David Moyes needs a new central defender whether Kurt Zouma is back by the end of January or not!
He revealed in his last press conference that’s his priority right now but it could change on how quickly Zouma recovers.
As we reported earlier, the big central defender is making much quicker progress back from his knee injury than expected but we don’t believe Moyes should change his plan.
With Oggy out for the season and Issa Diop looking frail at the back, we can’t operate with just three central defenders when the manager was determined to ensure he had four after the departure of Fabian Balbuena.
And it’s become crystal clear that the Diop/Dawson partnership, whilst plugging a gap, isn’t the best with the Hammers having shipped 13 goals in the eight games since Zouma was injured.
And you have to go back to the Burnley game – who pretty well parked the bus at Turf Moor – to find our last clean sheet.
We are believed to be in for James Tarkowski at around £8 million – £9 million but whether we get him or not, Moyes cannot be swayed from finding that fourth player at central defence in this window.
Dawson will be 32 at the end of this season, and Ogbonna will be 34. We should be looking at a long term replacement for Ogbonna anyway. These should be our third and fourth choice centre backs. Diop is young enough to improve with time but will he? He’s not really showing any signs of getting better at the moment. So with Diop it’s a case of stick or twist. There’s a chance he could step up. In the meantime we need to recruit a top quality centre back, someone who is at the same level as Zouma if we want to step up as a club.
Fair point Clive.
IMHO the issue for Diop, Zouma and Dawson is that they all play right side of CB pairing.
When Zouma filled the spot after Ogbonnas injury, he didn’t look comfortable, as Diop doesn’t now.
Unfortunately Tarkowski is right sided/footed, so isn’t going to resolve issue.
Good assessment blimey/limey . We need left side defenders first and foremost!
I agree blimey limey, we need a left sided cb as good as zouma.