West Ham United manager David Moyes admits Gianluca Scamacca needs reminding of his basic striker instincts after scoring his first goal in almost three months on Wednesday against Leeds United.
Scamacca, a £30.5million summer signing from Sassuolo, is the Hammers ’ top scorer in all competitions this season with seven goals, four of which have come in this season’s Europa Conference League.
The Italian had been on a poor run in front of goal, however, failing to score for 10 consecutive matches prior to giving West Ham a second half lead against Leeds on Wednesday, only for the game to end 2-2.
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His stunning strike from 25 yards continues a pattern of Scamacca goals scored this season, with three of his seven coming from outside of the penalty area. Two of those three were in the Premier League, with Leicester City midfielder James Maddison (three) being the only player with the more league goals from distance this season than Scamacca.
Playing deeper has allowed Scamacca to create chances this season for the Hammers, with the Italian ranking fifth in the squad for chances created in Moyes’ squad this season.
While Moyes likes Scamacca’s link-up qualities, he is urging him to get in the penalty area more to recreate the goal tally he mustered at Sassuolo last season.
“We enjoy his link-up play. But if you want to be a 15 or 20-goal a season man you need some tap-ins, you need to slide across the goal and get in front of people,” Moyes told football.london
“What he's got is three or four a season in him like against Leeds, he's got great ability to score from distance. But I think everybody who watches football or plays football would tell you if you're going to be a centre-forward you need to score with your head, you need to score with your feet in and around the six-yard box.
“I don't think that's a difficult thing for a centre-forward, if you are going to be a centre-forward that's skills you learn as an eight-year-old ' how am I going to score?'. So I don't think it's something Gianluca doesn't know, I think it's something he needs reminding of, getting in the right positions. And we've maybe not delivered enough good balls at times to pick him out, so we need to get that better.”
Speaking on how Scamacca can improve his threatening qualities up front, Moyes said that it is a combination of training drills and conversations that will lead to improvement.
However, Moyes also said that the issue has been one with Scamacca ever since his arrival and needs to take it upon himself to improve his threat up front for the Hammers.
“A bit of both, sometimes showing him and I think he understands but it's not as if we just recognised it this week, we've been on it since probably week one,” added Moyes.
“The worst part is you can tell people and show them, but they have to pick it up. It's self-development. We've all had teachers, we've all been taught things but in life you have to find a way of how you do it yourself. How you find a way of scoring.
“There's a lot of coaching going on but the players have got to be the ones who stand up a little bit and say 'I understand what you've told me, now I'm going to put it into action.’
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