Sam Allardyce has urged his fringe men to seize their opportunity to shine as he prepares to rotate his West Ham United squad against Crewe.
Hammers boss hopes players take chance against Crewe
Sam Allardyce has urged his fringe men to seize their opportunity to shine as he prepares to rotate his West Ham United squad against Crewe.
The Hammers go into Tuesday's Capital One Cup clash on the back of a comprehensive 3-0 Premier League defeat at Swansea and Allardyce says there are places up for grabs in his first-choice starting XI.
He will give chances to those players such as Alou Diarra and Modibo Maiga who have had to make do with limited game time so far this campaign.
"The players who are disappointed about not playing get the opportunity to play in a very good competition," said Allardyce.
"It tells me where they are and are they staking a claim to be playing as early as Fulham next week.
"They can go and make a statement to me. I want players to show me they should be playing."
Experienced
Allardyce admits that Premier League survival is his No.1 target for the season but says he would love a cup run and will not be fielding a weakened side against Crewe.
He said: "My approach is to field a group of players that will be hugely experienced on Tuesday and that will be a great opportunity for some of the players who haven't had as many minutes on the pitch.
"We have new signings, like Maiga, like Diarra, that we can give a game to.
"There is Nicky Maynard too, Ricardo Vaz Te, Matt Taylor. We'll have an experienced squad with a couple of younger players and it should be enough to beat Crewe and get us into the next round."
