David Moyes has been charged with keeping West Ham United up and defenders from Liverpool and Manchester City could help his cause.
Moyes replaced sacked Slaven Bilic as the new manager of West Ham last week on a six-month contract.
It is understood the Scotsman’s incentive to keep the Hammers in the Premier League – besides repairing a reputation damaged in his last three jobs – is an extended contract.
The first thing on his agenda will be making the East Londoners more organised and harder to beat with the unenviable record of conceding the most goals so far this season.
However, the former Manchester United boss does not have a great deal of quality options at his disposal.
The ageing West Ham defence contains Pablo Zabaleta, 33 this season, and Jose Fonte and James Collins – who both turn 34 this season.
Fonte is out until the new year through injury while Winston Reid is as injury prone as Andy Carroll and has not showed his best form for some time.
Bolstering the backline will surely be Moyes’ number one priority when the January transfer window opens.
And he could take advantage of the situation surrounding Dejan Lovren at Liverpool and Eliaquim Mangala at Manchester City to help shore things up.
Lovren’s future at Liverpool is in serious doubt after a string of errors and poor performances cost his side dear while he also hit out after receiving death threats on social media as reported by the likes of the Guardian.
The Croatian was substituted after half an hour in the recent 4-1 defeat by Tottenham, suffered a torrent of media criticism and online abuse and had his house burgled.
Meanwhile over at title hopefuls Man City, Mangala remains frozen out of the first team under Pep Guardiola.
Signed for a mammoth £32million by Manuel Pellegrini, the France international has been used only sparingly once again this season despite the injury problems of skipper Vincent Kompany.
So Moyes could do a lot worse than get the players in on short team loan deals – just as Crystal Palace did with Mamadou Sakho last season.
Both players would add experience, quality, pace and power to West Ham’s fragile rearguard and would help their own chances of being selected for Croatia and France for Russia 2018.
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