da wazamba： West Ham United were left to rue what might have been as David Moyes’ side slipped to a 1-0 defeat away to Liverpool on Wednesday evening, with the Hammers squandering notable missed opportunities as they continued their miserable record at Anfield.
da bet7： The visitors had gone into the match having won just one of their past 49 meetings with the Reds on the road – with that solitary triumph coming back in December 2015 – with it looking set to be more of the same as Darwin Nunez headed home early on.
The east Londoners did, however, have a perfect chance to drag themselves level just before the break only for Jarrod Bowen to see his spot-kick comfortably saved by opposition stopper, Alisson, while midfield maestro Tomas Soucek saw his late effort somehow denied by a brilliant block from the evergreen veteran, James Milner.
As it proved, it was ultimately a tale of frustration for the London Stadium outfit as Jurgen Klopp’s side claimed all three points after what was a hard-fought encounter, with the Irons now languishing in 13th after a mixed start to the new campaign.
One figure who notably underwhelmed on the night for the away side was summer signing Gianluca Scamacca, with the Italy international – who joined from Sassuolo on a £35.5m deal in the recent window – having been particularly anonymous in his centre-forward berth.
That lack of impact is best illustrated by the fact that the 23-year-old made a measly tally of just 17 touches in his 90-minute outing – 26 fewer than teammate Lukasz Fabianski between the sticks – while squandering possession on eight occasions as he failed to make the most of his rare involvement in the game.
The 6 foot 5 powerhouse also recorded just three passes and won only one of his five total duels, with the nine-cap marksman’s evening having been somewhat epitomised as he wasted a potential opening in the closing stages, lashing his strike high and wide from the angle.
The £27m-rated brute has enjoyed an encouraging start to life in English football thus far – having scored two goals in his past three league outings heading into last night’s clash – although was unable to showcase his quality against the Merseyside outfit, with his match rating of 6.4, as per SofaScore, the joint-worst on the day among his teammates.
Such a limp showing also saw Scamacca criticised by the Evening Standard’s Malik Ouzia, who awarded the towering striker a measly 4/10 match rating, while writing that the one-time Genoa man ‘barely had a kick’ against the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez.
With a meeting with newly-promoted Bournemouth up next for Moyes and co on Monday, the former Everton boss will likely be hoping that his new acquisition can take on a more prominent role against the Cherries, having been simply anonymous last night.