Italian forward Gianluca Scamacca completed his move to West Ham United from Italian side Sassuolo late last night for a fee of £30.5m plus a further £5m in potential performance-related add-ons. This is seen as a bargain from the perspective of many Italian football fans, many people claim he is as good if not better than new star Liverpool signing Darwin Nunez.
The 6’5 forward scored 16 goals and provided 1 assist for the black and greens last season. West Ham's new number 7 is capable of scoring all types of goals, his most famous being a fierce strike from outside the box against Serie A champions AC Milan last season. He also scored 3 headed goals last season which would put him fourth in the table for headers scored in the Premier League in 21/22. The Hammers are well known for their threat from set-pieces with the delivery from Aaron Cresswell and the height of Kurt Zouma, Craig Dawson and Tomas Soucek. Scamacca will only add to this threat as well as help the side defend corners and free-kicks.
While 1 assist in 38 matches may not look great, Scamacca is very good on the ball. He often drops deep and links play which helped his teammates Domenico Berardi and Giacomo Raspadori score and create from wide positions. This is something David Moyes would love to recreate with the likes of Jarrod Bowen, Said Benrahma, Pablo Fornals and even Michail Antonio if he was to go back to the wing.
Scamacca will offer something different to Michail Antonio which will be a massive relief to West Ham fans, despite the Jamaican international doing a stellar job since moving into the number 9 role. The hammers have been over-reliant on the Jamaican. He has been the only striker at the club since Sebastien Haller left the club in January 2021, after an underwhelming £45m move from Eintracht Frankfurt. While Scamacca may not be the ball carrier or dribbler that Antonio is, he is a much better finisher. Last season, Scamacca outperformed his expected goals (xG) for Sassuolo by 4.87 goals while Michail Antonio underperformed by 2.79. This shows Scamacca is a much more clinical finisher, meaning he is a lot more likely to take chances when they come,
Scamacca becomes the irons' 3rd major signing after Nayef Aguerd signed from Rennes and boyhood West Ham fan Flynn Downes arrived from Swansea City. The club is also looking to bring in Serbian wide man Filip Kostic from Eintracht Frankfurt, Napoli and Poland midfielder Piotr Zielinski and Leicester City's England U21 left-back Luke Thomas.
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