David Moyes has explained how he feels Maxwel Cornet can get more minutes at West Ham during the final games of the season. The Ivorian winger signed for the Hammers from Burnley last summer but has been limited to just 12 Premier League appearances, with only one of those being a start. That has partly been down to a calf injury that ruled him out of action for four months, though since his return in March, Cornet has been used primarily as a substitute.
David Moyes said: “He was out for five months. If he hadn’t been out injured, we were short at that time through January, we were short. Maxi was out, we didn’t know when he was coming back. We’ve gone into the transfer market, we’ve bought Danny [Ings], we had Gianluca [Scamacca] out so we needed the extra cover, it’s a bit more difficult. There’s more competition, there’s people in for his place. He needs to be patient and wait on his opportunity to come around.I have to say, he’s tended to get his chance in a lot of the games he has come on, so he might need to only take small minutes at the moment, because there’s not a huge opening for him at the moment. We’ve got people playing well and we want to try and keep that going.”
Cornet has been used in a variety of positions at West Ham, with Moyes giving the 26-year-old games on both the left and right wing as well as being played through the middle as an attacking midfielder. It is somewhere else that Cornet’s best position lays, however.
David Moyes added: “I see him playing alongside another striker, I think playing alongside somebody would probably be his pick. He definitely can play down the left for you as well, but I see him actually, if you look at him when he’s come on, he’s nearly always been around the goal. If you look at his Burnley days, probably his best performances were when he was alongside Ashley Barnes or Chris Wood in that position, which was probably his last six months of his time with Burnley. He can do all of the jobs and we know that, so we will keep finding him as much chance and opportunity as we can.”