The West Ham United manager shares his thoughts exclusively in his weekly column for whufc.com ahead of Saturday's Premier League meeting with Burnley…
As is always the case during an international break, towards the end of the second week everyone is just desperate to get back to playing Premier League football and we are no different.
I said just over a month ago that one of the worst aspects of our defeat at Newcastle at the end of August was the fact that we had to live with it for two whole weeks before having the opportunity to bounce back.
For any manager, losing a match immediately before an international break is extra painful for that very reason.
And so that is why it was such a great feeling to go into this break on the back of a victory against Swansea, with our fourth clean sheet in five games and seven points from a possible 12.
We have a confident, happy and almost entirely fit squad travelling up to Burnley this weekend
Slaven Bilic
It wasn’t a beautiful game, I accept that. While on the one hand it is all about points and it is a very demanding league, the manager, the players, the fans and everyone wants to enjoy the football and the whole game.
In every defeat, you can find something positive and also, in every victory, you can’t talk only about the positives. It would be totally wrong to say ‘It’s ideal, it’s only about the points’. Okay, it’s good to win and it is job done, but we have to improve and we have many reasons to believe we are going to improve in that other part of the game.
By far the best aspect of this break is that it has given some key players the opportunity to work on their fitness and physical condition without the consideration of a match to deal with.
The likes of Manuel Lanzini, Michail Antonio and Andy Carroll have really benefited from that time on the training pitch, while we have players such as Pedro Obiang and Edimilson Fernandes back from injury.
This week, we have also welcomed back many of the international players in a positive frame of mind. Joe Hart and Aaron Cresswell have qualified for the World Cup with England, Jose Fonte with Portugal, Chicharito with Mexico, while other guys are almost there.
Some people will say that has nothing to do with West Ham, but they grow a little individually with their success, they come back and their whole situation is better than it was a few weeks ago. Especially, with a couple of players who are responsible for our offensive game, and are important for us, it looks good.
It means we have a confident, happy and almost entirely fit squad travelling up to Burnley this weekend. We know it is going to be tough game, against a side who have started the season very well and deserve to be where they are in the top six. But we go there with no fear.
I would like to wish all of our supporters travelling up to the north west a safe journey there and back.
Come on you Irons!