Manuel Pellegrini isn’t concerned by injuries ahead of Bournemouth

Speaking to the press on Thursday, Hammers boss Manuel Pellegrini reported no new injury concerns ahead of his team’s opening home game against AFC Bournemouth. West Ham United have plenty of options for Saturday, we hope the squad can bounce back after the 4-0 spanking Liverpool dealt out last weekend.

Pellegrini told the media:

“It’s the same three players who have the long injuries; Andy Carroll, Winston Reid and Manuel Lanzini. All the other players are OK.

“Every week is important in this moment, when you bring in so many players and have so many changes. We will try to win as many games as possible, starting with Bournemouth now, and we won’t be changing our final target. We have a solid team and I hope we can do it as soon as we can.”

Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

Pellegrini addressed his largely new squad, which looked disjointed throughout the Liverpool defeat. He admitted that with six debutants at Anfield there was still work to be done to bond the players together.

“We have nine new players and every week that you have you are working with them to try and improve. When you build up a squad, you know you need to let players go out also. Young players like [Toni] Martinez knew this from the beginning and they were going to go on loan.

“The squad we have now is our squad for the season; I don’t think we are going to have any more going out at this moment.

“We have brought in good players; players like Felipe [Anderson], who are creative players. Lucas Perez, Felipe, Yarmolenko, they are creative players and they will bring a lot to our team.

“Felipe is a good player. Before we bought him, we saw a lot of games he played. He’s a fast player, a mix between a winger and midfielder.”

Photo by Stephen Pond/Getty Images

The West Ham manager was cagey when asked about if most recent signings Lucas Perez and Carlos Sanchez would be involved on Saturday.

“I can’t tell you now [if Perez and Sanchez will be involved]. Carlos arrived just last week on the last day [of the transfer deadline] and has had just a week with us, and Lucas Perez similar. We will see if they are good to go onto the bench, but I cannot say at this moment.”