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Right side, strong side; Reviewing West Ham’s fullbacks

By Adam Smith

LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 23: N'golo Kante of Chelsea battles for possession with Arthur Masuaku of West Ham United during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Chelsea FC at London Stadium on September 23, 2018 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 23: N'golo Kante of Chelsea battles for possession with Arthur Masuaku of West Ham United during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Chelsea FC at London Stadium on September 23, 2018 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images) /
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The second international break is upon us this season. While annoyingly long and interrupting a solid string of in form matches for West Ham, the international break does provide us a chance to examine each player in each position. Let’s check out the fullbacks!

In our rating system, we will be giving marks out of 10, with 5/10 for playing as expected. Whilst some newspapers and the like seem to give 6 or 7 out of 10 for an average display and may make this seem harsh, we think this makes sense. It also easily allows us here to put the players in opposite categories, for example, a 9/10 is as good as a 1/10 is bad.

Right Backs

BRIGHTON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 05: Pablo Zabaleta of West Ham United is fouled by Alireza Jahanbakhsh of Brighton and Hove Albion during the Premier League match between Brighton & Hove Albion and West Ham United at American Express Community Stadium on October 5, 2018 in Brighton, United Kingdom. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
BRIGHTON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 05: Pablo Zabaleta of West Ham United is fouled by Alireza Jahanbakhsh of Brighton and Hove Albion during the Premier League match between Brighton & Hove Albion and West Ham United at American Express Community Stadium on October 5, 2018 in Brighton, United Kingdom. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images) /

Pablo Zabaleta 8/10

Previous 5/10

Previously Zabaleta had left a lot to be desired but that was more a symptom of him not playing as much as he would have wanted. West Ham brought in Ryan Fredericks and the belief was that he was going to get every opportunity to take the starting job. After a bad start at Liverpool for Fredericks, Zabaleta started in place of him at Bournemouth to give him a break. That didn’t turn out to be a successful move and Zab was sent back to the second team to play Wimbledon.

After the unacceptable extra time loss to Wolves Zabaleta emerged as a team leader, joining Mark Noble in a necessary lambasting of the team for poor effort and performances leading into the first international break. Since then Zabaleta has started in all of West Ham’s Premier League games and been a rock on defense.

Related Story. Noble and Zabaleta, West Ham’s Golden Geezers. light

He was partially at fault for the Brighton game-winning goal, as he was committed upfield when West Ham turned over possession in midfield and was unable to get back to defend the counterattack. Other than that one mix up Zabaleta has been a star for West Ham. He’s supporting his centre-backs, providing a passing option in midfield, and overlapping with his rightwingers to join the attack. He set up Anderson’s first ever Premier League and West Ham goal on one of these runs, proving he still has a nose for the net.

Stats:

Appearances: 5
Clean sheets: 1
Tackles: 11 (73% success)
Interceptions: 8
Clearances: 20 (11 headed)
Recoveries: 20
Duels: 33-24
50/50s: 3
Aerial battles: 12-12
Assists: 1
Passes: 165 (33 avg. per game)
Crosses: 10 (30% accuracy)

LONDON, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 26: Ryan Fredericks of West Ham United scores his sides fourth goal during the Carabao Cup Third Round match between West Ham United and Macclesfield Town at The London Stadium on September 26, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 26: Ryan Fredericks of West Ham United scores his sides fourth goal during the Carabao Cup Third Round match between West Ham United and Macclesfield Town at The London Stadium on September 26, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images) /

Ryan Fredericks 5/10

Previous 4/10

Despite only playing one game since the previous break, Ryan Fredericks sees an upgrade in his grading. That comes from his one goal, one assist match against Macclesfield Town in the Carabao Cup. Fredericks didn’t look out of place in this match, as one would expect, and really came into his own attacking the Macclesfield area.

His goal was a thunderbolt from the right side that he hammered home into the top corner of the net. His assist was similar in build up as he drifted into the penalty area and then hit a short pass that found Snodgrass in stride. The ideal partnership for West Ham would be the speed of Fredericks patrolling the right side of the pitch and overlapping with Yarmolenko. But, for now, that is Zabaleta’s position and all Fredericks can do is wait for his opportunity and take it.