The general feeling appears to suggest that Nayef Aguerd could find himself on the bench this afternoon with Konstantinos Mavropanos taking his position alongside Kurt Zouma at central defence.
The Guardian’s well informed Jacob Steinberg is the latest Hammers correspondent to suggest the David Moyes may be ready to rest his £30 million signing from Rennes.
Good on the ball yes but too many errors – the latest which saw him trip Mo Salah in the box for a Liverpool penalty- are becoming a real issue.
Moyes had expressed his disappointment with the central defender after the City game claiming that his missed header allowed the goal which all but killed us off.
Steinberg isn’t the first to call for the player’s likely absence this afternoon as Claret and Hugh has called for the same.
Mistakes are so very costly in the Premier League – teams are punished nearly every time – and Mavropanos staked his claim in the Europa League game against TSC and Carabao Cup match against Lincoln City.
Steinberg writes: “Nayef Aguerd has to improve when it comes to the basics.
The defender is comfortable on the ball and exhibits impressive recovery speed but he has made too many errors since joining West Ham in the summer of 2022. David Moyes’s patience must be wearing thin.
“It is not good enough from a player who cost £30m and it could lead to him being dropped.”
I can appreciate people having different opinions but when people criticise a player like aguerd its just shows a lack of understanding whats goning on. The problem is the protection in front of the 2 CBs or should i say the lack of it or should i say Soucek. He is too slow and its so easy to play through him. He is the problem but when people accuse aguerd it is showing a compkete lack of understanding of the game.
Utter nonsense. I haven’t seen Soucek give away three pens this season or be responsible for Aguerd doing so