West Ham boss Slaven Bilic: Declan Rice showed he can handle the big occasion at Manchester United

Rice made only his second Premier League appearance in Sunday's defeat
West Ham United via Getty Images
Slaven Bilic18 August 2017

It was difficult to take any positives from Sunday’s match. There were some good moves now and again but the defeat — and the manner of it — leaves a bad feeling in your stomach which takes days to go.

Declan Rice was a definite positive, though. He has done well in pre-season and we put him on for half an hour at Old Trafford.

He deserved his chance and took it. He did not look overawed in any way and although it was a difficult match for us, the experience will be invaluable for him.

We have had a whole week to put things right and now we have an opportunity to improve tomorrow. Everyone was gutted but we have a better team than last season and we expect to do good things — starting at Southampton.

In Pictures | Manchester United vs West Ham | 13/08/2017

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They have changed managers but they have continuity in the way they play — they play good football.

They didn’t manage to score against Swansea but I thought they did well.