David Moyes wants to sign defensive reinforcements for West Ham United in January after the loss of the centre back Kurt Zouma to a hamstring injury.
Zouma suffered the injury during Saturday’s 3-2 victory over Chelsea that is set to keep him out for 12 weeks. The former Chelsea defender joins Angelo Ogbonna on the sidelines with the Italian out for the season with a cruciate ligament injury.
“We’ve picked up a few injuries to some defenders so that could make us look differently,” the manager said. “We had been looking to add a forward player but we had a problem with that even in the summer window, where we were trying but there was nothing there. This will mean that we have to start maybe considering looking for a defender.”
West Ham have been linked with a possible move for Burnley’s James Tarkowski and Nat Phillips, the Liverpool defender, but Moyes admits it may not be possible to bring in the right recruit at the right time. “If we could get one, would I try and get him early? Yes I would,” Moyes said.
“We might not get one or might not get what we want. I will need to try and balance exactly what would be best for us. I’ll see what we think the recovery time of players coming back is as well. That could have an influence on whether we need to take somebody immediately or if we think we can wait a bit later in January.”
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West Ham play Dynamo Zagreb at the London Stadium tonight having already guaranteed they will finish top of their Europa League group.
With the defenders Aaron Cresswell, Ben Johnson and Ryan Fredericks also injured, Moyes will include a number of youngsters in his line-up. Aji Alese, Harrison Ashby and Jamal Baptiste are in contention.
“I’m really looking forward to giving some of them their debuts,” Moyes said.
West Ham v Dinamo Zagreb
Europa League 8pm
TV BT Sport ESPN
West Ham (possible, 4-2-3-1): A Areola — H Ashby, J Baptiste, A Alese, E Longelo — A Kral, M Noble — A Yarmolenko, S Benrahma, N Vlasic — S Perkins.
