West Ham boss David Moyes on Michail Antonio: "I don't think he is at full tilt at the moment, I think he is doing well, but I know there are another couple of gears for him to go into. I think he is protecting himself slightly at the minute."
Monday 18 January 2021 23:24, UK
David Moyes has warned that Michail Antonio is not yet firing on all cylinders as the striker prepares to go up against former boss Sam Allardyce.
Antonio scored his first goal since returning from injury in Saturday's 1-0 win over Burnley and will lead the line once more against West Brom on Tuesday night.
The reunion with ex-Hammers manager Allardyce will be Antonio's third game in eight days, despite the concerns over his fitness, as the 30-year-old is West Ham's only recognised forward.
Moyes, therefore, remains in the market for another striker to ease some of the burden on Antonio's fragile hamstrings.
Moyes said: "It is really difficult for us at the moment. Although I think if anything Mick has been managing himself in the games well.
"I don't think he is at full tilt at the moment, I think he is doing well, but I know there are another couple of gears for him to go into.
"I think he is protecting himself slightly at the minute, but he is an important part of the team for us, as you saw with his goal on Saturday.
"He got us the result, so we have got to be careful with him, but we also want to win games and we want to keep moving forward, so we will try and get Micky ready for the game."
Despite his desire to bring in a back-up forward for Antonio, Moyes admits he does not want to run the risk of signing another expensive flop in the position.
In recent years Javier Hernandez, Lucas Perez, Andre Ayew, Andy Carroll and Simone Zaza have all arrived for big money and with big reputations which they failed to live up to.
Moyes admitted West Ham have bid for Sevilla striker Youssef En-Nesyri, and "knocked on the door of three of four really good players" as they search for a replacement for Sebastien Haller, who joined Ajax for £20.2m earlier in the January transfer window.
But Moyes insists he would rather rely on Antonio and his fragile hamstrings for the rest of the season than see West Ham make another costly mistake.
"What I don't want to do is I don't want to spend and waste my money, take a wage up bringing a player in, spend big money and find that actually, I've got it wrong," he added.
"I'd rather I waited and got someone who might be available in the summer.
"It's difficult to say, but maybe in the past that may well have happened and I'm trying to be correct in as much as I can do.
"You can't always be correct in what you do, we're always trying to make the right signings and not make the wrong ones.
"No manager attempts to make a bad signing but I just want to try and make sure that any money I'm spending - because we don't have a big pool of money - I'm trying to spend it wisely.
"We've bought well with the likes of Vladimir Coufal, Tomas Soucek and Jarrod Bowen. So I've got to make sure that I'm continuingly adding players of that ilk.
"Now and again we might have to go and spend big money to get somebody in, but if we can't get them then they are not available."
January can be a difficult time to do business, but Moyes admits splashing some cash this time last year played a huge part in keeping them in the Premier League.
"I think it helped us greatly last year. I am not sure we would have been a Premier League club if we hadn't done business last January," said Moyes.
"But it has never been a great window - nobody has got much time and you are not sure of players' availability.
"But if we can find somebody who we think can add to the squad and help us get better, then we are going to try and do that.
"We have had one or two offers for players either rejected or not available or the clubs want too much money in our eyes, so it is not as if we are not trying.
"If we don't get anybody in then that's the way it is going to be, but it is a transfer window and we are out there trying."
