West Ham United: Gianluca Scamacca favourite to start up front for Italy v England – Sky Sports
West Ham striker Gianluca Scamacca is the favourite to start up front for Italy when they face off against England on Thursday (23 March), according to Sky Italia.
The Hammers forward has managed just eight goals for the club since his £35m move from Sassuolo in the summer, with David Moyes criticising his work rate in recent weeks.
But despite his struggles recently with form and fitness though, Scamacca is set to start for the national team when they face off against England in a Euro 2024 qualifier according to a fresh report.
“In the department where Mancini complained the most about the lack of eligible players to select, the ballot regards Scamacca and Retegui,” they wrote.
“The first, who has been in the national team for some time now, seems to be the favorite over the second, the big news of this round of call-ups.”
Emerson is expected to start on the bench after being a late call-up to the squad, while Declan Rice is expected to start for England in midfield.
Confidence
Scamacca is quite obviously a supremely talented footballer and that has shown on countless occasions in a West Ham shirt too.
His biggest problem this season is that the team around him has been struggling massively and he is a striker who needs service to make things happen.
Fitness issues haven’t helped and the arrival of Danny Ings has made it harder, but after scoring against AEK Larneca before the international break this could be the type of confidence booster he needs.
Getting more minutes and sharpness under his belt against defenders he is likely to come up against for the remainder of this season is important and can only be a good thing for West Ham.
Hopefully now he can get a goal or two as well to come back to us brimming with confidence and start scoring the goals we know he’s capable of scoring to fire us out of trouble and keep us in the Premier League.