Slaven Bilic calls on West Brom to respond to defeat to Middlesbrough
Albion boss Slaven Bilic has challenged his team to respond to the loss of their long unbeaten run with a return to form for Wednesday’s top-of-the-table tussle with Leeds.
The frustrating 2-0 home defeat to Middlesbrough brought an end to the 14-game unbeaten run, and was also the first reverse in the league at The Hawthorns since February.
Albion have taken just two points from their three fixtures either side of Christmas, dropping to second after Leeds’ incredible 5-4 win at Birmingham City, but know they can instantly return to the top with a New Year’s Day victory against their closest promotion rivals.
“This is a different kind of feeling, and our energy level was simply not good enough against Middlesbrough, especially in the first half,” said the boss.
“The second half was good, but in the first half we were slow, nowhere near them, and they had time and space to create.
“It is not nice, it is not what we wanted, but this group have made it together and it is only us who can get it back.
“Nobody is complacent, starting with me, through to the club press, the board, the players, the staff – nobody is complacent, and we are up for it.
“We have to concentrate on ourselves and get back what we’ve been, up until very recently.
“Every game is difficult.
“You can make things easier for yourself, or if the opponent is having an off day, but there’s no complacency - but then again, all I can blame on that first half performance is complacency.
“It’s not deliberate, we weren’t prepared differently for any other games, that yesterday is a bit easier and Wednesday will be a bit harder – no, no, no, no.
“There are no excuses, no moaning.
“Nobody likes defeats but you can learn a lot from defeats and sometimes you need a defeat to get back on to winning tracks.”
Bilic delivered a positive injury bulletin on the influential Grady Diangana, suggesting both he and Kieran Gibbs 'have a big chance' to be fit for Wednesday.
He also explained his reasoning behind the tweaks to the line-up against Middlesbrough, which included Romaine Sawyers dropping to the bench.
“We are trying to manage the team, we are talking to the players and we have their data,” he said.
“They are not machines, they are not robots and a few of them needed a rest but we made very few changes and that tells you how we approached this game, not thinking about Leeds but thinking about this game.”
