Stoke v West Brom: Slaven Bilic shocked at Potters' plight

The Baggies travel to the bet365 Stadium tonight where they will face a Stoke side without a permanent manager following the sacking of Nathan Jones on Friday.

His departure has seen Rory Delap, Kevin Russell and Andy Quy placed in temporary charge while the club searches for a new boss.

Incredibly, the Potters have won just two of 14 Championship matches this season despite having assembled the most expensive squad in the division.

Those wins came against Swansea and Fulham last month.

And Bilic says they show his side can take nothing for granted tonight.

“Stoke are a massive club,” the boss said.

“It’s not that they are a massive club who said ‘we are going to have a rest for a couple of years to re-structure’.

“They wanted to go back to the Premier League. It just didn’t happen for them right at the start.

“It’s shocking when you look at their squad, their ambition, their history, the stadium, everything. So it’s a surprise so far.

“But they have picked up some points recently.

“What is significant for us is that they picked up points against sides who are good, like Swansea and Fulham who like to have the ball.

“So that means they are compact, can defend in numbers and catch you on the break.

“So again, it’s a very difficult game for us away from home.

“Somebody asked me if I thought it would be easy – I wouldn’t hear talk like that, I don’t want to hear talk like that.

“I’m sure nobody here thinks that it’s going to be anything but a very difficult game for us.”

While Stoke’s form and position in the table make for dreadful reading, Bilic doesn’t believe that necessarily means there is a lot wrong at the club.

“The fact is when a club is in crisis or a position they didn’t expect at the beginning of the season, a lot of people think something major has to be wrong,” the Croatian continued.

“They assume there must be so many rotten apples or the coach is wrong – or they made the wrong decisions in the transfer market.

“But the reality is it doesn’t have to be that much – you only need a little bit and then the bad luck starts.

“Once it starts it’s very difficult to turn around, it’s like a rolling snowball gathering snow, it’s very difficult.

“You look at their signings, guys like (Giannelli) Imbula for example, who was brilliant for Marseille, he was unbelievable for Marseille.

“They paid £20million or whatever for him and he never settled in. There were a few other guys like that.

“But they are trying and what I don’t like in this moment is they have picked up a couple of great wins when nobody expected it.

“They picked up a great win at Swansea and at home against Fulham 2-0. So it’s a warning for us that it’s going to be a very difficult game.”

Bilic has a call to make at left-back tonight with Nathan Ferguson suspended for the next three matches following his red card against Charlton.

Conor Townsend is expected to come in.

But Bilic may also be able to call on Kieran Gibbs.

The former Arsenal man has been left out of the last few match-day squads with a broken toe.

But he is now able to train – with Bilic having no other injury concerns.

“According to the medical team they’re all fit and well – it looks good,” the head coach added.

“Apart from Gibbs, who has started to train, not with us, but individually. He is putting his boots on now, he’s okay.

“Everybody else should be fit and available apart from Nathan of course.”