IT WAS A MISTAKE: David Moyes admits his error that made fans angry

West Ham: David Moyes has made massive error by not selecting Nayef Aguerd v Leverkusen

David Moyes may have made a mistake leaving defender Nayef Aguerd out of the West Ham starting line-up to face Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League on 11 April.

The Morocco centre-back returned from an injury picked up on international duty to make the bench against Wolves in the Premier League on 6 April and had been passed fit by Moyes ahead of this clash.

He’ll remain on the bench for this tie against the undefeated Schwarzgelben at the BayArena though, with Kurt Zouma and Konstantinos Mavropanos selected in the centre-back roles.

Aguerd is the highest-ranked of all West Ham’s defenders on SofaScore coming into this match, and ranks third overall in the entire squad, showing how valuable he would be to Moyes’ side as they take on Xabi Alonso’s unbeaten side.

West Ham posted on X with their full starting XI ahead of the crucial match at the BayArena, with Lukasz Fabianski between the sticks and a four-player defence in front of him.

Mavropanos and captain Zouma are joined in the back four by Vladimir Coufal and Aaron Cresswell, with usual starting left-back Emerson Palmer pushed forward into a more advanced role.

With Edson Alvarez suspended and Kalvin Phillips injured, James Ward-Prowse starts alongside Tomas Soucek in the Irons’ double pivot.

Emerson’s move into the left of an attacking three compensates for the loss to injury of Jarrod Bowen, with Mohammed Kudus on the other flank for West Ham.

Lucas Paqueta plays in the number 10 role and will provide attacking support for Michail Antonio up front, but West Ham will miss Bowen in the final third just as much as the contributions of Aguerd in defence.

In the absence of Alvarez to anchor the midfield pairing of Ward-Prowse and Soucek, Moyes’ side could be left massively exposed if hit on the break by Leverkusen, making the decision to leave out Aguerd all the more baffling.

Frank McAvennie has been one to heavily criticise Zouma and Mavropanos in recent weeks, saying their performances make two new defenders this summer a priority.

Hopefully, leaving Aguerd out again over them doesn’t come back to haunt Moyes.

In other West Ham news, a new update has emerged surrounding the Hammers’ pursuit of Brentford forward Ivan Toney this summer.