David Moyes plans to start Gianluca Scamacca in Thursday’s UEFA Europa Conference League round of 16 second-leg tie with AEK Larnaca.
West Ham United’s Italy international striker has scored four goals in the Irons’ run to the knockout stages, netting in both legs of the playoff round win over Viborg, before scoring against a second Danish side, Silkeborg, and Belgian outfit Anderlecht in the group stage.
The 24-year-old has not started a game for the Hammers since scoring from outside the penalty area in the Premier League draw at Leeds United on 4 January but, after appearing for the last 30 minutes in last week’s 2-0 first-leg win over AEK in Cyprus, he is set to appear from the kick-off against the same opposition at London Stadium.
“Thursday is a good chance for Gianluca [to start],” he told journalists in his pre-match press conference. “We want him back, he’s got something and we like him a lot. He’s a great boy and we really, really like him and we want him to do well.
“We want our Gianluca back to the one we had from August to November. The one we’ve got at the moment looks slightly different and we need him to get back to those levels because at those levels we could use him and he scored some goals and had some contributions when he was still growing into the league and getting used to it. He’s missed quite a lot with injuries and illness, etcetera, but we want him to get back.
“Gianluca is an Italian international and he has so many good qualities. We really do like him a lot, so we just want to see them come out.”
The manager had spoken at the weekend about how Scamacca’s ‘physical data has got to be much better than it is’ and elaborated on Wednesday to explain that he has found players arriving in the Premier League from overseas often take time to find their feet in the English top-flight, particularly when their team is also involved in three cup competitions.
“I think we find it with everyone who comes to the Premier League has to get used to the level of intensity – it’s not anybody from Italy and it’s not just Gianluca,” he said.
“You hear me, but you certainly hear other managers say it takes players time to adjust to the level, the speed and intensity and the regular demands of the games Premier League.”
The former Sassuolo striker scored six of his seven West Ham goals by 10 October, before injuries suffered in a mid-season match at Fulham in December and again in early January set him back. However, Moyes is hopeful he can regain his best form.
“We want him to be physically working hard for the team, getting in the right goalscoring positions, playing like a 6’4 centre-forward and covering all the ground – all the things we’d want from him,” he continued.
“I’ve got to say in the early part of the season, we saw that, we really did, but I don’t think we’ve seen it since his injury in a friendly at Fulham around World Cup time. He’s not come back from that level that he was at when he first arrived, really, and we want him to get back to that.
“Do I think he’s going to come back soon [to his best form]? I hope so.”
While Scamacca is set to start on Thursday, the manager revealed that two senior players will not be available, including first-leg hero Antonio, due to injury.
He confirmed “Vladimír Coufal has still got a problem with his foot and Micky Antonio has just got a bit of a calf injury which he picked up in Cyprus last week. I couldn’t tell you when I expect both of them to return as I’m not sure yet.”
With first-leg starter Flynn Downes also absent through suspension after receiving his third red card in the competition at AEK Arena, Moyes said he intends to rotate his squad to an extent.
“We plan to change a little bit, but ultimately we need to be ready for the game,” he confirmed. “We want to qualify and I would never take anything for granted. We don’t want to give the opponent any opportunity to get back in the game if we can help it, and we intend to do a good, professional job.”
