West Ham United boss David Moyes admits he has the flexibility to use summer signing Lucas Paqueta in a variety of different positions.
The Brazilian international joined the Hammers for an initial fee of £36.7million from French side Lyon in August, with that fee potentially rising as high as a club record £52.6million in potential future add-ons.
Paqueta has so far started in each of West Ham’s last three league games and while he has shown flashes of his quality at times, he still adjusting to life in the Premier League. All three of his starts in the league so far have come as the central attacking midfielder in David Moyes’ 4-2-3-1 formation, playing behind either Gianluca Scamacca or Michail Antonio up front.
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Part of the attraction of signing Paqueta was his versatility. While on international duty last month, he played as a sitting central midfielder in a win over Ghana before changing roles to a left winger in victory over Tunisia four days later.
Moyes has praised the variety of qualities Paqueta has in his locker and admits he will look to use him in different positions as and when appropriate.
“I can. I think when we bought him, we saw him as a ten or an eight, if you want to put in footballing terms, he’s played in other roles as well,” Moyes told football.london ahead of beating Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday.
“If you look at the second game, I think he played off the left in the second game for Brazil, so he’s a sort of multi-talented positional player who can play in several different roles and I think we are getting used to him and he is getting used to us.
“Maybe in a few weeks time, we will see him more as a number eight. Maybe in a few weeks time, we will see him as a number ten or 11.”
However, Paqueta is yet to really show his best in a West Ham shirt in his very brief time at the club so far. Against Everton before the international break, he was dispossessed three times and had two unsuccessful touches against the Toffees, his highest combined possession losses in a league game so far, being taken off shortly after the hour mark.
Moyes has called on Paqueta to get used to the speed of England’s top-flight, which looked apparent in last month’s loss to Everton, but feels that had Paqueta been playing in a West Ham team that were in form, he may have been able to settle in quicker.
“Us getting used to him and him getting used to us, if he was coming into a team in really good form then it would be a lot easier to see him,” added Moyes. “We are asking him to come in and help us at the moment.
“He’s done some good things but I think also, I’m sure if you’ve watched you’ve seen, he needs to get used to the pace of the Premier League and not get caught on the ball, which happened to him a few times last week (against Everton).
“They are things which we talk about if we’re getting into technical issues in regards to integrating into the Premier League, it is the speed, it is getting tackled, it is getting people on you quicker and I think that was relevant a couple of weeks.”
In the 2-0 win against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday, he won two tackles, made two clearances, completed two interceptions and completed two accurate long balls.
While at Lyon, Paqueta made 99 key passes in 67 league games, averaging one every 52.1 minutes. So far, in 241 league minutes for the Hammers, he is yet to make one.
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