West Ham United manager David Moyes admits the club may look to try and sign another centre-back on loan this month after Kurt Zouma’s latest injury concern.
The French centre-back suffered a hip injury during Saturday’s 2-0 win over Everton in what was Zouma’s first match in over two months after undergoing knee surgery at the back end of November.
With Craig Dawson leaving West Ham in a £3.3million move to Wolverhampton Wanderers, it leaves West Ham with just four centre-backs, including Zouma, who is now set for a period of absence.
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Nayef Aguerd, Angelo Ogbonna and Thilo Kehrer are the club’s only other centre-back options other than Zouma at present, which could prove to be an issue with West Ham using a 3-4-3 formation during their win over the Toffees last weekend.
Prior to Dawson’s exit, Hammers boss Moyes had said he did not intend on signing a replacement. However, that may now change depending on the severity of Zouma’s issue.
Asked if another centre-back was required, Moyes said that they will need to assess Zouma before potentially trying to sign a new centre-back on loan, with the transfer window just four days away from shutting.
"I don’t see too many changes at the moment. We have got to assess,” said Moyes. “Kurt has got a bit of an injury. I need to assess that and see where we are, and losing Dawson last week as well. it makes me see if I can get by with what I have got.
“If not, I would maybe need to go to the loan market, but at the moment I don’t see that probably happening just yet, but I don’t want to say ‘no’ completely. It is a wee bit up in the air. I am disappointed to lose Craig. He did really well for us but I also think we did really well for him.”
Traditionally, four centre-backs has proved to be enough for teams to cope with in football over a season. However, West Ham have had five in their squad for the first half of the season but have still found themselves short at times, with Aguerd, Zouma, Ogbonna and Dawson all having injuries throughout the opening months of the campaign.
Moyes admits the club have had some poor luck in that position this season, admitting it may force their hand in trying to add another to the squad.
“In old money it was always enough. You would have four with a young boy in the reserves you could bring in if you needed an extra one,” Moyes explained. “But with our history, this year and a little bit of last year, we have had a little bit of problems with our centre-backs fit and ready.
“Thilo Kehrer gives us a bit of cover as he can play CB or full-back. That helps us. We were unfortunate at the start of the season losing Aguerd for the best part of six months. He is just back now and Kurt has been up and down with his knee and then picking up a bit of an injury.
“I am hoping he is not too bad. It is not easy working out do you or don’t you. I have got to try and get that right.”
While a late signing in defence could be considered, depending on Zouma’s injury, one player who has said he may leave the club in the coming days is striker Michail Antonio. The 32-year-old Jamaican international recently said that talks over a potential departure have taken place and that he would be open to it.
Despite those comments, Moyes has said that as far as he concerned, he will not be parting ways with the club’s all-time top scorer in the Premier League this month and is hoping to get the best out of Antonio, who provided an assist in the win over Everton.
“Players are all entitled to having a voice, but it is not coming from the club or me,” said Moyes. “We can only just get on. There is no problem with Mick, we have a great relationship. We just need to hope he finds the form he had a while back and get us the goals which can get us away. I have given him every opportunity to try and do that for us.”
The comments come at a concerning time, with Antonio currently the only fit senior striker available as Danny Ings and Gianluca Scamacca are both sidelined at present with knee injuries.
Moyes hopes that Antonio remains on focussed on life at West Ham despite the speculation currently surrounding his future.
“Yeah you hope so. Part of being a player, I think it is because we are getting into the final four or five days of the window,” added Moyes.
“Sometimes players can be played around and talked to by agents and things brought to their attention and those things can disrupt players, but we all know that it is this month where it can happen to any player, not just Mick.”
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