“Play it Like Kane” | Fullkrug Set to Surprise

With all the excitement of  Crysencio Summerville’s addition to the Claret and Blue yesterday, you may be left feeling a little unsure, like me, about the confirmed news regarding the addition of Niclas Füllkrug to West Ham.

It is easy to see him as a ‘second choice buy’ to Jhon Duran: Many of us wrote that he was  likely just the distraction striker to try and make Aston Villa more reasonable in negotiations. Wrong. He’s put pen to paper today and I felt it only fair to him to go away and do my research instead of just reacting in the same, lazy way as so many have to the ‘signing another thirty-year plus’ striker.

One piece from just last year stood out: ‘Niclas Füllkrug, Germany’s Cult-Hero continues his Ascent‘ giving a detailed assessment of the guy who has just joined the Hammers.

Background – Back in 2017-18 while at Hannover 96, the striker finished joint-third in the German top-flight scoring charts with 14 goals, behind only Robert Lewandowski (29) and Nils Petersen (15).  A typical rugged number nine, 25% of his goals came from headers in the box. So, Hammers fans can expect more of the same.

He’d surely have gone on to greater things sooner if injury and relegation hadn’t hampered both him and his team. But in addition to being a robust, old-style number nine, looking at Füllkrug’s role in possession for Werder, ‘He will often drop deeper, closer to the halfway line to receive and release passes into space for runners beyond him.‘. Which would be good news for our newly assembled trio of attackers. He does, according to a couple of separate sources, have excellent touch and the ability to lay the ball off,  to running team members around him, to perfection.

‘Füllkrug can often just look like a midfielder on the pitch and receives passes in areas where you would normally see a creative number 10 collect the ball.’ – now I am intrigued, there does seem more to Niclas Füllkrug than I’d assumed.’With Füllkrug spending a lot of time on the pitch outside of the penalty area, he becomes a key cog of Bremen’s attacking activity and almost everything goes through him.’. I’m thinking maybe I have misjudged our latest recruit.

His highlights reels are full of goals in World cups and Euros – I have a sneaking suspicion that there is another dimension to Fullkrug that I knew nothing about. It will be fascinating to see how his talents are harnessed for the team, and with the ‘beast’ option of Antonio to call on too, I’d say we may be in for a surprise.

The report is well worth a read if you are into your stats, percentages, distances carried, shots per carry etc.. There’s an interesting final point that will create a rueful smile amongst Hammers fans “As a key player for Werder not just in front of goal, but in build-up play and creation of chances, it’s not a stretch to compare Füllkrug to Kane, both in terms of style and importance to his club”

Whatever we feel about a reference to an ex-Spurs player, if he’s as effective then we will all be very, very happy Hammers..

‘Whilst most outsiders may yet see him as just a target man, his performances for Bremen so far this season have proven he is much, much more than that.’

Bring it on, Niclas. And welcome.