Lucas Paqueta has admitted that the penny has finally dropped for him and his West Ham teammates.
West Ham signed Lucas Paqueta from Lyon in the summer transfer window for a club record £51 million fee (The Times).
However things haven’t gone to plan for the Brazil international at the London Stadium so far, and the same can be said for pretty much every other summer signing that Hammers boss David Moyes made.
The 25-year-old is clearly a huge talent, but he definitely needed time to get used to the tempo of Premier League football.
I have no doubts that Paqueta will go on to be a real star for West Ham, but some patience will undoubtedly be needed.
This season has been tough for everyone involved with the Hammers, and the South American has opened up about our struggles…
Lucas Paqueta highlights how West Ham players have made things hard for themselves
The Hammers star spoke to ESPN Brasil after our 2-2 draw with Arsenal at the London Stadium yesterday afternoon.
And Paqueta highlighted how slow starts to games have been costing him and his teammates. He did allude to the fact that the penny may have finally dropped though:
“Yeah, I think that’s been hurting us a little bit. It is not the first time that we start the game and already concede one, sometimes two goals, which makes it very difficult for us. It changes the whole plan, our whole strategy. But then, very calmly, when the goal came, we managed to put our style of play, put pressure on Arsenal and managed to tie the match. We also had the chance to make a comeback, yes, it was an open game. But I believe it was a very important point. I think that after our goal, it gave us a little more confidence to press high, make their defenders give away the ball. So I think this change in attitude came through our goal. It gave us confidence and we started to realise on the pitch, ‘Hey, we can press, you can steal the ball and we can mark’. So that’s what we did.”
If Lucas Paqueta and his West Ham teammates play like they did yesterday for the remainder of the season, we will be just fine.
What a pleasure it was to see the players play on the front foot with aggression and tenacity. It was also brilliant to see them deploy a methodical and well thought out high press.
Why on earth haven’t they been doing that all season though? That’s the really frustrating thing.
This team has the potential to achieve great things. Now it seems as though the penny has really dropped for Paqueta and his teammates regarding how they need to go about their business. Let’s hope that David Moyes realises that yesterday’s performance was the blueprint for success as well.
However, I would imagine that the Scot will revert to what he knows. Our style only changed yesterday because we were 2-0 down, and whether Moyes is brave enough to deploy a high press from the start in future remains to be seen.
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