Joe Cole has given his advice on what big-money summer signing Gianluca Scamacca needs to do after a difficult start with West Ham United.
The Italian striker has struggled to hit the ground running with the Irons after his £33.5million move from Sassuolo. Scamacca has scored two goals so far, but both came in the Europa Conference League qualifier against Danish side Viborg.
He is yet to find the back of the net after four appearances in the Premier League and missed a number of chances in Thursday night’s 3-1 win against FCSB. West Ham found themselves 1-0 down at half-time against the Romanian side, but fought back in the second-half thanks to a Jarrod Bowen penalty and goals from Emerson and Michail Antonio.
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Scamacca had been absent for Premier League fixtures against Tottenham and Chelsea recently due to illness. But former Hammers striker Carlton Cole believes a player of Scamacca ‘s quality should have buried his chances on Thursday night.
With BT Sport at half-time, Cole said: “We know he’s new. We know how hard it is for a new player. He’s had a couple of weeks off through illness as well so he’s obviously not as sharp as he wants to be but he’s got to put some of these [away].
“This is like some of the basic stuff. I’m not saying I was the greatest at it, but I’m expecting for a player of his ilk to be putting that ball in the back of the net, or at least on target.”
Joe Cole also gave his verdict on Scamacca, referring back to the last time West Ham spent big on a striker. Sebastian Haller joined the Irons in 2019 from Eintracht Frankfurt in a deal worth around £45million, but the Ivory Coast international managed just 14 goals in 54 appearances for West Ham.
Joe Cole added: “He [Scamacca] is just snatching at his chances at the moment, and that’s not helping him, and it might not help his confidence. He looks anxious doesn’t he as a striker?
“We’ve seen it with a great player, top player, Haller, when he came in. He never settled and you don’t want that for Scamacca, so he needs to just slow himself down and calm himself down.”
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