OPINION
Manuel Pellegrini will surely charge into the January transfer window to address West Ham’s lack of depth after confessing he is concerned about the club’s injury list.
The Hammers manager was asked whether he was worried after he didn’t have midfielder Pedro Obiang to call upon for the clash with Tottenham due to injury, given that Jack Wilshere and Carlos Sanchez are already rooted to the sidelines.
“Am I concerned? Yes of course, we have four players with long injuries in this moment and everyone knows that December maybe is the worst month of the Premier League,” Pellegrini said, as quoted by the London Evening Standard.
“We don’t have any options to recover, Pedro Obiang I think will be ready, so we will need to be ready to work with the players that we have in this moment.”
While Pellegrini delivered a positive update on Obiang, that should be celebrated as he was missed against Spurs, his comments reflect that he clearly doesn’t feel he has enough options.
The manager is right to have that feeling at least where his midfield is concerned as with Obiang out of action, it means the only players who he could really play at central midfield are Mark Noble, Declan Rice and perhaps a push Pablo Zabaleta.
Given that two of those options don’t have bags of pace and could be exposed by the Hammers’ opponents then it paints a worrying picture.
Wilshere isn’t due to back until November, as reported by Sky Sports , and then who knows how long he can stay fit given his record and Sanchez is thought, as stated by the Daily Mail, to be out for a significant amount of time.
This means that Pellegrini will still harbour his concern about his Hammers squad even if they make it through the tough December period and this will see him quickly dive into the January transfer market as soon as the window opens to ease his concern.
The Hammers boss knows he needs more options in central midfielder, especially ones who can provide a bit of mobility, and the only way he is going to get them is by getting the club to splash some cash.
