West Ham boss David Moyes says Flynn Downes "needs to do better" if he wants to break into his first-team plans on a regular basis at the London Stadium.
Downes moved from Swansea City to east London this summer in a deal worth up to £14million including add-ons. He has made only two cameo appearances for the Hammers so far in games against Manchester City and Viborg at home.
A toe injury prevented him starting the latter match, but Moyes has revealed the midfielder needs more time and from his early viewings of him, the Scot believes he must up the ante to be involved on a more consistent basis.
READ MORE: West Ham star Flynn Downes heard Swansea was awful but reveals he wanted to stay
The 23-year-old wasn't involved in recent defeats to Nottingham Forest and Brighton, having to make do with a place on the bench. It's been a difficult start for the Londoners, who sit bottom after three straight defeats.
“I think we need to give him a bit of time,” Moyes said on Downes at the weekend. “As I said, he would have played (against Viborg) if it wasn’t for his toe.
“The things I’ve seen of him, he needs to do better and we’re already [working at that] but we’ll get him a game when we can. All the players have to earn it and I have to find a way of winning most of the games.
“If it takes me putting the better players out to win, well I want to win. I’m not putting the boys out just to lose and say ‘I’m giving them a game.’ I want to win the games.”
Downes admitted in an interview last week that the step up in levels since making the switch to the Premier League has been an eye-opener for him, revealing Declan Rice is an “an absolute joke” of a player.
“Even in training, I just love training on his team,” he said. “I’m just trying to learn from him. He’s on a different planet.”
In the same interview he admitted it was a wrench to leave south Wales after falling for the place after just a year in the area.
“It was the total opposite to what I’d expected,” Downes added. “What a lovely place. The people were lovely, the club were so good.
“I loved it down there and, I’ll be honest, I wanted to stay. I’d gone from a year at Ipswich where I hated it to literally loving it, so I was all for staying. Then I came back for pre-season and from there I kind of knew I wasn’t going to.”
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