While he might not be grabbing the headlines after West Ham extended their record of one Premier League defeat in seven at the weekend, it cannot be underestimated how important Fabian Balbuena’s resurgence has been to the side.
The Paraguayan had an excellent first campaign at the club having arrived from Corinthians for just £4million as Manuel Pellegrini started to build his Hammers squad.
The no-nonsense South American took to the Premier League like a duck to water, making 23 appearances and was only out of the side when he suffered a knee injury when giving away a penalty in a 2-0 defeat at Watford.
Balbuena had formed a good partnership at centre with another new recruit, Issa Diop. Clean sheets were hard to come by, just seven were secured across the whole season by the Hammers defence but that didn’t detract from Balbuena looking like a bargain.
2019/20 was a bit different for the defender, who struggled with a severe loss of form and confidence and having very little time off in the summer as he represented his country at the Copa America.
For the first match of last season, Pellegrini started Balbuena after just one pre-season friendly and he had a nightmare as he was given the run around by Manchester City in a 5-0 whipping at London Stadium, a match that Pellegrini admitted afterwards he should not have played the defender in.
“The reason was that Fabian Balbuena couldn’t work too much in the pre-season,” the former Hammers boss said.
“He arrived from his national squad late and he played just one [full] game (in pre-season). That was my mistake to play with him in the first game because I trusted too much in what he can do, but it was too soon for him”
Balbuena still went on to make 21 appearances in 2019/20, benefitting from an injury to Angelo Ogbonna, but he started only three games under David Moyes after the Scot returned to the club when Pellegrini was ditched in December 2019.
Having been an unused substitute for the first two games of the delayed 2020/21 campaign, it looked like more of the same for Balbuena. However, Diop’s positive test for coronavirus in September handed the 29-year-old a second chance.
Balbuena has established a new partnership at the back with Ogbonna and also Aaron Cresswell as Moyes has deployed a back five which has been working with great success. Balbuena has helped secure four clean sheets in nine games this season. He has also tallied more than half of the total minutes he got in 19/20 through nine games of the current campaign.
Balbuena’s solid display against Sheffield United on Sunday was made even more impressive considering he clocked up an arduous 20,000 air miles across international break, saw his initial flight back to London cancelled and didn’t arrive back in the capital until late on Thursday evening.
“It was harder than a normal week, but we have to used to this because it was an international break and me, as a South American player, I have to do a difficult trip, but when we’re back here we have to change the chip and we need to be focused for the game, so we did a good job on Sunday and I think we deserved the result,” Balbuena said after Sunday’s victory at Bramall Lane.
“We know the Premier League is probably the best league in the world and a difficult competition and any team can beat you if you let your level drop, but we’ve got two home games now and we will prepare in the best way possible for Aston Villa first and try to continue our good work.”
For Balbuena, it is a gentle reminder of his 2018/19 season and the performances he strung together that made him integral to the West Ham side. He had lost his way a little last season but the faith of David Moyes has seen the centre half rise back up to the top of his game.
Moyes himself made a point of praising the centre back after Sunday’s win: “I’m really pleased for Fabian Balbuena because he was a concern whether we should use him or not as he was in South America,”
“He had the games for Paraguay and didn’t get back until 5pm on Thursday evening, and everyone is aware of the type of jet lag you’ll go through with that.
“So great credit to him, it’s another clean sheet.”
The £4million Balbuena has cemented his place back in the Hammers team and has left £25million Diop on the sidelines after his return to full health. Moyes was considering selling Balbuena in the summer to raise funds and it is quite the resurgence from the player.
Balbuena's resilience is typical of what Moyes has instilled in this West Ham team.
