Sam Allardyce's future at West Ham is likely to come under some scrutiny after his weakened side suffered a heavy defeat in the FA Cup third round at Nottingham Forest.
With injury and suspension problems to contend with, the former Bolton and Newcastle boss admitted to having one eye on their Capital One Cup semi-final first-leg clash against Manchester City in midweek.
Therefore, Allardyce did not want to stretch his already limited resources, which prompted him to field nine changes, including handing debuts to Seb Lletget, Danny Whitehead and Callum Driver, with George Moncur making a maiden start.
"I don't think I had a choice," said Allardyce.
"I'm the manager, I make the decisions for the benefit of everybody at the football club.
"We go to Manchester City on Wednesday night. Manchester City played yesterday, we had to play today.
"We had a huge amount of problems in terms of the available members of the squad so I've got to keep them intact, that's a major priority.
"Everybody changes their team in the Capital One Cup early on in the season but doesn't make a fuss about it.
"Many, many managers have changed the team in all divisions, but my changes had to be severe, I didn't want it to be but it had to be."
