Ings are looking good
MOYES TRUSTING IN DANNY’S GOALS TO BEAT THE DROP
DAVID MOYES hopes Danny Ings can really kickstart his West Ham career — and the club’s bid for Premier League survival — against his old club Aston Villa this afternoon.
Ings has scored two goals since arriving from Villa Park in a £12million move in January, but both came in the 4-0 demolition of Nottingham Forest last month – and there have been five games in which he has featured but not scored.
But West Ham boss Moyes knows that the fact Ings will feel there is something to prove to his old employers today could weigh in the Hammers’ favour.
And now the Irons chief must decide whether to unleash the 30-year-old at the London Stadium, stick with Michail Antonio, whose two goals sank AEK Larnaca in Cyprus on Thursday, or play the two of them together.
Moyes said: “It’s always a difficult one when you’re returning to your old club or playing against your old club.
“Sometimes it can go big in your favour, sometimes it can’t, you just never know how it works out.
“If anybody will know much about Aston Villa, it will be Danny, but they will know plenty about Danny as well.
“We want to get Danny in the goals. He could be crucial.
“We’re needing a goalscorer, we’re needing someone who can link us up and keep the ball better at different times.
“But there’ll be plenty of games where I need the robustness of Mich [Antonio] up top, and work down the sides of people and around the box.
“We’ll have to pick and choose when and where we think it’s right to play them both or to play them as individuals.”
Moyes and everyone else involved with West Ham are under no illusions about the battle they face to stay in the top flight and that Villa at home represents a chance to start climbing up the table. It is the first of four home games in a row, and Moyes said: “It’s big game for us. It feels like every home game has been a really big game in recent weeks.
“Everton, Nottingham Forest, and Chelsea in between that. Let’s be fair, results at home have been pretty good and we have to maintain that because our form away from home is not stacking up.
“We’ve had 10 of our past 14 games away – how does that work? We’ve been drawn away in the cup, I guess.
“It feels like we’ve been away for a long time. Hopefully we can use it and try to do better. If we perform to the levels we had against Nottingham Forest we will give ourselves a good chance.”
Moyes (right) also believes that defender Kurt Zouma’s return from injury has been timely. “He has that presence that everybody is looking for,” Moyes added. “We’ve missed him, we’ve missed him getting back to his real best.
“Hopefully this period will give him the chance to do that.”