David Moyes hails ‘important’ Gianluca Scamacca as West Ham call on ‘star acts’ to down Anderlecht

David Moyes lauded Gianluca Scamacca after the forward continued his impressive start to life at the club with a late winner against Anderlecht to send West Ham five points clear at the top of their Europa Conference League group.

Scamacca, a £30.5million summer signing from Serie A side Sassuolo, scored his first Premier League goal for the Hammers in Saturday’s crucial victory over Wolves.

He returned to the bench as Moyes heavily rotated his starting XI for the trip to Belgium, but was sent on as the visitors pushed for all three points late and broke the deadlock with a superb turn and finish 11 minutes from time to earn a 1-0 victory.

The strike was the 23-year-old’s fourth in five games in Europe this term, having initially had to use the Conference League for opportunities while playing second fiddle to Michail Antonio on the domestic front. Now, though, Scamacca appears to be Moyes’ main man.

"When he came on he helped us,” Moyes said. “The players who started did a good job apart from the final third so Gianluca got that opportunity and hit the target with it and got it in the corner. It was really important.

“I want strikers who are competitive against each other and that will score. At the moment, Gianluca is the one who is getting the moments and getting the goals. He is getting one or two opportunities in a game and he is taking them. We really need it as our goal numbers are not as good as they should be. We have scored three in the other games and tonight we should have scored three as well but we didn’t. Gianluca came on and got that important goal.”

Scamacca’s introduction was part of a triple substitution on 70 minutes, Moyes flexing his new-found depth as star midfielder Declan Rice and club-record signing Lucas Paqueta also entered the fray having been rested from the start.

“It was like bringing on three star acts,” Moyes added. “We’re still getting used to Gianluca and Paqueta, but you could see right away the lift we got.

“We kept the ball better, we were more detailed in our work. I thought we had become a little bit predictable in how we played. The boys made a difference."