West Ham fans enjoyed last season with Pablo Zabaleta and Ryan Fredericks as their two rotational right-backs. However, FourFourTwo recently did an interview with Zabaleta, where the Argentine defender claimed the 2019/20 season would be his last in England.
With that being the case, Manuel Pellegrini should get ahead of the game and start looking for a new right-back to play alongside Fredricks now. There were rumours from Dutch outlet De Telegraaf that Joel Veltman could have been on his way to West Ham, but ExWHUemployee dismissed that rumour on Twitter.
Zabaleta featured prominently last season for the Hammers. The Argentine made 27 appearances in all competitions but now the right-back is 34-years-old and his game has started to deteriorate from the player that won the Premier League with Manchester City back in 2014.
Back at the age of 29-years-old, Zabaleta averaged more tackles and interceptions than he does now at 34, as per WhoScored’s player comparison tool and it looks like that decline will continue as the two-time Premier League winner enters into his final season in England.
The other right-back at West Ham is Fredericks, and he’s a much more impressive player that Zabaleta given his dynamism and pace down the right flank as an attacking option as well as a defensive force. He’s 26-years-old and has plenty to give, but playing as a full-back there has to be a level of rotation.
West Ham competed in 43 games last season, often playing twice in a week, and Manuel Pellegrini did a good job of rotating his two right-backs, with Zabaleta featuring 27 times to Fredericks 18, although with the ex-Fulham man featuring heavily after recovering from an ankle injury, only missing three of the club’s final 14 Premier League clashes.
With Fredericks set to play a bigger role and feature more heavily this season after his involvement at the back end of last season, bringing someone in to slowly faze out Zabaleta in his final season would plenty of sense at The London Stadium.
