For many West Ham United fans, Emerson Palmieri was the Irons’ standout performer in the 2023 UEFA Europa Conference League final victory over Fiorentina.
And the Italian has picked up this season where he left off in Prague, with his influential play from left-back contributing greatly to West Ham’s wins over Chelsea, Brighton & Hove Albion, Sheffield United and Arsenal, while he also registered an outstanding assist for Tomáš Souček in the home draw with Newcastle United.
Defensively, of the 28 times an opposition player has tried to dribble past the No33, he has won the ball on 23 occasions, while his willingness to carry the ball forward and combination play with Lucas Paquetá have been a feature of the Hammers’ attacking play.
Put in simple terms, when Emerson plays well, West Ham play well – and manager David Moyes is delighted with the consistent contribution the 29-year-old is making to his team.
“I think he's come on brilliantly well,” Moyes told whufc.com. “Probably since the final or just before it, he was beginning to find a bit of form and the I think in the final he was probably the best player on the pitch. He was Man of the March – Jarrod was with the goal, but with the way Emo played.
“I think he's played really well for us. He's got a really good connection with Lucas Paquetá which gives us something in there's been a bit of development in that.
“I think Emo has done really well. I think he's been consistent and steady and wouldn't get mentioned at the moment because there's a lot of mention of Paquetá or Mo [Kudus] or Jared, but I think Emerson is probably playing as well as anybody.”
Another player who has impressed his manager is Konstantinos Mavropanos, whose ability to carry the ball and distribute it accurately from centre-back, as well as his defensive abilities, have added depth to a part of the squad Moyes identified as needing strengthening in the summer.
“We needed more centre-backs, because we had a problem last year which gave us a real worry at the start the season when all our centre-backs were injured, and we probably slipped behind because we didn't have any centre-backs,” he observed. “With Kurt [Zouma] being injured, I've got to say Dinos is come, steadied himself and done really well in the games, so we've been pleased with Dinos and he’s settled in really well.”
While Emerson and Mavropanos have hundreds of senior games and dozens of international caps under their belts, Divin Mubama is a player who is nearer to the start of his own career.
The 19-year-old appeared as a substitute in Thursday’s UEFA Europa League Group A win over Olympiacos – his third first-team appearance of the season – and is hoping for more opportunities. Moyes knows Mubama is eager to impress, but also knows how young players need to be introduced at the correct time.
“We really like Divin, he's an East End boy, he's a West Ham supporter, he’s a great lad and we love him to bits and I feel the best thing for Divin would be to just sign a contract and be at West Ham,” the manager observed, referring to the fact the teenager’s current deal ends in June 2024.
“He's got competition in front of him, but he's only young. To be a 19-year-old center forward in the Premier League, you wouldn't name many of them, that's for sure, so he's doing really well, he’s coming on, he's involved with England, so we're like him a lot. If I could have got him more opportunities, I will do, but again, as I said he's a 19-year-old centre-forward and not many of them play too many games in the Premier League.”
Moyes has historically been willing to give debuts to teenagers, doing so with the likes of Jack Rodwell and Ross Barkley at Everton, Adnan Januzaj at Manchester United and Grady Diangana, Jeremy Ngakia and Mubama himself at West Ham.
Academy graduates such as Diangana, Ngakia, Harrison Ashby and Sonny Perkins have since departed, and the Scot suggested that sometimes young players should give the clubs which developed them a little more time to work them into the senior setup.
“When I go back, I remind people I’ve given 16-year-olds debuts in the Premier League, but nowadays very few 18-year-olds are playing around the Premier League,” he observed. “My feeling is the average of players getting a chance in the first team is probably around 21.
“So, what happens now is a lot of them do get impatient but, more importantly, the bigger problem is that their agents want to take them away and get them games elsewhere or do something else and so many of them are making the wrong decisions. A few boys have left here who I think have incredibly made the wrong decision. They're in a great environment here.
“As a manager at this Club, I want to play young players and if they perform they get in. We’re a football club who wants to put young players in and in the main we don't have huge, big squads and are not buying all the time to do that.
“The last few years I think we've tried to play our young players in European football, tried to get them on the bench and get them involved in European games. We played half-a-dozen of them against Dinamo Zagreb at home two years ago and played a few of them away in Bucharest last season, so I think there are a few players who left here who made big mistakes.
“It’s a bigger subject about so few younger players breaking into first teams at 18 years old.”
