West Ham United manager David Moyes has revealed that winger Said Benrahma was not initially due to take the penalty he scored against Bournemouth.
The Algerian’s stoppage time spot-kick sealed a 2-0 win for the Hammers over the Cherries at the London Stadium after Kurt Zouma’s controversial first half header, moving West Ham from 17th to 10th in the Premier League table.
Jarrod Bowen, who saw a penalty saved five days ago, had been taken off minutes before Jordan Zemura handballed Vladimir Coufal’s cross to lead to the spot-kick, awarded by VAR.
READ MORE: West Ham player ratings: Kurt Zouma stars as VAR controversy shows in Bournemouth victory
Speaking on Benrahma’s performance, Moyes was pleased with the ex-Brentford man’s display, but admitted Benrahma was not set to take the penalty.
“No, it probably wasn’t, no. He took it brilliantly well, so well done,” said Moyes.
“Really pleased because he’s so important for us. We need him. He’s a dribbler, you don’t get many dribblers any more, he wants to take people on but as you know, people who watch West Ham regularly and come to the game, it is his final product. Whether it is a cross, a pass or his finish, so we’ve been trying to get him continually on to it.
“I’ll tell you what he does do, every year he always supplies us goals, I think last year he probably got six or seven and probably six or seven assists as well. He plays a big part, but his form has been in and out and we’re trying to get a little bit more consistency from him.
“I have to say, he played really well tonight, we felt it was a game at home like this under the lights and we thought it was a night where maybe he would have a chance to take people on and dribble and I thought he did really well.”
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