Lanzini keen to return to winning ways
Our Argentine midfielder Manuel Lanzini has urged his Hammers team-mates to get back to winning form when we face Hull City at the KCOM Stadium on Saturday. The playmaker said, “I think we have been improving overall, conceding in the last minute is always a blow and, as a team, we can always work harder to stop that happening again”. Lanzini was speaking in an interview with WHUFC.com. The No 10 has enjoyed another fantastic campaign despite missing the start of the season with a knee injury sustained while on international duty for Argentina in the run of up to the 2016 Rio Olympics’. Lanzini is clearly eager for us to bring a halt to our five-game winless run and he could be key on Saturday if he continues his fantastic form playing just behind the strikers.
Cresswell backs Bilic
Our English left back Aaron Cresswell has spoken out about recent rumours that we may be sacking our Croatian manager Slaven Bilic. The 27-year-old was speaking to Sky Sports News HQ and said “If you ask any of the players they would say the same, we are fully behind him and fully supportive of him. Hopefully, we can turn things around”. Managers like Jaap Stam and Rafa Benitez have been linked with the job but Cresswell has insisted the players will do everything they can to support him, as we begin to look over our shoulders at the relegation zone. Cresswell has been a regular ever since we signed him from Ipswich in summer 2014, but like Lanzini missed the start of the season with an injury sustained in pre-season. Cresswell earned his first England cap back in November against Spain and will be crucial if we are to finish the season strongly.
Newcastle manager Benitez back on Hammers radar
It has been rumoured this week in the Mirror that Newcastle’s Rafa Benitez is the latest name to be linked with replacing Slaven Bilic in the summer. Our recent poor form has sent rumours spiralling around that Gold and Sullivan will sack the Croat if our poor results continue over the rest of the season. It isn’t the first time Benitez has been rumoured with the West Ham manager’s job, in May 2015 it was speculated that we approached the former Champions League winning manager about replacing Sam Allardyce all before Bilic was appointed a month later.
Feghouli dreaming of the World Cup
Our Algerian winger Sofiane Feghouli has expressed his huge desire to make a World Cup return for the ‘Desert Warriors’ in 2018. Feghouli scored as Algeria reached the last 16 of the 2014 tournament in Brazil. The wide man said, “I’d like to play again in 2018, although it will be very difficult to qualify”. Feghouli was speaking in an exclusive interview with WHUFC.com. The Algerians sit bottom of their Russia 2018 Qualification Group and need nothing short of a miracle to progress to the tournament, so Feghouli has plenty of club Football to focus on in the meantime.