West Ham United boss Slaven Bilic is looking forward to seeing Andre Ayew make his mark on the closing months of the campaign.
The Ghana man’s stop-start first season in east London has started to fire with goals in successive away games and the boss expects more to come as the Hammers aim for a top-half finish.
Ayew’s season has been disrupted by injury and international commitments, but with goals in e victory at Swansea, draw at Watford and in Saturday’s loss at AFC Bournemouth, he has shown he knows where the net is.
With the visit of Premier League champions Leicester City to come next week, Bilic feels the goals will continue to flow for the No20.
He explained: “Andre had a couple of major things which happened to him, which affected his season so far
“The first was that he had a massive injury in the first game of the season, then when he came back it was a little bit too early, so he was searching for fitness and form.
“Then he went to the Africa Cup of Nations and now he looks really good. That’s the reason we bought him – he has that sense to be in the right place at the right time.
“He scored like that against Swansea, he scored like that against Watford and he scored a similar kind of goal again on Saturday. That’s a big quality for the strikers to be in a good position, so now he’s back in good shape and of course we expect him to improve us.”
Bilic admitted he expected his team to be better when out-of-possession against the Cherries, with the three goals conceded – and two penalties given away too – not allowing them to continue their good recent away form.
He added: “Every game gives you something to think about short-term, as well as long-term. Saturday’s game doesn’t change anything in terms of what we need for the summer.
“We have to improve, especially against the teams who are putting us under pressure – pressing and all that, because on the ball we look really good.”
Source: West Ham United
