Pedro Obiang: Manuel Lanzini must show he is now West Ham's best player

Pedro Obiang believes Manuel Lanzini has become West Ham's best player, and has urged the Argentine to demonstrate his quality week in and week out for the Hammers.

West Ham sold their talismanic forward Dimitri Payet in the January transfer window after the France international refused to play for the club after expressing his desire to return to Marseille.

With Payet gone, Lanzini has stepped up to fill his boots - scoring in the 3-0 win over Crystal Palace and the 2-2 draw with West Brom while providing two assists in the 3-1 victory at Middlesbrough last month.

Such has been his superb form of late that West Ham defender Aaron Cresswell admitted the team always "knew Manu was capable of that" - with Obiang sharing the sentiment.

"Manu is our number ten and he needs to demonstrate every time that he is now our top player, so we need to use him every time we have the ball, because he has confidence and he tries to create chances," Obiang told West Ham's official website.

"Michail [Antonio] also did everything for the team, but it is no surprise because he can play with ease in every position!

"At the moment, he plays everywhere for the team and for himself and he tries to give everything. Sometimes he scores, but on Saturday he was unlucky because he hit two posts, but luckily Andre [Ayew] followed up to score."

West Ham were forced to come from behind to secure a point against Watford at Vicarage Road on Saturday thanks to a 73rd-minute equaliser from Andre Ayew.

"I am very happy for Andre, as I am very happy for every player when they come back from injury," Obiang said when asked about the goal.

"From the start, he was injured but now he is starting to play a little bit and we need to keep going with him because he can do good things."