.West Ham United took on Freiburg in the first-leg of the Europa League last-16 tie out in Germany tonight.
The Europa League tie with Freiburg was a cagey one, and West Ham played it fairly safe, offering Freiburg far too much respect in my opinion.
David Moyes clearly set up his team to be cautious, and we head back to the London Stadium with a big task on our hands now.
There were a lot of solid performances from the Hammers, but one man stood out as our worst player on the night. In fact, he absolutely stunk out the place against Freiburg.
Kurt Zouma was absolutely horrendous, as he has been in pretty much every game since the turn of the year
The West Ham club captain has become a liability unfortunately, and he is a disaster waiting to happen every single time he takes to the pitch now…
West Ham liability stunk out the place vs Freiburg
Moyes now faces the very real possibility of having to drop his captain. Why on earth he made the injury prone Frenchman skipper at the start of the season is anyone’s guess.
However, Moyes has made his bed and now he has to lie in it. If the Hammers are to enjoy any kind of success whatsoever this season, I truly believe that Zouma needs to be taken out of the firing line, otherwise he’ll end up costing us too many points in the Premier League and potentially could prevent us from progressing in Europe.
Zouma can barely run, in fact he struggles to walk properly without looking awkward. His body shape when defending is all wrong and the same can be said when he tries to pass the football.
Everything he does looks like it requires a monumental effort, and it shouldn’t be that way for a 29-year-old professional athlete supposedly at the top of his game and in the prime of his career.
Tonight, Zouma misplaced pass, after pass, after pass, and continuously put his teammates under pressure. The Frenchman is shot to bits physically, it’s so obvious to see, and the most concerning thing is that the centre-back has now become a target for our opponents, week in week out.
It’s time that Moyes dropped the 29-year-old as a matter of urgency now. He was so poor for West Ham against Freiburg and in the end, he and his team were punished by the Germans.
