Last summer West Ham made inroads into the transfer market with Manuel Pellegrini opening the chequebook and bringing in plenty of new players to rely upon for the 2018/19 season. Most of them worked out too, and as we get going in the 19/20 campaign many are still prominent features.
One of those who isn’t though, is the Paraguayan centre-back, Fabian Balbuena. The man nicknamed ‘The General’ by the Hammers featured just once for the club on the opening day of the Premier League season as the Irons were smashed to pieces by a rampant Man City, losing 5-0 at home.
However, that result was not the fault of the defender, and to those who are looking at things from outside the situation, it seems that the Paraguayan, who joined the club as a bargain buy for a fee that is believed to be just £6.5m, as per Sky Sports, is being punished for that result.
It has to be said that this isn’t the case. The defender had very little time to train and play with his club side over the course of the summer during pre-season owing to his involvement in the Copa America with Paraguay, and Pellegrini has recently been vocal about Balbuena and his lack of game time.
Pellegrini claimed it was a mistake that he started Balbuena against Man City, and has said that for now, it is Angelo Ogbonna and Issa Diop who need to play, and you can read his comments on Football.London.
Last season we saw what Balbuena is capable of. The 28-year-old won 3 aerial duels per game as well as averaging 1.7 tackles, 2.3 interceptions and 7.5 clearances per game in the Premier League, via WhoScored, and getting him back in the side soon has to happen.
