Martin Keown believes Jarrod Bowen and Said Benrahma are ‘not producing’ at West Ham United so far this term. He also feels Gianluca Scamacca and Lucas Paqueta are yet fit in.
Irons boss David Moyes spent big to bring Scamacca and Paqueta to the London Stadium in 2022. The Hammers paid Serie A side Sassuolo £30.5m to sign their striker to compete with Michail Antonio. Moyes paid Ligue 1 giants Lyon a club-record £51m for the midfielder.
Paqueta has so far started 11 of his 12 Premier League appearances in claret-and-blue this term. But the 25-year-old has only offered one goal and two assists during his 934 minutes on the field. While Scamacca has three goals in 16 appearances, 11 starts, for 920 minutes.
Only captain Declan Rice (1,710) has played more minutes in the Premier League this term for West Ham than Bowen (1,703), meanwhile. But the 26-year-old only has two goals and registered one assist during his 19 appearances. He has started in all of their games so far.
Benrahma, on the other hand, is West Ham’s top goalscorer in the top-flight this term with three. Yet the Algerian has only started in nine of his 17 appearances for 970 minutes – the ninth most by any Irons player. Paqueta has played the 11th and Scamacca the 12th most.
Keown urges Bowen and Benrahma to step up for West Ham and Moyes
Moyes must be desperate to get Bowen back to the levels the West Ham manager coaxed from the forward last season. The Leominster-born dynamo earned his England debut last June after scoring 12 and creating 12 goals in 36 Premier League games for 2,993 minutes.
But after having a hand in 24 goals, Bowen has only influenced three this season in around half the minutes. He also scored his two goals for the term thus far in back-to-back fixtures with Wolves and Fulham on October 1 and 9. The winger is now 10 games without scoring.
So, Keown has namedropped Bowen plus Benrahma as two West Ham players who are not producing for Moyes. He also feels the Hammers boss struggles to extract the most out of Paqueta and Scamacca as the Brazil and Italy internationals have not suited their system.
“I’ve watched them, they’re good players [but] it’s another step up,” he said on talkSPORT. “To think that West Ham are even in the running for those players five years ago is a miracle. They’re not quite fitting into the way that West Ham used to play.
“The likes of Bowen and Benrahma are not producing right now and it’s a difficult time. What I’m calling for is for West Ham fans to stick with their players. I don’t think that David Moyes is a million miles from getting it right.”
Moyes is facing a fight to remain in charge of West Ham with the Hammers now battling to avoid relegation. The Telegraph claims the Irons are exploring short and long-term options to replace the Scot. West Ham sit 18th in the table after 19 games on just 15 of 57 points.
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