David Moyes believes West Ham’s goalscoring problems of last season are a thing of the past, as he hailed his team’s new-found ability to spread the attacking load.
During a dreadful start to last season that left the Hammers battling relegation, Moyes’s side managed just 11 goals in their first 13 Premier League matches, but have more than doubled that tally already this term with 23 by the same stage.
Jarrod Bowen has been particularly prolific, scoring nine times in 16 matches, but Tomas Soucek has also rediscovered the form of his first full season at the club with seven goals in all competitions, while Lucas Paqueta is another to have already matched his tally from last term.
"I’m pleased we’re sharing the goals around,” Moyes said. “This time last year we couldn’t score and we found it really difficult, we were short.
“Jarrod’s got goals which he didn’t before the World Cup last year, which has been really important to us. Tomas Soucek didn’t get the goals that he did the year before last.
“Micky [Antonio] started the season really well with the goals he got. The introductions of Mohammed Kudus and Lucas Paqueta with their goals as well, we’ve certainly got more.
"And I think James Ward-Prowse’s ability to get us goals from set-pieces or give us a chance of scoring has been a big thing for us as well this year.”
Bowen has missed the Hammers’ last two matches with a knee injury picked up on international duty, but in his absence Soucek has picked up the goalscoring burden, netting late winners in both Saturday’s victory at Burnley and Thursday night’s Europa League win over Backa Topola.
“I’m really pleased because they’ve been so important those goals,” Moyes added. “We needed somebody to step up and he’s been doing it at the moment. His first season he scored good numbers of goals, last season was a bit quieter but he’s back at it.”
