West Ham manager, David Moyes has explain why he substitute Nigerian born teenager, Ademipo Odubeko during their 1-0 defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford on Tuesday night FA cup fifth round clashed.
The teenager was summoned from bench and made only his second senior appearance when he was introduced nine minutes into the second half at Old Trafford last night.
Ademipo Odubeko, who made his debut in the third round victory over Stockport last month, appearing as a late substitute, was brought on in place of the injured Andriy Yarmolenko when the tie was still poised at 0-0.
The Hammers were able to force extra-time, but fell behind in the 97th minute to what ultimately proved to be the decisive goal from Scott McTominay.
Teenage Ademipo Odubeko appeared to crestfalled on the bench having suffered the ignominy of having been substituted, but Moyes revealed afterwards he was pleased to give the teenager the experience of such a big occasion.
Explaining his decision, Moyes said: ‘He played a long time in the game but I had an experienced player in Manuel Lanzini who I was trying to get into the side tonight and as the game went on and with the substitutions, I just did not have the opportunity to do so earlier. ‘I am pleased the young player [Odubeko] got some minutes.’
On his side’s overall performance, Moyes added: ‘I am really pleased with the performance the players put in. I wasn’t pleased in the first-half because I didn’t think we played well enough and we gave Manchester United too much respect and stayed off them.
‘But the injuries forced us into a change and the changes helped us at half-time, I thought we played much better after that. I am coming away from Old Trafford disappointed that we didn’t at least get a chance to go to penalty kicks as I thought we warranted that.’
