Slaven Bilic says it is ‘almost impossible’ to pair Javier Hernandez and Andy Carroll together as he prepares to rest the injury-hit England striker in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night.
West Ham face Bolton at the London Stadium but Carroll will not be risked with Bilic unwilling to let him play three games in eight days after his thigh injury.
And a strike pairing with Hernandez looks some way off too with Bilic conceding it is ‘hard to please everyone’ with his selections.
Slaven Bilic claims it is ‘almost impossible’ to pair Javier Hernandez and Andy Carroll together
‘I think about that the most [playing two upfront], but it’s very hard to put them as their ideal positions as two strikers,’ the Hammers boss said. ‘It looks good on paper, it’s easy to do, but then it’s very hard to have three at the back (in defence). It’s almost impossible.’
Poacher Hernandez, a £16million summer signing from Bayer Leverkusen, has been forced into a less-than-ideal wide position at times as West Ham seek stability to stop their run of defeats from the start of the season by playing a three-man defence.
‘You want to have a lot of them on the pitch at the same time,’ Bilic added. ‘Of course I’m thinking about that. Chicharito is playing in a position which is not his position. I spoke with him, he’s a great lad, he’s doing a job, of course.’
A strike pairing looks some way off too with Bilic also conceding it is ‘hard to please everyone’
Hernandez has been forced into a less-than-ideal wide position for West Ham this season
Of Carroll, he added: ‘We have to manage him. He looks good, he looks fit, he is training, hopefully he is going to last because that was his problem for ages.
‘We tried to manage him last year and two years ago but it didn’t help a lot — but this season we are managing him a little bit different.’
There is better news for West Ham with the announcement that James Collins’ ankle injury is not as serious as first feared.
Bilic confirmed James Collins’ injury isn’t as bad as first feared and he will be out for two weeks
Bilic had worried that Collins, a solid presence in a backline which has kept back-to-back clean sheets, would miss months of the season after he fell awkwardly at West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.
Now, he is expected to miss just two weeks of action and will certainly return after the international break.
‘It’s a big blow, it looks worse, it looked like it was going to be a few months but touchwood it’s only going to be a couple of weeks,’ Bilic said. ‘He’s just done a scan and it’s not ideal but I expected worse based on how he got injured.’