Slaven Bilić has spoken to the media ahead of Wednesday night’s Sky Bet Championship clash with Reading at The Hawthorns (ko 8pm).
Both sides go in to the game off the back of good wins at the weekend, with Albion looking to make it four league fixtures unbeaten and continue their positive start to the 2019/20 campaign.
The Baggies boss assessed the shape of his squad and talked about what to expect from the Royals among a range of topics in his pre-match press conference, which you can watch above on WBA TV.
Slaven on team selection…
“We are considering making a few changes for a few reasons.
“The main reason is because we have a strong opinion that we have a good squad. Although we didn't win the cup game, a lot of players played really good football there and we want to use them.
“And the other reason is that we want to give some players a bit of a rest because we have two games in three days basically, considering we already had one game a few days ago.”
On picking up from the second-half at Luton…
“It was an improved performance. The players that came from the bench gave us that impulse that we really needed. That’s also one of the reasons why we are considering changes.
“He (Grady Diangana) made a big impact, but he doesn't have to start the game because of that.
“If you think about how they (Charlie Austin and Matheus Pereira) played in the 20 minutes of half-hour that they came on then they are ready, of course.
“They are all fit enough now, but they will not get fitter by only training. They have to play, that’s why we call it match fitness. Friendly matches help, training helps, but you need competitive matches to be match fit.”
On Reading…
“They had an excellent game on Sunday. They changed the system a bit. They have everything, based on that game.
“They were really powerful up front with two strikers, and they were solid at the back with three or five.
“They have a midfield that have attitude, power, legs, quality and creativity. And they have on the wings two guys that are up and down.
“To be fair they really impressed me. We will have to be on top of our game to make a result that would make us happy.”