Express & Star

Slaven Bilic hails the positives following victory over Huddersfield

Slaven Bilic described Albion's football as breathtaking but admitted his team must cut out their defensive mistakes following a 4-2 win over Huddersfield.

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Slaven Bilic (AMA)

The Baggies gifted Danny Cowley's side two goals at The Hawthorns with Lewis O'Brien and Karlan Grant scoring either side of a Matt Phillips strike.

Grant's goal was the result of Albion losing the ball at the back with Kyle Barley seeing a pass intercepted.

But Darnell Furlong pulled West Brom level after the interval with Phillips and Semi Ajayi then scoring to clinch the win.

And Bilic saw more positives than negatives in his team's display.

“It was a good performance," Bilic said.

"As a coach, you’re in a good position to criticise but also learn from mistakes so that they don’t cost us.

“You can criticise the players without killing their confidence. You aren’t slagging them off. That’s a privilege.

“I also don’t want to sound negative.

"We won 4-2, at home, four goals scored with their keeper making a few saves.

"We're unbeaten, one point from the top, we should be happy.

“I don’t like it because I'm now spending my time talking about mistakes.

"Okay, we shouldn’t forget about them of course, but look - there is a lot of positives with these guys.

“We’re playing some nice football. Sometimes it’s breathtaking.

"One combination in the first half, when (Matheus) Pereira crossed, it was brilliant.

“We’re enjoying it. We’re having shots from 20 or 25 yards that we weren’t having before."

Albion are yet to keep a clean sheet this season. But Bilic is confident they will come in time.

"It's part of the process," he continued.

"We do mistakes. We said the same against Blackburn.

"We know we have to improve. We have to block or make it harder for them to score.

"We have to make it so that they have to do something extraordinary to score.

"Clean sheets are not only down to you – there's opponents, an element of luck because the game is over 90 minutes.

“I would love us to close them better over 90 minutes, to be better on 50-50s.

“It's easy to talk but if we do that, it should put us in a better position to get a clean sheet.

“We should not be obsessed with clean sheets, but let's improve on those things then the clean sheets will come."