Gianluca Scamacca: That's not him.

The scrutiny surrounding Scamacca's first season has led to a deep amalgamation of question marks. A piece on how the transfer from Dionisi-ball to Moyes-ball has been rough, and what might be next.

English elation and Italian imbroglio. Those were the emotions surrounding Gianluca Scamacca’s move to West Ham in the summer of 2022.

It was one of the most significant moves of the summer in the Premier League. The fierce, 6’5, tattooed giant, who had been subject of interest from Inter Milan and PSG, was going to East London. To West Ham. Another example of the Premier League claiming superiority over other major leagues.

In Italy, Scamacca is subject to high expectations. Perhaps, after failing to qualify for the 2022 World Cup, the EURO 2020 winners needed a transition. With the likes of Lorenzo Insigne and Ciro Immobile nearing the end of their careers, the Italians needed a breath of fresh air. They needed to find their new talisman; their new Del Piero or Baggio.

Though there is a slight difference in height between Scamacca and the other two, many believed it could be him. A unique character - one you wouldn’t consider approachable upon first glance - with his abundance of tattoos and towering stature, his cold stare that showed no emotion the majority of the time. Alongside his difference in character, his difference in player profile in comparison to the historically great Italians is a major one, too. Scamacca possesses a high leap on top of his colossal height, crisp precision with the use of both his head and his feet, and largely impressive ability with his back-to-goal play.

What excites people most about Scamacca’s profile, though, is his venomous ball striking attributes. It’s not often that such technique comes around in football. West Ham certainly haven’t seen someone hit a ball, out of what looks like sheer inexorable anger, since Marko Arnautović, and it’s fair to say that Scamacca’s shot power surpasses the Austrian’s. Scamacca hits a ball like a bullet being released from a gun: fast, direct, and pretty painful if you were to get in the way of it. Declan Rice once said, roughly 2 months into Scamacca’s tenure at West Ham, that the Italian “had scored like 20 worldies since he joined.” It shows in his actual goal catalogue, too.

However, Scamacca’s first season in England is drawing to a close, and the general consensus is that it has not been the success many thought it would be. He’s scored some very good goals, and glimpses of his potential have emerged very occasionally. But he’s not scored enough goals, particularly when you acknowledge the price West Ham paid for him.

This is partially down to injuries, for starters. Scamacca only made 16 out of a possible 38 appearances in the Premier League, playing just 928 out of a possible 3,420 minutes. Whilst that is a very limited amount of time in the grand scheme of things, Scamacca only managed 3 goals in that time. The Italian had a slightly better time in the UEFA Europa Conference League, managing 3 goals in 7 appearances, with just 3 starts to his name.

The noticeable aspect of Scamacca’s record is that it still is not ideal with the amount of minutes played. That, according to his own teammate Michail Antonio, is due to a difference between the style that suits Scamacca, and the style that David Moyes has been using at West Ham.

“The problem is that he can’t play the way the gaffer plays. He needs a different type of manager to play his type of football. He needs players to come off him - the ball comes into him, it sticks, he’s tidy. How David Moyes plays is more being up front and dealing with scraps, being a fighter, and that’s not him.” - Michail Antonio on the Filthy Fellas Podcast.

The style of football that David Moyes plays differs, almost contrasts, the style that was deployed by Alessio Dionisi during Scamacca’s breakthrough season at Sassuolo in 2021/22. Michail Antonio also pointed out on the Filthy Fellas Podcast that Moyes had tried to implement the style that was meant to suit Scamacca, but it didn’t work for the rest of the team. In turn, Moyes reverted back to his old ways.

Moyes’ “old ways” involve soaking up pressure and hitting opponents on the counter attack. This, like Antonio said, leaves scraps for whoever is up front in this system, and requires the striker to fight for absolutely everything and do a lot of the attacking play on his own. Scamacca, whilst he has excellent back-to-goal ability and decent strength and pace, does not fit the mould as well as Michail Antonio does.

Comparatively, Alessio Dionisi played a style of football that focused more on attacking, and not only does his high press demonstrate this, but his Sassuolo side averaged 56% possession in the 2021/22 season - an already significant difference to West Ham, who averaged just 41.4% possession in the 2022/23 season. Sassuolo, for reference, also implement the 4-2-3-1 formation, much like West Ham (though West Ham have moved more to a 4-3-3 whilst Scamacca has been out with injury).

Dionisi’s Sassuolo, as stated, are very attack-focused. They rely heavily on overloading the final third in attack, providing multiple options up front. This, combined with high possession, allowed a high volume of chance creation for Scamacca, Berardi and Raspadori in particular. When they aren’t overloading the final third, Scamacca was able to run through the channels effectively over relatively short distances, getting onto the end of through balls played by the likes of Berardi in a quick transition from defensive third to final third via the full-backs and wingers.

A prime example of this was Scamacca’s goal against Cagliari Calcio last season. Berardi received the ball with his back to goal, and curved a precise, threaded pass into Scamacca’s path, who ran through the channel between the two centre backs and unleashed a low driven strike past Alessio Cragno.

Scamacca celebrates vs Cagliari in November 2021

The problem with moving from Dionisi to Moyes, is that Moyes requires his centre-forward to not only occupy multiple defenders at once due to no attacking overload, but to outpace defenses over almost entire halves of a football pitch with little to no support. Bowen and Benrahma will join the attack eventually, but Scamacca has rarely held the ball for long enough to play into them. It is also why he bonded so closely with Lucas Paqueta in the little stint that saw the pair combine with large quality in the first half of the season before the Brazilian got injured against Southampton.

The reason Antonio succeeds in this system (well, more so than Scamacca) is his abundance of pace and strength, which do in fact give him the ability to occupy multiple defenders at once, whilst also running in behind over large distances.

Ultimately, Antonio is right. Scamacca is not a fighter, and he does not like to feed off scraps. He thrives in a final third overload and highly possessive system. It remains to be seen if Moyes will attempt to move to the more advanced style he attempted in the early stages of 2022/23, and it may also be heavily dependent on who the Hammers sign in the summer.

There is also the chance Scamacca leaves though, and whilst many won’t want that to be the case, he could still be in for a move to a higher-end team, one who appreciates the fact that Scamacca only suits a certain style. Perhaps Manchester United, or an Italian giant such as AC or Inter Milan.

West Ham will need to change their ideology if they want any chance of success with the Italian. They have some players to do it, but not all, and should this not change, Scamacca won’t be wanting to waste many more years of his career at a club that effectively would not suit him in the slightest.