Manager on Matchday

slaven
Good morning everyone,

We know the importance of getting a victory at Selhurst Park and having seen my team work so hard over the international break, I feel they are ready for action.

Crystal Palace didn't start the season well and only got one point from their first three games.

But they have picked up and got ten points from their last four Premier League games.

Christian Benteke gelled straight away and they probably didn’t want the international break as they were playing good.

We went there last season at this stage and we played very well. We won the game 3-1 so hopefully we are going to do the same, although we are expecting a very difficult game.

This is West Ham, it is my club. I want the fans to be happy and to do that we need to start getting points and start to climb up the table. That is my job and why I am here.

We are hoping to see Aaron Cresswell back in the squad and it will be a major lift to see him back in action.

We also hope to see a few more of the injured players back in contention in the next few weeks.

Diafra Sakho is improving. He's running, sprinting and doing the ball work. He's almost there and is back on the pitch.

If he continues like that he will be back very soon. When his move to West Brom didn't happen I said of course he is our player. He's under contract and he's a player I like.

Some of these players have been out for a long time. When it is a smaller injury, you can say they are going to be back on Friday or next Friday. With this, they are out for a long time.

Andre Ayew did it in the first game against Chelsea. Andy Carroll got injured in the Romania game. Both of them got injured in a strange way. With Carroll, it was only three days after Chelsea.

Andre is supposed to start training with us on Monday, but not from the massage room. He is already doing ball work, sprints and everything.

Training individually is one thing, training with the guys is another thing. The games are totally different.

There are three steps. They are not in the treatment room, they are on the pitch. Then they have to train with us.

Then after training with us, they need match practice because their injuries were long term. But they are going to be back soon.

Enjoy the game this afternoon.


Slaven