Jamie Carragher is a big fan of Vladimir Coufal but the former England defender was critical of the right-back's performance against Leicester City on Sunday afternoon.
Coufal was substituted after 67 minutes with Ryan Fredericks brought on to counter the threat of Harvey Barnes on the Foxes left-wing. Barnes' influence in the game grew as it progressed and the 24-year-old was causing Coufal a number of problems.
Coufal impressed Carragher to such an extent in his debut campaign in England that the pundit named the Czech Republic international in his team of the season. However, the former Liverpool defender was less than impressed with his display at the King Power Stadium.
"Coufal had a really poor second-half, it was the right decision to bring him off," Carragher said on Sky Sports. "Whether it was tiredness or fear because of what Harvey Barnes had done to him throughout the game, I don’t know."
Following the match football.london asked David Moyes what his thinking was in taking Coufal off midway through the second half.
"I thought we had real problems in the second half down their left/our right," Moyes explained.
"I think we gave them a lift up in the first half a little bit but in the second period they had too much of the ball in that area and we did not deal well enough with it and made the wrong decisions and wrong choices positionally wise and I needed to try and change the way the game was going certainly on that side of the pitch."
On the opposite flank, Aaron Cresswell was also having a difficult afternoon with the left-back guilty of conceding a first-half penalty and by being beaten too easily in the air for the Foxes second goal.
When asked if he had considered replacing the defender Moyes said: "Well, I think Aaron might have come into that category as well."
With both full-backs suffering difficult afternoons all eyes will be West Ham's teamsheet next weekend when the Hammers host Newcastle to see if the manager retains his faith in the pair. Ryan Fredericks replaced Coufal on Sunday and Ben Johnson was also included in the matchday squad and both men will be pushing for starts against the Magpies.
