The Rear Guard
Part 2: Goalkeepers and Defenders
By Michael P.C.
We start from the rear guard, something West Ham have never really been known to excel at traditionally (Not counting a certain all-time great who also captained England to the World Cup)
All eleven members of our club who ended up taking part in the poll cast a vote for the Goalkeeper position.
Since this was the first position we polled, and also because the club isn’t exactly blessed with options in the position, only two players were nominated by each voting member.
Every other position required three players to be nominated.
GOALKEEPER
Personal Picks: Green and Fabianski
I’ve seen quite a few Hammers keepers in my time as a West ham fan, and though Fabianski is perhaps the best I have seen in terms of quality shot-stopping, Green was a really stable pair of hands for a consistent and long amount of time. So for this one, I went with Green as my #1 and Fabianski as #2.
Interestingly enough, Green and Fabianski garnered the most number of mentions from all the other members too, with both tied at 7 votes each. However, with 5 members voting for Green as their No.1 as opposed to just 2 members voting for Fab as their main keeper, Rob Green took the lead and is our No.1 Goalkeeper
Rob Green was the main keeper for the Hammers from his debut season in 2006 up until the final year he spent with us in the Championship in the 2011-12 season, making 241 appearances for us in total. Only Ludo Miklosko has more appearances between the sticks for the Hammers ever since the Premier League started.
Other Votes – Shaka Hislop placed third getting 3 #1 votes, Phil Parkes got 2 #1 votes, Ludo Miklosko got 2 #2 votes while Adrian, James and Lama got a single mention each.
Interesting tidbit – Parkes and Miklosko are the usual suspects when it comes to all-time legends lists, and the 2 voters who gave Parkes their votes, Ashok and Sureshbhai, were also the ones who gave Miklosko their votes as well, with both going for Parkes as their #1 and Ludo as their #2. The relatively young age of the majority of us showed here in the voting.
RIGHT BACK
Personal Picks: Zabaleta, Lucas Neill and Guy Demel
I think all of us universally agreed that this has been our worst position in terms of quality over the years. Which is why even though Zabaleta had only been with us for 1 and a half seasons by the time of this poll (and this is a Zabaleta way past his prime), he gets my #1 spot solely for being a complete full-back with decent attack and good defence. Lucas Neill was more of a centre back who filled in for Right back but his strength, character and leadership were well worth it to offset his lack of pace.
With 3 players per voter, 11 different players were mentioned in the voting, but it seems like nearly everyone had the same impression I did as Zabaleta won the #1 spot with 7 out of 10 people picking him, out of which 5 of them put him as their #1 and 2 put him as their #2 right backs. A whopping 17 points below him, Ian Pearce fills in the #2 spot with 2 of us putting him at #1 and one voter putting him at #2.
Zaba has so far played 66 games in 2 seasons for us, but is now having genuine competition from Ryan Fredericks for the starting XI spot and this season might be the last season we see him in Claret and Blue colours.
Other Votes – Other than the aforementioned Lucas Neill and Guy Demel, the other right-backs mentioned were Schemmel, Antonio, Glen Johnson, Joey O’Brien, Faubert and Sam Byram.
LEFT BACK
Personal Picks: Cresswell, McCartney and Ilunga
Even though injuries have somewhat limited Cresswell’s ability in recent years, it cannot be forgotten that in addition to being our best crosser of the ball among any of our full-backs, he has also been our best all-round full-back for the better part of 5 years with the club. His partnership down the left with Payet was also mesmerising at times, something McCartney and Ilunga would not have been capable of doing.
Another big victory that agreed with my personal pick, 8 out of 9 voters picked Cresswell as their left back with 3 of them picking him as their #1, 2 as their #2 and 3 as their #3 spot. 7 points below Cress is the Terminator himself, Julian Dicks, with 3 votes, all as their #1.
One of West Ham’s immediate promotion buys in 2014, Cresswell established himself as the main left back for close to 4 seasons, and has only been recently challenged for his starting XI berth by his injuries as much as it is because of Masuaku
Other Votes – By order of standing in the votes, the remaining left backs were Matt Jarvis, Paul Konchesky, Stuart Pearce, Matty Taylor, Masuaku and Downing.
Interesting Tidbit – How the heck did Stewart Downing make it onto the list? Tahir is the culprit for this vote lol, though he did put him in as his #3 pick
CENTRE-BACK
Personal Picks: Reid, Upson and Tomkins
Another player hampered by injuries in his recent career, Winston Reid has spent more than at least half of his 8 seasons, 200+ game time as one of the few reliable defensive players we have had and was even linked with clubs like Arsenal FC during his prime with us. The Kiwi giant was backed up by Matt Upson in my voting with academy graduate Tomkins my #3.
2 Centre backs stood head and shoulders above the others in the voting, with Rio Ferdinand and Winston Reid ending up as our central partnership in defence. 5 out of 10 voters chose Rio as their #1 defender while Reid was mentioned 6 times, though 2 of those times were as a #2 and #3 placed vote.
Rio is probably the closest we, or indeed England, have ever come close to a Bobby Moore successor. The complete package with size, speed, power and skills, even though his career reached legendary heights at Manchester, he was already bossing it for us when he graduated from our famed Academy for his 150+ appearances for us.
If I were a Hammers fan from back then, Rio would most surely have been my #1 pick as well.
Other Votes – Tomas Repka is 3rd on the list, 15 points behind Reid, 2 points above Tomkins with Upson, Bilic, Diop and Collins rounding up the end.
Interesting Tidbit – Though he was among the tail-enders, Issa Diop did, however, get a good number of mentions, 4 out of 10 voters put him as their #3 choice, so it is quite obvious his star is on the rise. Also, if the latter end of last season had been taken into account, pretty sure Balbuena would have at least got a mention as well.
So there it is, our defensive base.
It isn’t perfect, but it’s also definitely way more promising than anything current fans have seen in ages.
A good dependable keeper in Green behind a solid defensive pairing of size, power, grit and control in Rio and Reid with a marauding left-back in Cresswell and a solid, serviceable right back in Zabaleta. This backline may leak from time to time, especially from the wings, but it would definitely be able to give a sense of security to the attack as well for the most part.
- Our Best XI — Introduction
- Our Best XI 03 — Midfield
- Our Best XI 04 — Forward