OPINION
West Ham must swiftly address the problems they have regarding the position of left-back in January and they must do by hijacking Wolves’ reported enquiry for Napoli defender Mario Rui.
Calcionapoli24 reported on Tuesday that Wolves had asked about the 27-year-old left-back, only to be told no, but given he would solve a major issue with the Hammers’ current first-team options Manuel Pellegrini should try his luck.
Current first-choice left-back Arthur Masuaku put in a much better performance during the 1-1 draw with Leicester City recently but that the rest of his displays have been disappointing.
The DR Congo international has regularly been a liability for the Hammers this season, arguably costing them points in the clash with Brighton, and it’s clear he’d more suited to being played as a left-winger.
The only left-back that Pellegrini has available to him is Aaron Cresswell and it seems that he is as defensively unreliable as Masuaku.
Given that the position of left-back is currently a costly weakness for the Hammers, a swoop for Rui would stop that being the case.
The 27-year-old has played over 100 times in Serie A and is a left-back whose defensive side of his game is basically as good as the attacking part.
Rui is an excellent tackler, rarely caught out of position, adept at shielding the ball in order to hold to it and has very good passing ability which sees him able to aid his side going forward.
The left-back also has Champions League experience, has has played in the tournament three times this season, and could be a defender who played vital part in helping the Hammers eventually move to the next level under Pellegrini.
Therefore the Hammers must swiftly address their problem at left-back in January by hijacking Wolves’ enquiry for Rui and go one further by actually getting Napoli to agree to sell the player to them.
