**West Ham United should be able to cope when key players leave for AFCON due to excellent full-back depth.**
The Hammers can be criticised a lot for their poor squad building in recent years, for example our lack of quality in midfield since Rice left, a poor roster of central defenders and lack of firepower up front. However, one area in the squad that West Ham can’t be criticised for at the moment is full-back.
Last year’s hammer of the year Aaron Wan-Bissaka and new signing El Hadji Malick-Diouf are Graham Potter’s preferred choices with Malick Diouf an excellent crosser of the ball and looks as though he’s excellent at defending the back post, while AWB offers excellent one-on-one ability and skill to progress the ball down the right.
However, after a poor performance from AWB against Chelsea, he was dropped and replaced by England International Kyle Walker-Peters. The former Southampton who joined on a free this summer stepped in seamlessly. He offered a more calm and composed option on the right side and defended expertly against Callum Hudson-Odoi in the 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest.
Not only do they provide cover for each other at right-back, both are also more then capable at playing on the left too. We saw AWB have some great performances there last season, while KWP has played there on and off over the past couple of years. To add to that, we also have young Ollie Scarles who got a lot of minutes under Graham Potter last season and impressed.
With Wan-Bissaka going to AFCON with DR Congo and Diouf heading off with Senegal in late December, Walker-Peters and Scarles are going to have an excellent opportunity to step-up and perform while they’re away. Especially for Scarles, Senegal are expected to reach the latter stages of the tournament. The tournament begins on December 21st and ends January 18th, so if they make it far, we could be without both for a month in what is the busiest time in the Premier League schedule.
I believe that Kyle Walker-Peters and Ollie Scarles are more than good enough to cover for the missing African stars. If it comes to it we could dip into the market for a signing, but I really doubt that will be necessary,.