David Moyes has said he will continue to play Lucas Paqueta in a deeper role following the 2-0 loss to Brentford. Friday night saw West Ham United end 2022 with a home defeat, the team’s fifth league loss on the bounce and left them 17th heading into Saturday’s other Premier League fixtures. Moyes opted to change things up and deployed Paqueta at the base of midfield as opposed to further up and though it didn’t result in a goal or assist, the Scottish coach said it’s a tactic he will use again in the future in order to take another look at the Brazilian in that role.
David Moyes said: “Yes, I probably am. I’m going to look more at it. I thought he played well at times tonight, looked like he was desperately running out of steam, probably because of the way the game had been played, especially in the first half. I think I am going to look a bit more at him a bit deeper and see how that works.”
Moyes was then asked if he needed more from Paqueta and fellow summer signing Gianluca Scammaca, who joined for a combined fee of £80million allegedly. And though the former Manchester United boss would like for the duo to contribute more, he added that it’s the team as a whole that needs to step up.
David Moyes replied: “I am. “You’ve got to look at the ones who’ve been here and do usually score. You’ve got to say: ‘Come on, you boys are part of it as well’. Really, if we’re looking, all the people who we’d expect to be scoring goals are down on it so we have to try and find a way to get them back on it if we can.”
