David Moyes explains Gianluca Scamacca’s snub and says West Ham striker’s ‘physical specs’ need to improve

Hailed as a marquee signing in a £30.5million deal on arrival from Sassuolo last summer, Scamacca gradually established himself as Moyes’ first-choice striker in the first half of the season.

But the Italian has only started two of the Hammers’ 15 games since the World Cup, partly due to a knee injury, while competition for places has increased since Danny Ings arrived in January.

Ings was rested during the midweek Europa Conference League win over AEK Larnaca but Moyes gave Michail Antonio a chance to lead the line in his place. The decision was rewarded as the Jamaican scored twice before being sent off injured.

With Antonio absent from Villa’s visit, Scamacca might have expected to play a role off the bench, but Moyes instead sent Maxwel Cornet to play as a central striker as his side pushed for a win late on.

“We know his physical specs must be way better than they are,” Moyes revealed.

“Gianluca needs to recover. No coach wants to knock out a bad team, you want to knock out the players you think will win for you, so always try to knock out your best team.”

“I think its application is there, we just want the output to be bigger and more, that’s one of the things we’re looking for more.

“The general part of his game, his heist game, we like him for that, he’s really, really good at it and we haven’t seen it that much in the work we’ve done.”