West Ham United boss Sam Allardyce has defended his team selection during their 5-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup this afternoon.
Allardyce made no fewer than nine changes to his starting lineup from the team that went down 2-1 to Fulham last time out - four of whom were debutants.
However, with a Capital One Cup semi-final with Manchester City on the horizon, the 59-year-old claims that he had no choice but to preserve the fitness of a number of key personnel for Wednesday's trip to the Etihad Stadium.
He told reporters at full time: "What choice (in terms of team selection) did I have? I don't think I had one.
"I make the decisions for benefit of everyone at the football club. We have a huge amount of problems in terms of available players.
"We have a League Cup semi-final against Manchester City and the main priority is to get to Wembley. My changes had to be severe today, I didn't want it to be."
Jamie Paterson grabbed a 14-minute hat-trick in the rout of the Hammers after Djamel Abdoun had opened the scoring from the penalty spot, before Andy Reid added a fifth in stoppage time.
United face City in the first leg of the League Cup next week, before welcoming Manuel Pellegrini's side to Upton Park a fortnight later for the second leg.
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