Paqueta tipped to start alongside Rice

ExWHUemployee has questioned David Moyes for not starting Lucas Paqueta in midfield for West Ham United alongside Declan Rice.

This summer, the Hammers spent big on bringing in the Lyon star in a club-record €60m (£51.3m) transfer but the Brazilian has yet to establish himself in the team, starting just two Premier League games so far.

In the midfield, instead, Tomas Soucek has been a trusted regular for Moyes starting all seven league matches so far. But as West Ham have struggled for form –and sit in the bottom three with just one win to their name – Ex has called for a change.

Indeed, when talking on The West Ham Way podcast, the podcaster questioned Moyes’ tactics and suggested that Paqueta would be better served alongside Rice with Pablo Fornals playing as a ten.

He said: “I can’t understand why now this season, when we’ve got players that have come in – yes, against lesser opposition, I understand that – but have came in and played well, that they’re being overlooked for players like Soucek.

“And I know [Vladimir] Coufal is slightly different because obviously [Ben] Johnson are [Harrison] Ashby are injured at the moment. But Soucek, there are options to play there. You know, Paqueta plays as a number eight, really, but he’s been playing at number 10.

“You know, that’s our record signing. You can have Rice and Paqueta, for example, in central midfield, and maybe have Fornals in the number 10.”

TIF thoughts on Lucas Paqueta and West Ham…

According to SofaScore, in his seven Premier League starts, Soucek has created no big chances, has a passing accuracy of just 79 per cent, and loses the ball 7.9 times per game on average.

1 of 15

West Ham United fans, who were these players sold to? Starting with Felipe Anderson

It’s fair to say he hasn’t exactly set the world on fire in a struggling West Ham team of late. Paqueta has only featured three times (once off the bench) so it would be unfair to compare stats from such a small sample size, but that’s part of the problem.

So far, Moyes has trusted an underperforming Soucek in the middle of the park, instead of the club-record signing who has scored goals and provided assists throughout his career.

Things aren’t going well at all for West Ham so far this season, and something needs to change. If Moyes can be bold and make the change Ex has suggested, perhaps the club’s fortunes will change for the better.