MOYES AIMS TO BRING OUT BRAZILIAN IN PAQUETA

ALAN SMITH

BY

DAVID MOYES is calling on Lucas Paqueta to show a bit of Brazilian flair after granting the West Ham midfielder his wish of playing in a deeper role.

Paqueta, a club-record £51million signing from Lyon last September, was brought in as a No.10 who the manager thought could provide “eight to 10 goals” a season.

But since returning from the World Cup, the South American has mostly been used in his preferred holding position after convincing Moyes (above) that he could be more impactful there.

“He’s a good type, really is,” said Moyes of Paqueta (right). “Take the word Brazilian away and look at the other side – his effort, his commitment, his application to get about and do the work. That has been so, so good.

“But now what we want is a bit of Brazilian – scoring and making the goals – making the difference when we need it. That’s the little bit we’ve missed.

“I’m pleased with how he’s coming along. It’s not easy to settle in. He missed the first month of the season and then had to come into a side that hadn’t been playing as well as we had done. He was coming in to make a difference and it didn’t quite go that way.”

Moyes believes moving Paqueta alongside Declan Rice in midfield has “disrupted some other

things” and warned other alterations may be needed.

That may include Rice having to limit his own desire to get forward. “With Lucas moving back, Dec has to do a bit more of a steady job because Lucas is closer to being an attacking midfielder than a defensive one,” Moyes added.

“We’ve been trying to find ways of scoring goals.

“Sometimes we’ve said we won’t play Tomas Soucek to get a more attacking midfield player in with Declan. We’ve been tweaking that as well.”