West Ham manager Slaven Bilic has revealed that the experienced he gained managing Istanbul derbies during his two-year stint as Beşiktaş manager has helped him topple giants in the Premier League.
“I always remember the Istanbul derbies and what went wrong, whenever we beat the giants in England I refer back to those big games in Turkey,” Bilic told Fanatik.
Bilic failed to win a single major Istanbul derby in eight attempts during his time in charge of the Black Eagles.
The Croatian manager was a fan favourite in Turkey but criticised for not being able to deal with the tremendous pressure of the major derby games.
“I took charge of eight derby games at Beşiktaş and despite playing well we just could not win whether it was due to red cards, injuries or just bad luck we could not pull it off,” he added.
Bilic has dealt a lot better with high pressure games in the Premier League having beat Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City away from home this season.
The former Croatian national team manager had the best away record in the Turkish Super League last season and did not actually play a single home game during his stint at Beşiktaş.
Beşiktaş recorded 37 points from 17 away games and Bilic currently has the joint best away record in the league alongside Manchester City – winning all three games on the road.
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From the British Countryside to Fenerbahçe Fandom
