Slaven Bilic says West Ham need to show they can overcome obstacles

West Ham manager Slaven Bilic says he will not allow his players to use the club's current injury crisis as an excuse for below-par performances.

The Hammers play host to Stoke on Saturday and are looking to continue their solid start to the season, which has them sitting seventh in the table.

However, key players Dimitri Payet, Enner Valencia, Diafra Sakho, Manuel Lanzini, Victor Moses and Winston Reid have all picked up injuries in the last month, meaning Bilic will have to utilise his squad players in the coming weeks.

But the Hammers boss is confident he has the resources to cope, and pointed out that a supposedly below-strength side drew 0-0 at Manchester United last week and could have won.

"I'm not trying to find excuses," said Bilic. "I'm not happy, of course, but I am not trying to be positive - I am positive.

"It's time to show we can overcome these obstacles. I'm sure we will show we can play without these players.

"They are great players, that's why we got them, and that's why they were playing regularly, but we have to get through this period without them.

"It's going to be hard without them, but we played without almost all of them against Manchester United last week and still created enough chances to score goals.

"When they were available, it was all about the squad. Now we have a tinier squad but it's time for those players who didn't play, with team work and team spirit, to step up."

The Hammers are now without a win in five and this weekend they play host to an in-form Stoke side, who beat Manchester City 2-0 last Saturday.

"Stoke played really well against Man City, and not only then, but also Southampton was a really good away win," said Bilic.

"Against Chelsea, and last week against City, a few of their moves were top-class football, which doesn't surprise me because up front they have top-quality internationals.

"Xherdan Shaqiri was at Bayern Munich and Inter Milan, big clubs were fighting for him, so it's credit to (Stoke boss) Mark Hughes for getting him.

"The same happened with Bojan Krkic the year before.

"Then they have Marko Arnautovic, a top-class player, Jonathan Walters, and Mame Biram Diouf on the bench. They are a good, solid team and much better when they attack the space or counter attack.

"I am impressed and it's going to be a very difficult game for us - but we are also good, of course."