David Moyes believes England’s loss will be West Ham’s gain after James Ward-Prowse responded to his latest international snub with two more assists against Nottingham Forest on Sunday.
Ward-Prowse has been left out of all three England squads picked by Gareth Southgate so far this season, despite a superb start to life in east London following his summer move from Southampton.
Just hours after Southgate named his squad for the final set of European Championship qualifiers on Thursday, Ward-Prowse teed-up Lucas Paqueta’s winning goal in the Hammers’s Europa League triumph over Olympiacos.
Three days later, the midfielder was at it again, his corners creating goals for Jarrod Bowen and Tomas Soucek as the Irons edged a 3-2 thriller against Forest at the London Stadium.
“I’m quite pleased because he’s going to get a wee bit of rest this week!” Moyes said of Ward-prowse’s England omission. “With the amount of games we’ve had in this period between international breaks, we’ve just had game after game.
“James helps in a big way. I think he’ll always be thought about by Gareth Southgate but Gareth’s got so many quality players he can choose from. James is sitting there waiting if he has any injury problems.”
West Ham opened the scoring against Forest through Paqueta inside three minutes, but needed Ward-Prowse’s pair of assists to come from behind after the visitors had struck either side of the break.
Ward-Prowse now has nine assists in all competitions, to go with two goals, since joining from Southampton. Seven of those have come in the Premier League, the joint-most of any player alongside Wolves’ Pedro Neto.
“There’s very little between the teams and you need small things to go for you,” Moyes added. “I’d been disappointed over the last four or five games that our set-pieces haven’t got us more.
“Let’s be fair, he is world-class at his deliveries, James Ward-Prowse. If I was him, I’d be disappointed that the other boys haven’t scored more from his deliveries this season already. Today’s were really important for us.
“I thought the second half after we went behind we played really well to keep the pressure on, be resilient, tough and get ourselves back in the game. To go on and win it is tremendous."
