Ahead of Sunday's FA Cup tie with Blackburn, the manager faced the media

Ahead of the Hammers' journey to Lancashire, Slaven Bilic faced the media as part of his pre-Blackburn press conference. Here is what the Gaffer had to say...



Good morning Slaven, what is the team news for Sunday’s game?



“Well, Andy Carroll is out and Enner Valencia also. Manuel Lanzini is back and Reidy should be OK for the Sunderland game. Diafra Sakho is hopefully going to start training with us on Monday or Tuesday. Joey O’Brien and James Tomkins are still out, with Sam Byram cup-tied, we are a little bit struggling with that position, but we are going to compensate that position.”



How long do you expect Andy to be out?



“It’s not a big one thankfully so he shouldn’t be out for too long, we’re not sure which game he’ll be back for yet.”



With the number of injuries, I guess you don’t have the option of resting too many players?



“We have a few positions to consider like right-back and striker, but other than that, we are OK. We didn’t have a game mid-week so we are OK physically, we don’t need to rest players. This is a huge game, we want to win so we will play our strongest teams possible.”



Is Darren Randolph your FA Cup goalkeeper, will he continue for as long as you progress?



“He will. Adrian is fine with that; he is our first choice goalkeeper. Every time Darren has played he has been fantastic for us. It is a great situation to be in that we have two fantastic goalkeepers to choose from. He was superb at Anfield, and again in the replay so I am confident in his ability.”



Looking at Blackburn, are you expecting a slightly more physical game than usual?



“Blackburn are a huge club. When I was playing, they were massive, and that wasn’t ages ago. It’s a very difficult game for us. They are direct which is very dangerous so it’ll be a big test for us. They’re not having a great season in the league, but they haven’t conceded a lot so they are very solid. And 61% of their goals come from set pieces so that is a big threat.”