West Ham United have a fine central midfield duo at the club but they rarely play together in that role.
West Ham United may have lost to Chelsea earlier this week, but their midfielder Pedro Obiang impressed in the centre of the park.
The problem is, until Hammers manager Slaven Bilic opts to pick an actual right-back at right-back and play Cheikhou Kouyate alongside Obiang, his side will continue to struggle against the league’s top sides.
The match against Chelsea – who have the most powerful and effective midfield in the country – was crying out for an Obiang and Kouyate partnership.
Instead, for the fourth game running the latter was picked to start at right-back while Sam Byram sat on the West Ham bench until the 64th minute.
Obiang did his best but imagine what would be possible if Kouyate sat in alongside the Spaniard, allowing him to get forward and influence the match more than he is currently able to.
Byram is clearly not fancied by Bilic right now, yet he is a right-back by trade and deserves to have a run of matches to prove his worth.
In so doing it would allow Kouyate to play in his natural position and potentially see West Ham win more matches in the process.
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