Slaven Bilic: Positives to take from West Brom defeat

Slaven Bilic felt there were positives to take from Albion's defeat to Leicester - but the boss admitted the Baggies are in need of more additions.

On their return to the Premier League, Albion impressed for 55 minutes against Brendan Rodgers's side.

But they couldn't maintain that performance level for the duration of the game with a Timothy Castagne goal and two Jamie Vardy penalties seeing the Foxes secure a 3-0 win.

Bilic sprung a surprise before kick-off by deploying a 3-4-3 system having switched between 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3 last season.

And the boss saw positives in that tactical change.

"I was really pleased with the way we played up until their goal," he said.

"Let's say up until the first goal it was a really good performance for us, with the ball and without the ball.

"The biggest thing I'm really disappointed about is our reaction after the goal.

"Our mentality was not the same. It wasn't the right mentality.

"What we have to do is to stretch this 50 minutes to 95 minutes and that would be a massive step for us.

"Because it looked really good against a really good side."

Asked why he opted for the 3-4-3 system, Bilic continued: "It was based on what we have in the team I wanted to be solid.

"I wanted to have numbers but also have our front players in a good situation when we get the ball and be positive on the front foot.

"I think it looked really good up until the first goal.

"We went to four at the back but unfortunately it didn't work good."

On Friday, Bilic revealed former Chelsea star Branislav Ivanović is closing to joining the Baggies on a free transfer.

And he expects the Serbian to be announced tomorrow.

"As far as I know, it was done yesterday I think, so I expect him to be tomorrow," Bilic said.

"I don't know what happened in the last four hours because I was at the game."

When asked if Albion need more additions, Bilic said: "You know that we need [players], we spoke about that a few times.

"I don't want to moan but we are positive today we showed a team that if we stretch this quality over 95 minutes or 97 sometimes, we have enough quality.

"But do we need a couple of players? Yes, we do."