Why West Ham Should Try And Sign Anderlecht’s Lukasz Teodorczyk In January
It was the 90th minute and it was the moment that lifted up, what had been a terrible, passive and boring game at the London Stadium. Three subs—Manuel Lanzini, Diafro Sakho and Arthur Masuaku were at the heart of West Ham’s 1-0 victory over Swansea City.
Lanzini won the ball in the middle and played it to Masuaku, whose accurate cross from the left to the far post was met by Sakho and the Senegalese striker swept home the winner before removing his jersey.
West Ham had lost their opening three Premier League games this campaign, which lead to crisis talks and manager Slaven Bilic’s job was under threat. Only last season, Bilic’s team managed to lose four Premier League games on the spin, meaning the manager felt there was plenty of rope to turn things around.
However, there came a huge sigh of relief when West Ham registered their first points in the league with a 2-0 victory over newly promoted Huddersfield Town at London Stadium. The win was followed by a drab 0-0 stalemate against West Brom, before Tottenham owned the bragging rights in the London derby with a 3-2 win. An air of uncertainty was starting to build around Bilic before his team edged out Swansea, prior to international break.
After 7 league games, it is apparent that the Hammers are lacking a prolific striker, despite the likes of Javier Hernandez, Andy Carroll and Sakho in their ranks. While Hernandez has hit the ground running with 3 goals, Carroll, who recently back from an injury, is yet to score a goal in 4 appearances. Out of favour Sakho, who was close to joining Rennes on deadline day, has scored one, which was the winner against Swansea.
So it makes proper sense for Bilic to sign another striker and according to Mirror, West Ham are tracking Anderlecht’s £7m striker Lukasz Teodorczyk to solve their goal-scoring woes.
Teodorczyk, 26, enjoyed a brilliant campaign last season and ended up being the top scorer in the Belgian top-flight after netting 22 league goals. In just a season, the Polish forward became a hot prospect and caught the eye of Liverpool in the summer. However, Liverpool signed Mohamed Salah and Dominic Solanke, and Teodorczyk remained at Anderlecht.
Teodorczyk completed a permanent move to Anderlecht following an impressive loan spell from Dynamo Kyiv last season, netting 28 goals in total.
In 2014, the Poland international joined Dynamo Kiev on a five-year deal but injury problems restricted him to just 24 appearances over three years, where he scored 10 goals. A loan move to Belgium worked wonders and Teodorczyk now finds himself hot on the radar of European elites.
With West Ham struggling so far in the final third, Teodorczyk’s addition will give them a lethal striker, a poacher in every sense they badly need. Being only 26, the striker is also young enough to be a smart long-term investment.
At 6’1″, a tad shorter than Carroll, Teodorczyk fits the mould of a traditional target man with his burly frame. Even when he wouldn’t score, his hard work and all-round centre forward play will be incredibly important to West Ham’s style of play.
Also, valued at just £7m, money won’t be a problem for West Ham in landing him. Teodorczyk remains a ready-made targetman and a fine striking option for West Ham. Knowing that plenty of clubs are interested due to his rich vein of form, West Ham should up their pursuit of Teodorczyk once the January transfer window opens.