West Ham United manager David Moyes has heaped praise on summer signing Gianluca Scamacca ahead of Sunday's Premier League clash at home against Fulham.
The 23-year-old striker has been slowly integrated into Moyes's first-team plans since his arrival at the London Stadium from Sassuolo for around £35m.
Scamacca scored his first Premier League goal at the sixth time of asking when he found the net in West Ham's 2-0 win at home against Wolverhampton Wanderers last weekend.
The Italy international then came off the bench to score the winning goal to help the Hammers secure a slender 1-0 Europa League victory over Anderlecht on Thursday night, a result which keeps Moyes's men at the top of Group B with a maximum of nine points after three games.
Scamacca has now scored five goals in 11 appearances for West Ham across all competitions, and Moyes believes that the striker is showing positive signs of improvement.
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Speaking at a press conference ahead of this weekend's game against Fulham, the Scotsman said: "He's 23-year-old and a young Italian striker, playing for the first time in the Premier League. I think he's coming along really well.
"His goals give you confidence, the centre-forwards will tell you that, and I think his form is getting better. I think his fitness is something which he knows he's got more to come and to do more.
"I think it's always good when there's room for improvement and progress to be made. But he's doing a good job at the moment."
After finishing seventh in the Premier League and reaching the Europa League semi-finals last season, West Ham endured a difficult start to the new campaign, winning only three of their opening eight games in all tournaments.
The Hammers have since turned their fortunes around in recent weeks, winning four of their last five matches, but Moyes believes that there is still plenty of work to do to reach the heights of last season.
"I think we're closer to it. Are we quite there yet? No." Moyes added. "It will be a bit of an improvement to get to that. But we're getting there.
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"This team that we're moulding together at the moment might take a little time to get to that position, but we're getting there and working on it."
Moyes has also confirmed that winger Maxwel Cornet will miss Sunday's game after sustaining a calf strain in the win over Wolves.
"Maxwel isn't available for the game. We think he's got a small calf strain," said Moyes. "I don't think it's as bad as maybe we first feared, but it's still gonna keep him out for certainly a few days. Hopefully, he's back next week, but we'll need to see how he is.
"We've got a few knocks and niggles like everybody else when you're the morning after the game on a Thursday and you're getting asked the questions on a Friday.
"It's very difficult not to say that you've knocks and niggles. But hopefully, it will be okay for the time we get around to the game on Sunday."
West Ham, who are unbeaten in 11 home Premier League games against Fulham, could move into the top half of the table with a victory over the Cottagers on Sunday.
Oliver Thomas
