OPINION
West Ham defender Pablo Zabaleta is surely quaking in his boots over getting plenty of game time next season as he does face a tough fight to feature.
The 34-year-old, who earns £75,000-a-week (Source: Spotrac), saw his minutes dry up as the season went on in his 20118/19 campaign and is no doubt already concerned.
Zabaleta only featured in three of the Hammers’ final five league games and only completed 90 minutes in one of those outings.
Zabaleta for the middle part of the season was seen as Manuel Pellegrini’s first-choice right-back, as he started 10 games in a row, but was leapfrogged by Ryan Fredericks in the final portion of the season.
The 26-year-old raised his game to look much better in his outings and his blistering speed made him more of an asset going forward compared to Zabaleta.
Fredericks was involved in getting two more goals for the Hammers in his 2018/19 season compared with Zabaleta despite featuring nine times less overall.
Yet while Fredericks didn’t completely seal up his position as first-choice option, as he did show glimpse of his vulnerabilities after moving up the pecking order, Alan Smith’s remarks surely have Zabaleta fearing the worst.
The Sky Sports pundit revealed that he was confident that Fredericks would get better in his second season and that spells bad news for Zabaleta.
“They have a decent defence and I think Ryan Fredericks will do better in his second season,” said Smith on Sky Sports’ website.
When you consider that Fredericks was already giving Zabaleta a run for his money, the thought of him getting better is one that should lead Zabaleta to believe he’ll be rooted to the bench more often than not next season.
Smith’s claim is likely to be a safe bet as well when you consider that Fredericks improved as the season progressed likely because he settled in after joining from Fulham, and there’s no reason to suggest that trend won’t continue.
While the experienced player likely knows it’s just natural for his playing time to decrease as he gets older, he no doubt still wants to be featuring a respectable amount.
So with that in mind, hearing Smith confidently back Fredericks to get better clearly will have Zabaleta worried.