Pardew stands by Mascherano

Alan Pardew has backed Javier Mascherano to make an impact at West Ham.

Alan Pardew has backed Javier Mascherano to make an impact at West Ham this season.

The Argentine ace has struggled to get to grips with The Premiership during his first two months at Upton Park, and Pardew accepts that his style does not quite suit the English game at present. 

The midfielder has not featured in either of West Ham's last two matches and did not even play in the reserve game against Aston Villa this week.

Pardew is eager for Mascherano to gain Premiership experience, but insists that he cannot afford to risk him in his starting XI against Tottenham this weekend.

"I think he's an outstanding player," Pardew told Sky Sports News.

"I need to just adjust his game a wee bit to The Premiership, and I think he's aware of that.

"But he needs to play for that to happen and unfortunately when you've got six defeats you need to go with people who know the job inside and out.

"So unfortunately he's a bit of a victim of results to some extent."

Pardew is nevertheless confident that Mascherano possesses the quality to succeed in England and help West Ham climb out of trouble.

The Hammers boss also guaranteed that Mascherano would play against either Chesterfield or Blackburn next week if he was not included against Spurs.

"I think he will play a major part in our season because he's a great player," Pardew predicted.

"In terms of passing the ball he's as good as anyone in The Premiership so he will get a piece of the action in the next three games, definitely."