West Ham boss Manuel Pellegrini raves about midfielder

West Ham manager Manuel Pellegrini has praised midfielder Samir Nasri and suggested that the former French international will continue to improve as reported by the West Ham website. 

The 31-year-old Nasri joined the Hammers last week as a free-agent.

During his time with Manchester City and Arsenal, the 41 times capped former France international Nasri was considered to be one of the best players in the Premier League.

He has also previously won the English top-flight under the guidance of Hammers boss Pellegrini during the 2013-14 season.

Nasri arrived at the London Stadium after having served an 18-month doping ban.

He made his first competitive appearance for the East Londoners during their FA Cup third round victory over Birmingham City last Saturday and was rather impressive.

It looked almost as if Nasri has not been away as he delivered a strong performance against the Blues. Marko Arnautovic gave the Hammers the lead early on before he had to be substituted after 20 minutes. Andy Caroll sealed the victory and notched his first goal of the season during second half stoppage time.

Nasri will now surely be working hard so that he can be in contention to start when his club plays against Arsenal in the top-flight on Saturday.

Pellegrini is confident that Nasri will continue to get better.

The Chilean said: ”I think there were a lot of things to take from the game and one of them was Samir Nasri’s play after a long time without playing an official game.”

”I was very happy with the way he played. He is a player who gives you time with the ball and has good technique and the ball is always around him.”

”I was never worried about Samir because I saw him working for so many days in December so I was sure he was able to play. He has demonstrated that he is back and he will continue to improve his performances as he plays more games.”