West Ham United have a very poor record with ‘marquee’ striker signings: Many of our fifty-plus strikers singed in the Sullivan era have misfired or failed completely so there is obviously both great interest and apprehension about the pending success of the Irons’ latest 31 year old signing in the summer transfer window.
Interviewed for the club web site whufc.com, Niclas Fullkrug was in combative but reassuring mood, and started off by reassuring fans that there is more fitness work to be done:
Fullkrug is keen to impress and to grab his first goal
“I had a very late start to pre-season and need some more time to adapt and to get my perfect performance,” Of course, Niclas like all of those who took part in Euro 24 had very little rest and is now playing catch-up to reach peak fitness.
On his progress since becoming a Hammer:
“Until now, it’s been very good for me as I have nice teammates, very high-quality teammates, and I think we have to trust the process and be patient as we have a new coach and new players, so we have to find a way to connect everything, and I hope for a very successful season…
“I think against Palace I should have scored, but sometimes it’s not that easy. I’m working very hard for that first Premier League goal and working very hard in every training session to improve to get better, in shape, and to score goals like I have throughout the last few years. We have to be patient. They (goals) will come, and once the first has come, the others will fall faster.”
Cannot wait – Niclas like any good goal scorer is reliant upon those around him to create the chances which re likely to be thin on the ground against Manchester City. It would be a great way to announce his arrival in England, scoring against The Champions.
When Fullkreg was interviewed when he signed. He said he needed the ball played into him to get the best out of him.The couple of times he’s played all we’ve done is lopped the ball up to him for the knock downs. I feel you won’t get the best out of him playing like this. Unfortunately with Soucek playing as a number 10 things won’t change. All he seems to do is sideways, backwards passes not many forwards passes. We need someone in that position who’s more progressive with the ball. I’d tried Kudus there to carry the ball forward to bring our wingers and Kullkreg into the game. Unfortunately this won’t happen while Soucek is an automatic starter. It’s early days I know but this does need to be tweaked.