News that Kurt Zouma will be out of contention for between 6-12 weeks, whilst unwelcome came as no surprise to anyone who has played football at ANY level, thankfully Kurt's injury was short of the full ACL that was feared. Nevertheless his lack of availability, in tandem with the loss of Angelo Ogbonna for the entire remainder of the season, has meant that David Moyes HAS had to seriously refocus his January transfer window plans at the last minute.
Hammers now only have two recognised centre backs available for selection, Craig Dawson and Issa Diop, both players have been criticised by fans and media alike, but Moyes will be pleased he has both of them, NOW! Moyes had been reluctant to select Issa Diop, but the injuries to Ogbonna and Zouma mean he has no other viable option.
Jamal Baptiste has been 'championed' by Angelo Ogbonna and despite his tender 17 years is a fine player in the making, some might say he is too young to be thrown in at the deep end, whereas others say you will never know if you don't try, citing if you are good enough, you are old enough!
Realistically David Moyes HAS to bring in an additional centre back during the January window, the need for a striker pales into insignificance by comparison. All is not as bad as it seems though, because David Moyes has the unique opportunity of being able to give Jamal Baptiste and one or two of the other promising youngsters who are currently on the fringes of the first team, a competitive run out against Dinamo Zagreb during Thursday evening's UEFA Europa League Cup game.
Hammers have already won the group and have therefore avoided the further two games they would have had to play in order to progress further in the competition as it stands the result on Thursday is ENTIRELY academic and is an ideal opportunity for David Moyes to really put the focus on youth in a POSITIVE way, as opposed to the 'Sam Allardyce' way.
The young lads who are given the chance need to grab it while they can. - Ed
Comments
Jamal Baptiste
Play him in the dead rubber on Thursday! Nothing to lose and if he's good enough he's old enough!
Can see it all now.
All the eggs in one basket hunting for another defender, striker not important, and come the end of the window, Antonio goes down and out for the rest of the season. Absolutely no reason the team cant be rejigged to allow for those injuries and concentrate on a striker/goalscorer and play on the front foot. Just need some balls to go for it.