said: "We are playing well, especially away from home. The team showed good team spirit because we have six of our players injured. We have many games coming over Christmas, but we have a good squad.
 

"If we get the injured players back after January or February and we are in the same position, we can stay in the top five, or six or seven.

"And we are happy with our performances. We play to win and we deserve to be in the position we're in."

On-loan midfielder Van Ginkel added: "Goalscoring is one of my qualities. I had a few opportunities so next time hopefully I can do it. I was happy to start.

"You want to play more to show your qualities. I played a lot at the beginning of the season and then didn't play. I want to play more, score goals and be important to the team.

"It was a good chance for me but I didn't take it so maybe next time I will."

WEST HAM: (4-2-3-1) Adrian 8; Tomkins 7, Ogbonna 6, Collins 7, Cresswell 6; Noble 6, Song 6 (Valencia 64, 6), Antonio 6 (Jelavic 82), Kouyate 7, Zarate 7; Carroll 6. Booked: Kouyate. NEXT UP: Swansea (h) Sun, PL.

STOKE (4-2-3-1): Butland 7; Johnson 7, Wollscheid 7, Shawcross 8, Pieters 7; Cameron 7 (Adam 68, 6), Whelan 7; Afellay 7 (Walters 66, 6), van Ginkel 5 (Diouf 56, 6), Arnautovic 6; Bojan 6. Booked: Pieters, Afellay. NEXT UP: Crystal Palace (h) Sat, PL.

Referee: A Marriner (Birmingham).