West Ham United’s quest to find a talismanic striker has been nothing short of a disaster. Since David Gold and David Sullivan took over the club in 2010, West Ham have signed 50 forwards, making Gianluca Scamacca their 51st. 38 of those 50 signings have been strikers, none of which have exactly set the league on fire. The last time a West Ham player scored 20+ Premier League goals in one season was Tony Cottee back in 1986/87. West Ham will be desperate to dump that unwanted stat sooner rather than later.
West Ham have fired blanks over the past couple of seasons with the £45m signing of Sebastian Haller proving to be a flop, and the likes of Simone Zaza, Lucas Perez and Javier Hernandez never really getting going, scoring 22 goals in 91 games between them. The one ray of sunshine for West Ham has been Michail Antonio who has managed to hit double digits in goals in each of the past three seasons. However, with European football at the London stadium again this season, combined with the Jamaican’s injury worries and inability to play 90 minutes every week, David Moyes has been forced into finding another striker.
Enter Gianluca Scamacca, the 23-year-old Italian striker hailing from Rome, who West Ham fans hope will be the answer to their woes up front. The striker looks set to join West Ham after a £35.5m deal was agreed with Sassuolo. David Moyes is building an empire and he will be hoping this Roman is the missing piece.
What will Gianluca Scamacca bring to the the Premier League?
Scamacca will bring a different dynamic to this West Ham side. With a gigantic six-foot-five frame you would assume he has an aerial threat, in fact his aerial duel win rate is only 57% in his time in Serie A. In terms of players with a similar play style, he has been likened to Olivier Giroud (who has been linked to West Ham in the past) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. If Scamacca turns out to be half the player Ibrahimovic is then West Ham have a player on their hands. The forward scored 16 goals last season, finishing sixth in the Serie A goalscoring chart. With a non-penalty goals per 90 of 0.63, the only players in the Premier League better than that last season were Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy (0.75) and Tottenham Hotspur’s Heung-Min Son (0.69).
Scamacca tends to drop off the back line and support the teams’ attacks, as seen in the heat map below. Scamacca also has a good pass completion rate for a striker, giving West Ham the option to use him to link the attack.
Armando Broja vs Gianluca Scamacca?
The Hammers were strongly linked with Chelsea's Armando Broja, who spent last season on loan at Southampton. The Albanian striker scored six goals last season. With many West Ham fans preferring the Premier League experience of Broja. However when it comes to the stats Scamacca outshines Broja with a higher non-penalty expected goal involvement of 0.52 compared to Broja's 0.38. The likelihood of West Ham now pursuing a deal for Broja aswell looks slim, so West Ham fans will hope he wasn't the one that got away.
The main concern for David Moyes is this could be Haller 2.0, will Scamacca take to the Premier League and settle in quickly? Or will it be a case of bedding him in and easing him into the team? There is no doubt that at 23-years-old the Italian has potential, and plenty of time to improve, something that David Moyes will be eager to tap into. This could be the missing piece to the the West Ham jigsaw and he could take them to the next level.