MOYES DROPS HAMMERS AND WIELDS THE AXE!
Boss’s get-tough policy pays off with a leap out of the bottom three
BY IAN BAKER
DAVID MOYES wielded the axe - and watched his West Ham side find their cutting edge.
The Hammers boss raised eyebrows by dropping Vladimir Coufal, Pablo Fornals and Michail Antonio.
But the ploy worked, with Antonio’s replacement Gianluca Scamacca scoring his first Premier League goal before Jarrod Bowen sealed this easy win against woeful Wolves. It was a muchneeded victory given West Ham’s perilous position.
And it demonstrated not only Moyes’s ruthless streak, but also the talent that the East Londoners have at their disposal.
Fornals, who showed his class as a first-half replacement for the injured Max Cornet, admitted that being dropped may just have been the kick up the backside he needed. The Spaniard said: “I want the best for the team and maybe the best thing was to have Pablo Fornals on the bench.
“We made some really good signings in the summer and now the players who were already here have to prove that they deserve to start. I am very happy for Gianluca scoring his first Premier League goal.
“He had a bad virus after the Aston Villa game and we needed him to give us back our shape.
“Strikers live on the goals they score and after this his confidence will be much higher. But Gianluca has a strong personality and he doesn’t need to score because he is good for us no matter what.
“Hopefully it helps Michail too as he will say, ‘f ****** hell, the other striker has scored!’ It is going to help everyone because competition improves everyone. It is the same for me because I didn’t start either.
“I always want to play with the best players and now big players want to come to West Ham, which is very good for the club.
“This is a great club, a family club, where people demand 100 percent from you, and you want to give 100 percent.”
It would be wrong to say West Ham are back to their best because Wolves, who yesterday sacked manager Bruno Lage, were so limited but this was certainly a result that augurs well. Scamacca, who arrived from Sassuolo in Italy, let fly with a welltaken effort on the volley just before the hour (left).
Bowen’s much-improved performance was the perfect reaction to being overlooked by England boss Gareth Southgate. His low finish after Thilo Kehrer’s 54th-minute shot had been blocked settled the contest.
West
Ham have scored only five Premier League goals this season – only Wolves have fewer – but they are now above the bottom three at least.
Fornals added: “Hopefully this is what we needed to bounce back and stay away from the relegation battle. This has given us a bit of breathing space and will help us kick on.
“The fans were with us and, when the team and the fans are together, it is difficult to beat us in our home.”
Hammers boss Moyes (above) raved about the performance of Scamacca. “We really like him a lot,” Moyes said.
“He’s not a target-man, I wouldn’t call him that by a long way, but he’s got ability in different ways. We’re still trying to get used to him but he was very good today.”