OPINION
West Ham fans must worry about their side carelessly dropping points in December after Manuel Pellegrini shared his concern about right-back Pablo Zabaleta.
The Hammers boss took a very honest approach when conducting his press conference on Thursday as he admitted that the position of right-back would be a problem over the packed festive season.
Pellegrini stated twice what a serious issue Ryan Fredericks’ injury had caused him as he shared that he didn’t believe Zabaleta would be able to cope with the games coming thick and fast at him in December.
“Unfortunately we have just one right full back that is Pablo Zableta,” said Hammers boss, as transcribed by Football.London.
“For Pablo, for his age it is impossibly for him to play seven games in December so we need to see what we are going to do in that position.
“Fredericks, that’s why we brought him in to help Pablo so to be without him is a very serious thing for our defence.
“First we have to win at Newcastle with Pablo and then we need to work out what we are going to do. Maybe with different players but we need someone to replace Pablo because I repeat, he cannot play seven games in December.”
Pellegrini is right to be concerned that his 33-year-old full-back won’t be able to deal with playing seven games in quick succession in the coming month.
While Zabaleta’s displays have defied his age this season and in his 2017/18 campaign, it seems extremely unlike he can maintain a high level of performance while featuring that regularly.
With Fredericks out injured, there’s no obvious choice for Pellegrini to call upon with perhaps Michail Antonio being his most likely point of call.
However the 28-year-old is clearly more suited to playing further up the field and hasn’t exactly wowed anyone this season with his displays.
If Antonio is given the nod it would mean that Pellegrini would probably end up with two attacking-minded full-backs with defensive vulnerabilities playing on either flank in December.
Both his current left-back options Aaron Cresswell and Arthur Masuaku are better going forward than they are at defending and this means that teams will be able to expose both flanks when facing a Zabaleta-less Hammers in December.
This will cause the club to carelessly drop points in games where they could get something and could see Pellegrini have to work fast in January to find a solution to stop the rot.
