David Moyes has clearly lost all faith in West Ham summer signing Thilo Kehrer after revealing comments on the defensive situation.
It looked as though West Ham were on their way to another famous cup victory at Old Trafford on Wednesday night only for the Hammers to throw it all away.
Michail Antonio’s woeful finishing cost West Ham dear. But fans are well used to that from the misfiring forward with just three Premier League goals to his name all season.
What supporters have not been used to was the horrendous defending from defensive gem Nayef Aguerd.
The Moroccan has been likened to a Rolls Royce and Ferrari since establishing himself in the side following a three-month injury lay-off at the start of his West Ham career.
But during a dismal spell of defending, for which he was at fault for all three of Man United’s goals, Aguerd looked more like a clapped out Cortina.
Left-footed Aguerd was forced to play right-sided centre-back alongside another left-footer, Angelo Ogbonna, due to the continued absence of Kurt Zouma and sale of Craig Dawson.
West Ham’s manager admitted after the game that he feared Aguerd would face these kind of difficulties at some stage as he adjusts to English football.
But Moyes has clearly lost all faith in West Ham summer signing Thilo Kehrer after revealing comments on the defensive situation.
German international Kehrer was signed from PSG for £10m in the summer despite warnings from their fans that he is a liability.
Before the World Cup break Kehrer was described as ‘woeful’ by Matchday 365 who revealed he has made FIVE errors which have directly resulted in goals for the opposition since joining West Ham – the most in the Premier League.
Another error in the loss to Arsenal made that six and it is fair to say he has looked nervy and error-prone nearly every time he has featured since.
With Premier League survival at stake, Moyes would clearly want to protect first choice centre-backs Aguerd and Ogbonna until Zouma is back.
But he risked them both in the cup clash and admitted after the game he doesn’t like playing two left-footed centre-backs together.
“Our biggest problem and our need to change was because of a lack of central defenders,” Moyes told the press after the game (Football.London).
“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.”
Notice there is no mention of Kehrer, who was once again an unused sub. He is not even coming into Moyes’ thinking when he is discussing his defensive options and problems.
It is damning that the Scot feels he has no other choice but to play Aguerd and Ogbonna when Kehrer is fit and available speaks volumes.
He has clearly lost all faith in him and as we have seen with the likes of Nikola Vlasic, once that is established Moyes tends to ship a player out at the next available opportunity.