Bilic set to field his three new signings

WEST Ham head into Europe tonight minus some big names but armed with new signings who manager Slaven Bilic is looking forward to seeing in action.

Dimitri Payet, one of the stars of Euro 2016, is still missing along with James Collins and Angelo Ogbonna following their exertions in France, while Aaron Cresswell and Manuel Lanzini are both sidelined by knee injuries.

But Bilic could field his three summer signings – midfielder Havard Nordtveit and exciting wingers Sofiane Feghouli and Gokhan Tore – when the Hammers meet NK Domzale of Slovenia in the Europa League third qualifying round.

“They have made a really good impression and some of them will start, definitely,” Bilic said.

“If you are talking about Feghouli, if you are talking about Nordtveit, they started when we started because they didn’t have international football this summer. They are really quality players and they are what we expected from them.

“Of course they are going to get better and better, but already it is obvious that they are going to improve our squad and make a huge impact on the quality of our game, as well as Tore, who came a little bit after.

“He is also ready and fit and, as I said, we didn’t buy just for the sake of buying and just to make our squad bigger.

“We wanted to buy quality players and I’m sure that we’ve got them.”

Bilic’s optimism has been tempered by this week’s news that Cresswell has been ruled out for up to four months, while Lanzini had been scheduled to play for Argentina at the Olympics.

“It’s a big blow for us, of course,” Bilic added.

“But hopefully they are going to be back soon.

“We still have to wait for Manuel, when he comes back from the States where he was with the Argentina Olympic team, to see how bad it is.

“We are still waiting for a few players who were at the Euros until basically the end too.

“So we’ve been training with 70 or 80 per cent of the squad that we are expecting to have in the Premier League.”