OPINION
West Ham comfortably secured a 3-1 victory over Manchester United on Saturday and it is hard to pick a fault in their performance.
However there was one weakness clearly exposed during the recent win over Man United and that came in the form of left-back Arthur Masuaku.
The 24-year-old looked defensively weak and if Man United had their attackers in tip-top form, then the Hammers would have conceded more than one goal at Saturday as Jose Mourinho would have got his players to target the left-back as his opponent’s weak-point.
Masuaku thankfully had Issa Diop, Fabian Balbuena and even 33-year-old right-back Pablo Zabaleta covering extra ground in order to mask his flaws.
It was clear that when on his own and asked to defend Masuaku was bordering on clueless, as he would often make the wrong decision and put himself in a terrible position that made life hard for himself.
However the 24-year-old is a fabulous attacking threat who when bursting forward for the Hammers can do real damage to his opponents which aids his side’s cause in the process.
If Manuel Pellegrini was to attempt to disregard Masuaku’s attacking contribution and try to play a left-back who is better defensively then he would struggle to find one at the club.
The Hammers’ second-choice left-back is Aaron Cresswell and he is just as defensively clueless as his teammate.
The 5ft 5in tall flyer (Source: Transfermarkt) hasn’t exactly looked fantastic in his three appearances so far this season and has previously proven that he isn’t the most component defender.
Just like Masuaku Cresswell is wonderful to watch going forward, due to his crossing ability, but you cannot rely on him to help his side keep a clean sheet.
Given that Cresswell has struggled in his outings so far this season isn’t a clear upgrade on Masuaku then Pellegrini must avoid changing a winning formula anytime soon in order to address the weakness at left-back.
If anything the Hammers boss should be making a note to find a capable defensive-minded player to utilise in that position in the January window.
This all means that even though the Hammers had one weakness exposed during the victory over Man United, Pellegrini must not ask Cresswell to save the day by taking Masuaku’s place in the team as he simply doesn’t have the tools to do so.
