The left-back position is a big question in the West Ham fanbase ahead of this weekend.

The Hammers travel up to Turf Moor on Sunday afternoon to open up their Championship campaign against a fellow relegated side in Burnley.

The majority of the Hammers’ starting eleven is settled. We know Hermanse, Walker-Peters, Mavropanos, Kilman, Alvarez, Bowen, Pablo, and Taty are all likely going to start.

But the left-back position is one that is up in the air. Will Ollie Scarles keep his place, or will El Hadji Malick Diouf take the academy product’s spot?

Well, in an ideal world we’d start the better player, and a lot of Irons fans would agree that’s Diouf. Maybe not defensively, but Diouf’s attacking output more than makes up for Scarles’ slightly better defensive ability.

But, with Solomon expected to come straight back into the starting lineup, that attacking output that we lacked against Portsmouth won’t be needed as much, as we will be playing with an actual left winger who isn’t going to invert as Mo Kante did on Saturday.

I think this game holds even more importance than any normal opening day would; it’s crucial that we win this one and get off to a good start. If we start the season as favourites and lose to one of our likely promotion rivals on the first gameweek, that could really derail us.

A lot of people will argue that Diouf could leave, so they wouldn’t play him. It has been reported that Sunderland and Brentford are in for the Senegal International, and the latter could come in with an offer worth £35 million + £5 million in add-ons soon.

That is an offer that a lot of us would find hard to refuse, but reports suggest we are looking for a fee of £50 million instead. So, if that’s the case, Diouf has to start on Sunday because he gives us a better chance of winning the game.

It’s harsh on Ollie as he was far from bad against Pompey on Saturday, but if he’s not leaving, Diouf simply has to start at left-back on Sunday.