Bilic left fuming after humiliating Watford defeat

Slaven Bilic has slammed West Ham’s defending after seeing his side throw away a two-goal advantage and slump to a 4-2 defeat against Watford.

West Ham’s second Premier League appearance at London Stadium got off to a great start on Saturday, when Dimitri Payet twice supplied Michail Antonio to put the hosts into a commanding lead after 33 minutes.

However, a quickfire double from Odion Ighalo and Troy Deeney turned the game on its head prior to the interval, with second-half strikes from Etienne Capoue and Jose Holebas sealing Walter Mazzarri’s first victory as Watford manager.

After witnessing his side crumble, Bilic held nothing back in criticising his side’s lacklustre defending and questioned the backbone of his squad.

“If we defend like this, we’re not going to win too many games,” the Croatian said.

“Of course confidence is affected by the score, but it shouldn’t happen as obviously as it did to some of our players.

“Basically, we controlled the game for 40 minutes, we were two up and if anyone looked [likely] to score a third it was us.

“For me, it was way too easy for them to get into positions and to create two-versus-one situations and hurt us with their quality.

“Their first goal came from a very predictable situation and we should have made them do better to hurt us.

“Their second was a classic for YouTube – no communication between two players – but these things happen.”

The defeat is a third of the league season for West Ham, who sit 17th in the fledgling standings and have already crashed out of the Europa League.