Cresswell praises ‘class’ Lingard and asks West Ham to keep Rice

West Ham’s left-back told

of Lingard: “Jesse has been fantastic.

“You just need to look in the short space of time he's been here, his stats speak for that - his goals and assists in such a short time.

“I knew Jesse was a very good player, I played with him at England a few years back. He just hasn't had the luck the last few years at Man United and didn't really get any game time. As they say: class is permanent.

“He's certainly come back and looks in fantastic shape and he's back in the England squad. He's been a fantastic addition to our squad.”

The former Liverpool academy player continued to speak about his side’s captain, Declan Rice.

“Declan is certainly one of our better players and the best players we want to keep at the club and build squads around,” Cresswell said.

“But you look at the recruitment over the last 18 months, you could arguably say there have been some fantastic players come in: Vlad, Tomas, Jarrod Bowen for example - in recent times - who have done really well and played nearly all the games.

“We certainly want to keep our best players and build squads around them.”

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