West Ham boss David Moyes has played down the hype around Nayef Aguerd, after the centre-back made his competitive debut for the club.
Moyes brought Aguerd to the London Stadium from Rennes for around £30 million in the summer transfer window (BBC).
However, the 26-year-old injured his ankle during a pre-season friendly against Rangers back in July, and subsequently underwent surgery.
Aguerd is a real talent, and it was so good to see him out there playing last night against Silkeborg at the London Stadium.
Sure, the quality of opposition was poor, but don’t let that distract from just how good the 26-year-old centre-back was on the night.
In spite of that, Moyes seems to have played down the hype around Aguerd potentially playing some Premier League football soon…
Nayef Aguerd hype played down by Moyes
The Scot addressed the media after the Hammers beat Silkeborg 1-0 in the Europa Conference League last night, and subsequently secured our place in the knock-out stages of the competition.
Aguerd was the standout performer for West Ham.
And Moyes responded when asked whether he’s ready to use the Morocco international in the Premier League, as quoted by Football.London:
He’s a really good athlete, in good shape but he still hasn’t got any match practice, hasn’t been involved in an awful lot of physicality. The game worked out very good for him, the type of game it was. He controlled the game, passed it well, got into a couple of races which he showed he’s capable of and it was a really good game for him. Hopefully that’s the start for him.
If our under-21s had been at home at the weekend then I probably would have played him in that. The idea was do we start him or do we not but we’d been a bit short of centre-halves so that actually forced my hand a little bit to start him.
He was then asked if Aguerd is ready to play Premier League football:
I’m not sure I’m ready to do that with him yet. I think that I want to give him the chance to come back. I want to put him back and I want people to see exactly what he is and I just want to be as ready as I can. Could I? I think I could. Would I? Yes, I certainly would but ideally I don’t because I think I want him to build himself up and be correct when he comes into the team.
Maybe Moyes isa just keeping his cards close to his chest.
I get that the opposition were poor last night, but Nayef Aguerd looked very fit, and surely he’ll be able to take part in one or two Premier League games before the break for the World Cup.
He looked like the real deal last night. Let’s just hope that he remains relatively injury free for the remainder of his West Ham career.
Read also:
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