West Ham manager David Moyes appears to have lost faith in Thilo Kehrer, the club’s summer signing, as he made comments indicating his concerns with the defensive situation.
Despite a promising progress in the previous game, West Ham’s recent performance has been characterized by woeful defending, most notably from Nayef Aguerd, who was at fault for all three of Manchester United’s goals in their recent cup match. Aguerd, who has been compared to high-end cars like Rolls Royces and Ferraris, struggled to adjust to playing as a right-sided center-back alongside Angelo Ogbonna.
Moyes admitted that he had anticipated Aguerd’s struggles in adapting to English football. However, Moyes expressed reluctance to play Kehrer, a German international, as he has been considered a liability by some PSG fans.
With Premier League survival at stake, Moyes aims to protect first-choice center-backs Aguerd and Ogbonna until Kurt Zouma’s return, as he is not comfortable playing two left-footed center-backs together.
The fact that Moyes feels compelled to play Aguerd and Ogbonna when Kehrer is fit and ready is a serious indictment. This suggests that he has completely lost confidence in Kehrer, and as we have seen with players like Nikola Vlasic, once Moyes has lost faith in a player, he tends to move them on at the earliest opportunity.
Moyes said (via football.london):
“Our biggest problem and our need to change was because of a lack of central defenders. We are playing two left footers at the moment, quite often teams will play two right footers, but it is more of a rarity to see two left footers. While we are waiting on Kurt Zouma coming back and Daws left in the window, it’s just meant we’ve just been a little bit short there.”