South American attacker link emerges

The transfer window wouldn’t be complete without West Ham linked to a South American forward, would it?.

A report has emerged that  Matias Zaracho is closely followed by West Ham claiming that the Hammers could make an offer for an Argentine football player who plays as a midfielder for Racing in Argentine Primera División. His primary position is an attacking midfielder but can play left or right-wing too

The player has a contract with Racing until June 2023 and a release clause of 22 million euros. His agent is Augustin Jimenez

Consistently one of the best young players in Argentina over the past three seasons, 22-year-old midfielder is understandably gaining plenty of attention from across the Atlantic.

The local lad from Avellaneda has been on Racing’s books since the age of eight and rose to prominence as a key player in La Academia’s Superliga 2018/19 triumph. Zaracho’s dynamism, crisp passing and versatility saw him earn a senior national team debut in March last year, while he was also an integral member of the Argentina U23 side that qualified for the Olympics.

In his 96 appearances for Racing, Zaracho has shown his flexibility within different tactical setups. More recently he has featured in the centre or right of the more advanced midfield three in a 4-1-3-2, thus allowing him to operate in his preferred space on the right, as demonstrated by the heatmap above.

Equally happy on the right of a diamond, Zaracho’s positional intelligence, mobility and versatility makes him an all-round modern midfielder and, on occasions, he has even been used in a more attacking role as an auxiliary winger on the wide right.

With an average pass accuracy of 86.5% across his career, Zaracho not only looks after the ball well but also boasts an impressive range of distribution. As well as his reliable short passing game, he can make things happen going forward by breaking the lines (typically 9.4 forward passes per 90). He can also chip in with the odd assist – albeit this is an area of his game that could be improved.