If there’s one player at West Ham United who you can bet your life on being transferred should there be an offer, it’s Ryan Fredericks,
It was noticeable again yesterday that despite some piffle we were fed by the manager a couple of weeks back that he admired him greatly, followed by a suggestion from elsewhere that he was very slightly injured, he was again missing from the squad.
And when Vladimir Coufal was given his worst run around since arriving in the Premier League by Marcus Rashford it was young Ben Johnson who stepped in to the very uncomfortable breach and tried to cope.
He didn’t do too badly by the way.
Fredericks looks a goner and the reality is that Moyes, for all the presser chat a while back, that he was an energetic player whom he liked, has now left him out of the team for four different players – Pablo Zabaleta, Jeremy Ngakia, Johnson and Coufal.
It looks very much as though the former Fulham defender has played his last game in a Hammers shirt – what the club needs now is a buyer.
Just because he’s not been selected for a few games doesn’t make him a bad man or a lost cause. Most players have spells when they’re left waiting whilst the manager tries out others. Sell him and we’ll be then saying we need cover in his position. Keep him and we’ve already got cover.
COYI
Good point Taffyhammer – one of Moyes’ strengths is in keeping all players onside and not throwing any under the bus (Harry comes to mind for the latter) – sorry for mixed metaphors
Earlier we were told that Moyes didn’t rate Balbuena – now he is having a run in the team and performing well. Ben Johnson is certainly one for the future – so I was happy to see him get some minutes – and one of his strengths is his versatility as he can play anywhere across the back. So we still might see Fredericks needed for some games this season – our squad is not the biggest and he actually played well in his last game against Wolves before he went off injured