Bilic lays into players; Noble dubs form ‘laughable’

Matt Stead

Slaven Bilic admitted the buck stops with him after West Ham plunged further into crisis with a 3-0 home defeat by Southampton.

The Hammers are rooted in the bottom three after four straight Premier League defeats in which they have conceded a total of 14 goals.

Even captain Mark Noble branded their defending “laughable” after goals from Charlie Austin, Dusan Tadic and James Ward-Prowse condemned West Ham to their worst start to a season since 2002, when they went on to be relegated.

At least there was none of the crowd trouble which has marred their previous outings at their new London Stadium home – but then the stands were virtually empty when the final whistle blew.

Manager Bilic said: “That’s not a good sign. It hurts me as a manager and it hurts the team. It’s my responsibility, it’s my team, I know how it works and I’m not running away.

“These are the same players, and the same manager, as last year and at the moment everything that was really good last year is bad this season and everything that was average last season is now way below par.

“The season has only started, it’s true, but it’s happened for four games now and we have to change it big time.

“I told the players after we lost to West Brom that there is no need to panic, the credit was there for a lot of them. But now that credit is gone.”

Midfielder Noble pulled no punches after another embarrassing display, which followed a 3-1 loss at Manchester City and 4-2 defeats to Watford and West Brom.

Noble told Sky Sports: “If I’m honest, it could have been six in the end. On the bright side I don’t think it can get any worse.

“We’ve conceded 11 in three games and it’s laughable, and it’s not good enough. We know that.”