West Ham fielded as many as six homegrown players but was beaten by Dinamo Zagreb in one of the narrow football scores of the weekend in the Europa League. After having sealed the top spot in the group, Moyes took the opportunity to rest most of the squad before the busy Christmas period. Mislav Orsic scored the only goal of the game in the third minute to seal all three points.
Player ratings
West Ham: Areola (6), Ashby (6), Baptiste (5), Alese (6), Longelo (6), Noble (5), Kral (6), Fornals (5), Yarmolenko (5), Perkins (5), Vlasic (5).
Subs: Benrahma (5), Appiah-Forson, Potts (n/a).
Dinamo Zagreb: Livakovic (6), Sutalo (6), Theophile-Catherine (6), Peric (7), Ristovski (7), Ademi (6), Gojak (6), Stefulj (7), Ivanusec (7), Andric (6), Orsic (7).
Subs: Misic (5), Juric (6), Bulat (5), Dilaver (5).
Man of the match: Mislav Orsic.
Managers Reaction
West Ham manager David Moyes: “I thought they did really well. We scored a fluke against Chelsea from the same area but apart from that, I thought the young boys did really well.” he added. “It was a tough game, ideally we would not play five [young players] but we were forced into it slightly. Overall, I thought they all acquitted themselves well. At times you could see their youthfulness – but you also saw some of them out there will continue to improve and become first-team players. I am always happy to give young players a chance, but I have to be a realist and say they must earn the right to play. None of them let us down, they did a great job – but I also would like to be in a situation where I do not have so many on the pitch at one time.”
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