West Ham United striker Michail Antonio admits he can see a partnership with summer signing Gianluca Scamacca working but can see why the duo have hardly been used together this season.
Hammers boss David Moyes has made Scamacca his first-choice striker this month with the Italian now fitter than he was prior to September’s international break, with Antonio largely replacing him in the Premier League or playing in his place when rested in the Europa Conference League.
So far, the duo have played just 45 minutes together across three separate matches, with 13 minutes against Brighton and Hove Albion, 16 at Liverpool, and another 16 versus Silkeborg in the Europa Conference League, with Antonio either replacing Scamacca or vice versa 13 times already this season.
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Speaking after West Ham’s 1-0 defeat to Manchester United on Sunday, Antonio said he can see the benefits of him and Scamacca playing together, but feels that with playmaker Lucas Paqueta taking the No.10 role in the team, it would be a waste to move him into a wider role to facilitate Antonio and Scamacca together.
“Yes, I definitely do,” Antonio said on BBC’s Match of the Day 2. “Obviously he can be the big guy, he likes to drop in deep, I like to run in behind so it’s something we could definitely do. We’ve tried it in the second half of games, we’ve not started that way. I believe that the gaffer will be looking to do that eventually.
“We’ve got so many No.10s so it’s difficult to leave two [strikers] out because we’ve obviously bought Paqueta in. Once he comes back in, I feel he needs to start and we aren’t going to push him out wide because we brought him in there to create and stuff like that. Going two [up front] then when he is back is going to be difficult.
“The only time we could really do it is around now when he is not available but the teams we are playing against, maybe it is just not something the gaffer is really thinking about right now. It’s something we could do in the future.”
When asked if he and Scamacca do much work on their combination play in training, he added: “No, we’re always on the opposite teams to be fair."
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