Zabaleta contract shows West Ham want targeted approach in summer
With Pablo Zabaleta signing for another year, West Ham fans should be excited. It opens the door for a summer looking at key positions, not a scattergun approach.
West Ham have made progress this year, at least in my opinion, and the squad is a few key positions away from really challenging towards the top of the table. And with Zabaleta signing for another year, it allows the club to really focus elsewhere in the summer.
As Adam Smith put in the previous article, it does reveal a lot. With Wilshere also set to be given a year, the Hammers are going to be focusing on a few key positions in the transfer window, funded by players leaving as well. What we should be looking at in August is a much more purposeful squad, with three positions improved significantly.
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Left Back
For me this is the final part of the defensive puzzle. We have two solid centrebacks (who could do with one more backup defender) and two solid rightbacks. At left back we have two players whose form graphs look like my heart monitor when an opposition winger runs at them. Masuaku is versatile as a left winger as well, and Cresswell has had great moments in Claret and Blue. However they let down the defence overall and a top class left back is necessary if we want to make any progress.
Winger/Striker
Whatever happens with Arnautovic it looks as though we are going to be losing Hernandez and Perez in the summer. Both want to be playing football in Spain and it leaves us short of quality options up top. However I think that Antonio should be played more as a striker than a winger going forward, and with that in mind another versatile creative player would bolster our options if we were to suffer long injuries to Anderson or Yarmolenko. I like Diangana and Snodgrass, but I don’t think they’re quality enough to play an entire season and lift West Ham. At least not yet for Diangana.
Box-to-box Midfielder
One key aspect of our game that is missing is a dominating midfielder that can bridge the gap between the solidarity of Rice and the ball playing of Lanzini. Wilshere could play in that role but we can’t be sure of his fitness and Noble doesn’t have it in him to play there and take games to weaker teams. He’s perfect for big matches because he gels the team and brings everyone into it, but something else is needed in my opinion.
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Re-signing Zabaleta allows us to focus on these positions rather than scrabling around for a backup right back as well. Add that to the fact he’s a wonderful person to have around and a great example of a professional to the the younger players and this has all the signs of a great off-season for the Hammers.