Moyes calls on fans to back Lanzini

DaviD Moyes offered support to Manuel Lanzini last night after West Ham’s fans cheered his substitution during the defeat by Liverpool.

Moyes said he needs the argentinian to be the team’s talisman — just like Marko arnautovic in the troubled 2017-18 campaign.

The West Ham boss relied on arnautovic when the club beat the drop two years ago and he was not happy with the London stadium’s reaction to Lanzini being replaced by Pablo Fornals after 69 minutes against the runaway leaders.

in a reminder to supporters that Lanzini could be the difference between survival and relegation, Moyes said: ‘He is arguably one of our best players, if not our very best player.

‘When i was here before i needed him as much as i needed arnautovic. He was such a good player and i am desperate to get him back to the levels he was at. i trust him.

‘He has had a bad injury and what i need is the supporters to be right behind him because we need him.

‘at the moment he is our flair, he is our person that might make the difference. What he needs is support. There is nobody more behind him than me.’

Mohamed salah put Liverpool on their way to victory but their second goal came after a West Ham corner. virgil van Dijk headed clear, salah countered and alex oxladeChamberlain scored. ‘We talked about not putting the ball near van Dijk’s head because he heads the corners out,’ said Moyes. ‘That was probably the biggest thing. We really

Moyes plea: Lanzini (left) needs support from fans GETTY IMAGES didn’t want to get the ball near van Dijk yet he was the one who headed it away and they break from it. That was disappointing.’

West Ham have signed 24-year-old Tomas soucek on loan from slavia Prague with an option to buy.

soucek is an example of the club’s new transfer policy of recruiting youngsters with resale value.

Moyes also handed a first-team debut to 19-year-old Jeremy Ngakia, who held his own at right back, but Jurgen Klopp’s side demonstrated their strength in stratford.

Klopp later insisted he does not care much for statistical records, despite this being his 150th win as Liverpool manager.

‘i don’t want to be extremely boring but it was not a brilliant performance against a team who is insecure in the moment,’ said the Liverpool manager. ‘But these boys i’d give them my kids to take care of — so i trust them 100 per cent.

‘a season is like you jump in the water, don’t breathe and then you come out after 38 games and have a look what happened.’