West Ham could look to bring in David Raum from the Bundesliga this summer to put pressure on Aaron Cresswell for his place in the team, according to transfer insider Dean Jones.

Cresswell has been a largely reliable player for West Ham since joining the club in 2014, but he has made some costly errors lately.

What's happened to Cresswell lately?

The 32-year-old has racked up 291 appearances for the Irons over the last eight years, and has been the side's first-choice left-back for most of this period. He has also proven his versatility by filling in as a centre-back from time to time.

However, things have gone wrong for him in recent weeks in the Europa League.

In West Ham's quarter-final first leg match against Lyon, Cresswell was shown a straight red card for a last-man challenge that prevented a goalscoring opportunity. David Moyes' men managed to still go on to win that tie, but Cresswell then repeated his mistake in the semi-finals.

This time, it was in the second leg against Eintracht Frankfurt, and the east London club were unable to recover from his early sending-off, meaning that they exited the competition at the last-four stage.

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What has Jones said about West Ham's left-back situation?

Jones thinks West Ham will target bringing in a new left-back in the off-season to provide competition for Cresswell.

According to SportBILD via Sport Witness, West Ham are interested in Hoffenheim's Raum, and Jones believes he would be a "realistic" option for the Hammers.

Speaking about the left-back role at West Ham, Jones told GIVEMESPORT: “It’s a really important position because they need back-up, and Cresswell has been on rocky ground for the last week or so. It just underlines the fact that you need to bring in support in that area of the pitch.

“He’s a player that is perfectly capable of slotting in well into the Premier League, and I think he’s somebody that is realistic for next season.”

Would Raum be a good signing for West Ham?

£50,000-a-week man Cresswell is going through a sticky patch, but it would be wrong to forget how well he has performed for West Ham in general for the best part of a decade.

Still, if West Ham want to be European regulars, and challenging at the back-end of these competitions, they may need to upgrade on Cresswell in the near future, and Raum, who is valued at £26m by CIES, could be the player to provide them with something extra down the left flank.

In his maiden season at Hoffenheim, the "extremely fast" full-back has registered 13 assists, highlighting that he is a major threat from an attacking perspective. By contrast, Cresswell has seven assists to his name across all competitions.

Raum is also eight years younger than Cresswell, suggesting that it would be smart for West Ham to sign him as he could turn out to be a useful long-term investment.

Moyes has been very loyal to his players over the last couple of years, and it has paid off as West Ham have broken into the top seven.

He may have to start being a little more ruthless to push on to the next level, though, and that could include replacing Cresswell with Raum ahead of next term.