West Ham United vs Stoke City - Slaven Bilic: Stand up to their injury crisis

Slaven Bilic has urged West Ham's squad players to stand up and be counted during their injury crisis.

The Hammers have been rocked by injuries to six key players in just over a month which threatens to derail their fine start to the season.

Dimitri Payet, Enner Valencia, Diafra Sakho, Manuel Lanzini, Victor Moses and Winston Reid have all been sidelined, prompting Bilic to order the team switch training grounds in a bid to stem the flow of casualties.

The Upton Park boss will now call on the likes of Michail Antonio, Nikica Jelavic, Mauro Zarate and Pedro Obiang to fill the void when Stoke arrive in east London on Saturday.

"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. I want to concentrate on the players who are available to continue the way we are playing.

"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 goalless draw at Old Trafford stretched West Ham's winless run to five matches.

They face a Stoke side lying just a point behind them after notable victories over Chelsea, Southampton and Manchester City in the last month.

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

Hughes, meanwhile, has stressed sticking with the same dynamic line-up that dismantled Manchester City last weekend may not necessarily be the right approach for Saturday's game.

The City clash at the Britannia Stadium saw Hughes select playmakers Ibrahim Afellay, Arnautovic, Shaqiri and Krkic together from the start for the first time, while Jonathan Walters dropped to the bench.

And the decision was handsomely rewarded as the Potters delivered a superb performance in a 2-0 victory.

The win has generated considerable excitement about Hughes' men - one Spanish newspaper labelled them 'Stokelona' - and the Welshman admits it has given him plenty of confidence in that system.

But he has also emphasised it was a gameplan he had felt was appropriate specifically for the City contest.

"It was something I had been thinking of for quite some time and it was just about making sure we picked the right game to do it," Hughes said.

"We looked, as we always do, at previous games the opposition had played, what they had done well, what they had done poorly, what their strengths and weaknesses were and what we could exploit, and built a gameplan based on that knowledge.

"And that is exactly what we are doing with the game we are preparing for this weekend."

When then asked if that meant it might be all change selection-wise for the meeting with the Hammers, Hughes replied with a smile: "I wouldn't say that - but you never know!"

Stoke could have fit-again defender Marc Muniesa back in their matchday 18 on Saturday.

Muniesa has missed the last six first-team games in all competitions while recovering from a hamstring injury, but has returned to full training and played for the under-21s.

Forwards Peter Crouch and Peter Odemwingie (both hamstring) and goalkeeper Shay Given (knee) remain sidelined.