David Moyes has tried to explain the Gianluca Scamacca decision as West Ham fans seethe over his negative approach.
It is fair to say Scamacca’s debut season with West Ham has not worked out for him or the club thus far.
The excitement at West Ham finally landing a striker after an 18-month wait to replace Sebastien Haller has been replaced by utter bemusement.
Moyes could not make it work with Haller at West Ham. And now many fear the Hammers have a new Haller situation on their hands with Scamacca.
Despite being available for the last few weeks, Scamacca has barely been used by Moyes.
The 6ft 5in Italian did not come on during the 4-0 defeat to Brighton and many assumed Moyes was holding him back to start in Europe against AEK Larnaca.
But he was named on the bench for that game too.
Unverified gossip has suggested Scamacca has had a fallout with Moyes behind the scenes.
And the Scot has done little to dismiss that talk, with his pre-Villa comments suggesting he has not been impressed with the 24-year-old in training.
He was named on the bench yet again as Villa came to the London Stadium. But with West Ham in desperate need of wins to stay in the Premier League, many assumed Scamacca would come on in the second half with the game tied at 1-1 and the visitors there for the taking.
Instead Moyes elected to bring on winger Maxwel Cornet in place of the painfully slow Danny Ings, who touched the ball just 10 times all game.
It is fair to say Hammers fans were absolutely incredulous at the decision from the manager.
Now Moyes has explained the Scamacca decision as West Ham fans seethe over his negative approach.
“His link up play is very good, he enjoys play,” Moyes said when asked for his thinking behind the Scamacca decision (Football.London).
“We know that his physical data has got to be much better than it is but even today, Maxi Cornet, the thought was he could get in behind them and let’s be fair, we probably did and we nearly did three or four other times.
“Even Maxi had a couple of half chances, whether he was onside or offside. We saw Maxi doing that more than Gianluca.
“Gianluca has got to get himself back, as a manager, no manager wants to put out a bad team, you want to put out the players who you think are going to win for you, so you are always looking to put your best team out.”
New claims have emerged in Italy this week that Scamacca could join Inter Milan this summer.
And it now seems increasingly likely a parting of the ways is just a few months away.
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