Match verdict By Hughie Southon
Well, that was much more like it!
No Rice, no Aguerd, no Zouma and no Cornet yet we put on a performance against Udinese which was more than promising – at times we were very sharp indeed.
And much of that may well have been down to playing three attacking midfielders in Bowen, Benny and Fornals, supplemented in the second half with Lanzini,
The result was that Scamacca was linking well and getting some real chances as he showed hints of his best form back in his homeland.
It hadn’t started too well with Udinese taking the lead – it happens far too often of course – via some sloppy defending.
But after that it got a whole lot better with the equalising coming from a quick released ball from Scamacca to Bowen and a superb right to left pass for Benny to score.
After that the Italians hit the crossbar early in the second half but the Hammers began to look much better and pressed home their increasing advantage with a sensational Lanzini goal and a much needed stab home from Mikey.
We looked like a team getting up to speed and it really is good to feel a little more positive as a result.
Yes that was a good performance against a team sitting 8th in the Italian league,and to be honest i thought it was going to be a match that would highlight our problems.But it showed the difference in levels between serie A and the premier league.
A much better team selection. Great to see Coufal playing so well. He is our best rb by a long distance. How Moyes has been ignoring this is inexcusable. I wud sell Johnson just not PL level. So happy too to see Fornals play he gets us moving forward. Lanzini too what a goal. This performance will mean nothing if he goes back to his negative team selection. If he does do this against arsenal he has to be sacked. I thought one down side for me was Anderson. He was so poor defensively.
How reassuring! I looked at C&H this morning and was concerned that there was no comment mentioning Moyes and sacking. So glad I checked back this afternoon …
But I do agree with johnham1 about Coufal and I think he means Emerson. If he had to rely on Anderson to defend (if he was still with us), then Moyes certainly would be out of a job …