OPINION
West Ham defender Ryan Fredericks was an unused substitute for his side during the 0-0 draw with Chelsea on Sunday and must be regretting leaving Fulham to join the club.
The pacey right-back has struggled to adapt to life in the Premier League as he has far from impressed in his three league outings this season due to sides exposing his defensive frailties.
Yet instead of being given a chance to settle into the division by being given consistent playing time, he has been the victim of Manuel Pellegrini chopping and changing his side.
Fredericks was completely left out of the squad for the games against Bournemouth and Everton, which would hardly helped him build any form of confidence or learn more about the division from playing.
The 25-year-old speed demon is also no doubt having second thoughts about joining club as Pablo Zabaleta, who has started ahead of him at right-back in the Toffees and Sunday’s clash with Chelsea, looks in tip-top form.
This was especially the case against the Blues on Sunday as despite the experienced defender not having the pace that will cause jaws to drop, he handled playing such a high-quality Premier League side with ease.
Zabaleta looked calm and comfortable when stopping his opponents to scoring and also brought leadership qualities to the table as he wasn’t afraid to bark orders as his teammates.
Given that the veteran’s decent performances tie in with the Hammers picking up positive results than he’ll likely be kept in the team ahead of Fredericks for the foreseeable future.
Aside from the obvious disappointment of not playing, Fredericks is no doubt aware that due to not being handed experience in the league, he won’t be able to improve on his performances in order to dethrone Zabaleta from the first-team.
Fredericks opted to decide to leave the Cottagers in the summer as Fulham refused to make him their highest-paid player, as reported by Football.London, but if he stayed with Slaviša Jokanović’s side he would be regularly playing.
Therefore the Hammers’ speed demon who was locked away against Chelsea by being kept on the bench must be regretting his summer decision to jump ship from Fulham as who knows how much playing time he’ll get this season.
