West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic admitted that Manchester United ran out deserved winners as his Hammers side succumbed to a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Red Devils in the EFL Cup quarter-finals on Wednesday night.
The 48-year-old said that his side failed to learn from the mistakes they made in the first half in the second period, as doubles from Anthony Martial and Zlatan Ibrahimovic put the Irons to the sword at Old Trafford.
A very disappointing night, but a special moment for @AshFletcher___ to get his first goal for @WestHamUtd against his former club. pic.twitter.com/aR0hXDMutI
Speaking to the club's official website,whufc.com, the Croat lamented the fact that his side made a slow start to both halves, and failed to make the most of the let-off they were given after Ashley Fletcher's goal sent them in level at half-time after a poor first half display.
We can't have a slow start against them because they are very good when they are one up. They have those kind of players.
After the slow start, we recovered and looked good but you can't do the same. And we did. They totally deserved it then after that. You just can't have that kind of a start in a game like this.
They are really good on the counter attacks and all that but that happened to us in the first half and then we recovered and started to play after 25 minutes. They played with more energy and quality and a bit more passion.�
The boss gives his assessment of tonight's game and provides an update on @Michailantonio and @Aaron_Cresswell ➡� https://t.co/01Rhx9nxX2 pic.twitter.com/WeaU690K31
Bilic also provided an injury update on wing-backs Aaron Cresswell, who limped off before half-time and Michail Antonio, who was withdrawn just before the hour mark.
Cresswell's injury doesn't look that bad. His groin felt very tight and hopefully it's just fatigue from Sunday. With Antonio, hopefully it's the same but we don't know yet.
We have a tough game on Saturday and we have a couple of players who came off injured, but we wanted to preserve players for then and Dimitri Payet also.
It is unbelievable that when we get a couple of injuries like the ones we got today [after all the othersthis season] and it's very tough for us now.�
Manchester United 4 - 1 West Ham (Highlights EFL Cup): https://t.co/uJoL9u6q7b via @YouTube