By Hughie Southon
David Moyes was justifiably delighted see the Hammers move convincingly into a second consecutive European quarter-final following their win over Larnaca.
On the night he saw fabulous teenager Divin Mubama score in the game he had chosen to bring back Gianluca Scamacca.
It is great to be able to report that he got a lot right on the night as the Hammers reman undefeated in the competition thus far .
The Cypriots were the walkover last night that many – probably scared to use the word – had believed them to be bit as the old cliche goes: You can only beat what’s in front of you
Gianluca Scamacca’s first-half strike, followed by Jarrod Bowen’s quickfire double at the start of the second half and Divin Mubama’s first finish in Claret and Blue secured an excellent win at London Stadium on Thursday evening.
Discussing aspects of the game afterwards with www.whufc.com the manager said: “It’s nice when the next thing to do is see if we can make it two European semi-finals back-to-back. We’ll find out on Friday about the draw and the European football has been really positive.
I was pleased with bits of Gianluca’s all-round play. There are bits that I’m looking to get better but, overall, I’m pleased for him getting the goal. Goals give you confidence and getting him back out there was really good as well.
To be fair, we came out in the second half and blew them away, which made it easy to make changes early and get a couple of the lads on the pitch.
The biggest thing for me is it’s two European quarter-finals back-to-back.
It’s nice when you say it and the next thing to do is see if we can make it two European semi-finals back-to-back.
It’s really good for us and it’s given us a chance to make sure the squad gets minutes. We’ll need to play better, we know that, if we’re to go all the way, but we’re pleased about tonight.
We’re in a position where we can go all the way. But we need to make progress as a team and we need to look to play better and be more assured in what we’re doing at times.
But we’ve played tonight with a few players out of the team and we know, when it gets down to the crunch, they could be playing for us. But I’m pleased with tonight. There were some good performances.
I enjoyed the result but not the performance. When I saw the team Moyes picked last night I was looking forward to the game. I was expecting front foot football especially with one ddfensuce midfielder in the team. How wrong I was to think that. Moyes destroyed it all, his decision to play Lanzini as a winger, his decision to play Fornals as far forwards as possible (when we all know Pablo is a no 8 all day long). It is incredible to think how Moyes continues contijues to get simple things wrong. We will not win this competition even though we could and the reason will be Moyes. We will continue to struggle if Moyes does not drop Soucek as it is impossible to play fluent football with him in the team. How he thinks ings is a striker who can play on his own is also borderline stupidity especially in a negative team. It is the boards last chance to do the right thing for everyone now and sack Moyes.
Well Mr Moyes can take the plaudits for a job well done and for giving the game time to others once the game was won. The legacy for me is the use of attacking talent, we look so much better when we emphasize creative playing. Look at the options with Lanzini, Fornals, Paqueta, Benrahma, Cornet, Bowen, Scamacca, Ings, Mubama. We must be able to field attacking options and make great use of subs with those options. Mr Moyes, have you the vision and courage to apply the approach needed to win games? I truly hope so.