Slaven Bilic bullish over West Brom future following Spurs defeat

Jose Mourinho’s side headed to The Hawthorns as heavy favourites to win the clash with Spurs now the most in-form side in the Premier League.

But they were outplayed by the Baggies for long spells until Harry Kane popped up with an 89th minute winner.

By that stage Albion - who were missing Branislav Ivanovic and Matheus Pereira after they tested positive for COVID-19 - should have been ahead.

Callum Robinson, Dara O’Shea, Darnell Furlong and Conor Gallagher all went close to scoring - with the latter hitting the post.

The impressive display came just days after there had been speculation about Bilic’s long-term future at The Hawthorns.

The boss guided the Baggies back into the top flight back in July but the team are without a league win so far this season.

There has also been tension between the head coach and the club’s hierarchy over transfer strategy.

But with or without the impressive display against Spurs - Bilic feels his future should not be in doubt.

“I haven’t seen at all - not in one single moment in the time I have been here - that they (the players) aren’t, as you like to say, playing for me,” Bilic said.

To be fair, for me, it’s a nonsense to raise a question about my future.

“That’s not just based on the performance against Tottenham, but in general.

“All this time I am trying my best and we have shown enough for this club to be successful.

"I am not at all worried, I don’t even think about that.”

Bilic admitted his players were left devastated by Kane’s late winner.

But the Croatian was more upbeat and told his squad they have a great chance of staying in the Premier League if they perform like that every week.

“Our dressing room was very disappointed,” Bilic continued.

“I told them, yeah, you can be disappointed but this game showed us everything, we have to make this the standard.

“I like using the word ‘crazy’. Crazy organised, crazy aware in every second of every minute of every game.

“If we play like this, then we’ll have a genuine chance to do what we want to do - and that’s to stay up in the league.

“If you have chances against a good team like Spurs then definitely we’ll have chances in every game.

“At the same time, I am very disappointed with the result because we were so close but very positive about the performance.”

Bilic revealed he found out on Wednesday Ivanovic and Pereira had tested positive for coronavirus.

“We played well, don’t get me wrong, but losing them was a big blow for us,” he added

“At the same time, we found out on Wednesday so we had time to prepare the team without them.”