West Ham midfielder Michail Antonio insists that Slaven Bilic’s injury riddled squad has enough depth and quality to push for a Europa League spot.
We’ve definitely got the squad,” Antonio said to the Mirror. “We’ve got depth. We’ve already shown it this season.
We lost six of our strikers and hung in there. Now we are starting to lose defenders. But we have shown that we’ve got the resilience.
Antonio was one of the heroes during the Hammers extra-time win over Liverpool on Tuesday after scoring a spectacular goal to set his side up for an eventual victory.
The win put West Ham into the next round of the FA Cup where they will face Blackburn but the win over Liverpool came at a cost with injuries to Winston Reid, Cheikhou Kouyate and Joey O’Brien which depleted an already thin squad.
However, the 26-year-old maintained that the Irons will be able to cope with the losses.
Reid, in particular, is set to have a scan after limping off in the second half.
With Carl Jenkinson and James Tomkins out injured, Joey O’Brien was taken off as a precaution by Bilic, but the change forced the ex-Nottingham Forest winger into the unfamiliar role of right back.
When Joey came off I had to step up and fall back into his position at right back so that we could keep fighting to get the victory,” Antonio added. “That’s what we want to do – keep fighting.
West Ham face Norwich at Carrow Road on Saturday and could be boosted by Andy Carroll who has just recovered from an injury while fellow forwards Diafra Sakho and Manuel Lanzini are also expected to be back within weeks. A win against the Canaries could see the Hammers leapfrog Manchester United into fifth in the league.
