David Moyes says Gianluca Scamacca’s “physical data” is to blame for his lack of recent opportunity in the West Ham side, after the forward played no part in Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Aston Villa.
Scamacca was hailed as a marquee signing when arriving from Sassuolo in a £30.5million deal last summer and gradually established himself as Moyes’ first-choice striker during the first half of the season.
But the Italian has started just two of the Hammers’ 15 games since the World Cup, in part due to a knee injury, while competition for places has increased since the January arrival of Danny Ings.
Ings was rested during the midweek Europa Conference League win over AEK Larnaca but Moyes gave Michail Antonio the chance to lead the line in his place, the decision rewarded as the Jamaican scored twice before being forced off injured.
With Antonio missing for the visit of Villa, however, Scamacca might have expected to play a role off the bench but Moyes instead sent on Maxwel Cornet to play as a central striker as his side pushed for a winner late on.
"We know that his physical data has got to be much better than it is," revealed Moyes.
"Gianluca has got to get himself back. 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.
"I think his application is there, we just want the output to be bigger and more, that’s one of things we are looking for more (of).
"The general part of his play, his hold-up play, we like him for it, he’s really, really good at it and we’ve not seen it as much in the work we’ve been doing."
