Sir Alex looks out for Lingard

SIR ALEX FERGUSON has backed Jesse Lingard to be a real hit at West Ham this season after his excellent start, revealed manager David Moyes.

Lingard, 28, joined the Hammers on loan from Manchester United earlier this month and scored twice on his debut in the 3-1 win over Aston Villa.

An impressive run has propelled West Ham into the European places and victory over Sheffield

United tomorrow could cement their place in the top six.

Moyes, who worked with Lingard when he was in charge at United, said he has already spoken to Sir Alex about the England man.

‘He’s only here in the short term but already I’ve spoken with Sir Alex, who asked me to pass on his best to Jesse,’ he said. ‘He mentioned he was thinking about him because Sir Alex had him as a boy at Old Trafford.

‘And then when I was there I had him for a little bit as well just at the start of it.

‘That just shows you the interest Sir Alex has in all the young players he had, all his teams and all his clubs. He shows a great interest in them and he was pleased Jesse got off to a good start.’

JAMES MADDISON helped pile the misery on Liverpool and then couldn’t resist a swipe at the Anfield injury crisis.

Jurgen Klopp was missing several k e y me n as the c hampions c r a s hed 3 - 1 a t L e i c e s t e r, b u t Ma d d i s o n pointed out: ‘We have a lot of injuries, by the way.’

Leicester were without a handful of players including James Justin, Timothy Castagne a n d We s l e y F o f a n a , but goalscorer Maddison reckons Liverpool’s injury problems overshadowed the game.

He said: ‘It doesn’t get talked about because we’re not the “Big Six” but we are utilising the squad brilliantly. We are right up there and we’re not up there by fluke.’

Manager Brendan Rodgers praised the growing maturity within his team, and acknowledged it showed how far his side had come after sustaining a 4-0 hiding at Liverpool on Boxing Day last season.

The Foxes now sit six points clear of Klopp’s team as they battle for a top-four spot and Champions League football.

‘I said before the game it would be a good measure of t he development of the team,’ he said. ‘A year ago, going behind would have disappointed us. But our reaction throughout the game was very good.

‘In the 4-0 game last year, we actually started the game really well. But as soon as we went behind, we got too frustrated and ended up losing convincingly.

‘ This t i me when we went b e h i n d , we still had the confidence and the mentality to keep pushing.’

Rodgers’ men were in a similar position last season, only to hit the buffers in the closing stretch and be denied a Champions League spot on the final day of the campaign.

And the Northern Irishman insists that disappointment has been used as a tool to motivate his players all season.

‘It was something we needed to open up on as it could have been the elephant in the room for us,’ he said.

‘We talked through it, looked at how good we were, the areas we could improve in and then what would be the challenges for us this season.

‘That provided a great platform for us to reset and it has allowed us to continue on a really consistent basis, even t hough we’ve had so many players injured.’

Maddison added: ‘We have so much quality in the squad. We will keep working and grinding out results against big teams like Liverpool. It’s about taking the big moments. We weren’t at our best to be honest but I’ll take those big moments.

‘We’re a top team now with good quality, so we know if we get chances, we can put them away and it showed because in 12 minutes we turned the game on its head.’