Manager on Monday

Slaven Bilic is hopeful that Alex Song is back to his very best
Reflecting on Alex Song’s man-of-the-match performance against Manchester City, manager Slaven Bilic is hoping that the Cameroonian international can maintain the same level for the rest of the season.

Since re-joining the Club for a second year on loan, Song has struggled to reach the heady heights of last season as injuries have hampered his fitness.

However, Song looked as hungry as ever against title chasers Manchester City, snapping into tackles while demonstrating his impressive range of passing.

When asked about the midfielder, the manager responded enthusiastically: “Song had a great game; we need him to play like that week in, week out. He is a very important player.

“He has already had some good games, at Old Trafford he was really good. He is coming back from a long injury and it is hard, so it has taken some time. But he has all the qualities in every area, he is a big player for us. I am a big Song fan.”

Another positive for the West Ham manager to take into his preparations for the  FA Cup tie away at Liverpool this weekend is the sense of disappointment at only drawing with the Citizens.

Despite taking four points from Manuel Pellegrini’s world class side, Bilic and his players were left disappointed at not being able to make it a historic double.

The manager continued to explain why he thought this was a good reaction: “My staff and the players are disappointed, but that is a good thing because it shows the level we are at, the level our expectations are.

“I am more proud than disappointed, we were fantastic. We had some great individual performances but they were only the cherry on the pie and the pie was the team performance. I am very proud of the guys.

“This league is impossible to predict, especially this season, every team is good enough to beat anyone. I don’t know where we are going to end up, but if we play like this every week we’ll be in a good way.”