Last season, David Moyes guided West Ham United to a superb sixth-place finish, bringing European football to the club for the coming campaign. However, throughout the season, it was abundantly clear that the Hammers need to reinforce or outright fill several areas of the pitch.
The first need was at centre-back, but a shrewd £2 million deal to permanently sign Craig Dawson looks to have alleviated that need somewhat.Left-back could also do with a new face but, right now, the focus is on a position that the team continually struggles to get right.
A goalscoring striker continues to be what the Irons need, and by the looks of it, the lack of a trusted goalscorer is hindering the club’s aspirations.
Needing a goalscorer before the opening match
Last season, Michail Antonio (traditionally a wide midfielder) and Tomáš Souček (a defensive midfielder) landed as the top scorers with ten each. Both are fine players, and having them score so many goals is a credit to their athleticism and talent. However, to build on last season, a designated striker is needed.
This isn’t a new trend, though, with the last time that someone scored more than 12 goals being Carlton Cole in the 2011/12 Championship campaign. The last time someone breached 20 goals was Marlon Harewood in 2004/05, scoring 22 in the Championship.
Of course, few pundits foresee West Ham repeating the feat that they achieved last season, especially without a go-to striker.In fact, when you bet on football at Space Casino, 23/20 are the odds that you’ll get on the Hammers beating Newcastle United – a team that finished 20 points back in 2020/21 – in the opening game of the season.it also doesn’t help that Moyes averages 1.32 points per match in 28 games against the Magpies.
Most of the talk since the end of the season has been on West Ham signing Tammy Abraham, who has gone from Chelsea’s go-to striker to playing second fiddle after a tsunami of big-money signings. However, at £45 million, Football London reports that the club is being priced out of a potential deal. Even if Abraham isn’t going to work, the club needs a striker.
Options if Abraham is off of the table
West Ham may have made it into Europe, but the club still needs to find value buys – especially as the big-money deals haven’t exactly gone swimmingly over the last few years. The club needs to avoid another Sébastien Haller situation, at the very least, which ended up with them losing £25 million from a £45 million deal that yielded 14 goals and three assists in 54 games.
Give the team’s prevalence when it comes to cross-assisted goals, headed goals, set-piece goals, and goals from corners, the clearest fit would look to be Wout Weghorst. The towering Dutchman nestled away 25 goals and teed up nine more for VfL Wolfsburg last season.
Six of those goals came by way of a header, and only two came via penalties, proving the 6’5’’ striker’s ability to score in all situations.
Another, likely much cheaper, option could be Algerian dynamo Andy Delort. The Montpellier man has put up consistently improving scoring numbers, from 14 goals and seven assists in 2018/19 to 19 goals and nine assists last season.
He has a knack for firing on goal, averaging 3.0 shots per game in Ligue 1 last season, as well as seeing 26 per cent of his goals coming via a header.
If London’s Blues continue to want too much for Tammy Abraham, either Weghorst or Delort could prove to be savvy signings that suit the West Ham style of play. -Ed Jnr
Comments
The man we need to sign is
The man we need to sign is Patrik Schik. The Czech striker looks a perfect fit. Great target man and looks like he could also handle himself. Another plus is hexwould be cheaper than Abraham & cheaper wages. If we added Piera from WBA another cheaper option than Lindgard and proven that would give us a real handy offensive line.