Slaven Bilic “positive” despite key West Ham United injuries

Bilic has decided that it can not be a coincidence and he pointed to the manner of Reid’s injury, saying that the centre-back hurt his hamstring after he slipped at the start of a session.

Winger Victor Moses and defender Winston Reid were this week ruled out until the new year with hamstring damage, which proved the final straw for the Croatian.

The Hammers have already lost Dimitri Payet and Diafra Sakho until February, while Manuel Lanzini is out for six weeks with a thigh problem suffered in training.

“The Manchester United midfielder was involved in an incident with West Ham United’s Winston Reid in the 40th minute of the game on Saturday 5 December 2015”.

“We don’t know how long he’ll be out for yet, we’ll know more tomorrow after the scan”, Bilic said. It doesn’t look good, he has done it before and it is one of them where they tell you between four and six weeks.

“We will also monitor these pitches, maybe in one month they are ok or maybe we can mix”. I hope he has a fast recovery but I now have a great opportunity.

The West Ham United fans in The Transfer Tavern are delighted that the club are interested in bringing a new forward, but are hopeful the club won’t pay over the odds should a bidding war commence. With Reid’s injury for example they are slippery on the top but rock hard underneath and it is a bad combination.

Stoke City have kept six clean sheets in their last eight Premier League games.

The Rush Green site, part of the club’s move to the Olympic Stadium next season, is unfinished but the pitches are in use and they will begin training there from Monday.

“Hopefully I can build on this and get better as the season goes on”.

Bilic was quick to point out that it is nothing to do with the groundsman at Chadwell Heath, but the move just made sense.

“Stoke played really well against Man City, and not only against Man City, but also Southampton was a really good away win”, added Bilic.