West Ham came away empty-handed in their search for a striker in the summer, so it’s no surprise to see them being linked with several goalscorers ahead of the January window.
Lone striker Michail Antonio has been in sensational form so far this term, suggesting there is no need for Moyes to go big and find a first-team striker to replace him anytime soon. But the reality is he needs support, so it’s imperative Moyes finds one during the winter window.
One player who was regularly linked with a move to east London in the summer and is already being mentioned as a Hammers target ahead of January is KRC Genk’s Paul Onuachu, who is valued at £19.8m by transfermarkt.com.
Most recently, Sport Mediaset via Fotboll Transfers reported that both West Ham and Southampton were keen on bringing the Nigeria international to the Premier League.
Having scored 11 goals in 15 first-team appearances for the Belgian outfit already this term, it’s quite clear the 26-year-old is a solid goalscorer, but he’s still relatively unknown to fans in England.
But ahead of the Hammers’ Europa League Group H clash with Genk on Thursday, the We Are West Ham Podcast spoke with Genk fan Tim-Oliver from the TerrilTalks Podcast, and they made a point of asking him what type of player Onuachu is.
It’s fair to say Tim-Oliver’s appraisal of the striker will have Hammers fans excited about potentially seeing him in claret and blue later this season.
He told the We Are West Ham Podcast earlier this week: “He would be a great addition to your team, probably to any Premier League side.
“He’s truly phenomenal, like when you see him, he’s like two metres tall, he weighs around 90 kilos. So you would expect that he’s a target man, just hanging around the box waiting for the cross.
“But the way he drops into the half-space, where you would expect the No.10, and the way he deviates balls, sometimes with one touch he’ll play a Kevin De Bruyne like pass towards the flanks and he’ll start to run towards the penalty spot and he would get across and he would finish it off. So actually starts attacks and finishes them all by himself.
“But you can also play the ball towards him to his feet, one guy behind him, two guys behind him, and they just can’t pull him down, they can’t get the ball away from him.
“He knows how to dribble, I’ve seen him dribble guys with dummies and step-overs, he really does that. I’m not saying he would do it to the defenders in the Premier League but the potential is probably there.
“So he’s good with his feet, good positioning, great passing and then, yeah, headers. If you give him five great crosses in one game, which we fail to do for some reason right now, at least one of them is going to hit the back of the net.
“When he came to our team from the Danish side Midtjylland, they said he’d become a cult player there. He’s doing the same here as well. Week after week we see him play and even when our game started to deteriorate, he was still playing his game and scoring goals.
“He needs the passes to come through, he needs the crosses to come through because he can’t do everything on his own.
“But I’m pretty sure with the talent you’ve got in midfield and maybe he could steal some things off Michail Antonio in training, I think West Ham would be a great next destination for him.
“And we would be very proud if we see him do it.”
West Ham fans will get to see Onuachu first-hand on Thursday night when West Ham host Genk in their third game of the Europa League group stages.
