David Moyes
West Ham United manager David Moyes admits he is determined to find the best way of playing midfielders Declan Rice, Lucas Paqueta, and Tomas Soucek in the same side. Moyes still thinks that of the trio, Soucek is the most capable of a goal and is willing to play him higher up in a bid to cash in on that.
David Moyes said: “I would like to find a good balance with getting all three of them [Rice, Soucek, Paqueta] in the team if we can. I think we do need Tomas more in some games than others. But I still fancy [Soucek] out of the three of them, if you asked who is more likely to get more goals, I still fancy Soucek. At the moment he is not doing quite [that] just now but the other night (against Leeds) he looked closer to it, he played a bit higher up the pitch so we are really keen to get him back in goalscoring form. Goals have been a big issue for us. We see him scoring more goals than Rice or even Paqueta. We need some goals from midfield.”
Of West Ham players with ten or more attempted shots, Soucek’s attempts on target accuracy of 35.3% have only been bettered by striker Michail Antonio (38.9%) this term. Despite that, unless Soucek can return to the goals, he is at risk of losing his place in the side, with Flynn Downes, Manuel Lanzini, and Pablo Fornals among those waiting in the wings.
David Moyes said: “I think we want to get Tomas a bit closer to the box and get him scoring some more. We tried to get a blend the other night (against Leeds) of Tomas, Paqueta, and Dec and see if we can make that work. I’ve got a good backup in Flynn Downes, Manuel Lanzini can easily be in the side as well. They give me different things but I’m needing some goals from him, that’s what we’re trying to do.”
