Things could be changing at West Ham United. A top manager has been recruited and a good summer transfer window has been had so far.
Manuel Pellegrini has been given, or so we are told, complete charge of the football side of things meaning that David Sullivan is no longer involved in transfers.
This change of policy has seen West Ham make some exciting signings, including Issy Diop, Jack Wilshere and Fabian Balbuena.
However, the Hammers are still lacking firepower
and with Pellegrini preferring to play two up top it is clear that they need to sign strikers.
West Ham are currently being linked to Moussa Marega, the Porto striker.
Let’s take a closer look at him.
Marega in Liga Nos (Portugal)
Using Squawka we have pulled out their matrix of the top ten forwards in Portugal last season.
As you can see, Marega ranks at number three which is very promising.
Bas Dost has been considered the leading frontman in Liga Nos for some time now and Marega comes third to Dost’s second – although you can see that there is some gap between their two scores.
Moussa Marega
Moussa Marega is a 27-year-old Mali international who signed for Porto in July 2016.
Marega vs the rest
We’ve compared Moussa Marega to Javier Hernandez, Marko Arnautoivc and Bas Dost to give us a flavour of how he really compares.
As you can see, Marega has a better goals per 90 ratio than both the West Ham men from last season with 0.83 goals per 90. Only Bas Dost has a better one in this comparison.
Moussa Marega also loves a shot on goal – 3.74 per 90 although only 54% of these are on target. This is the same shot accuracy as Hernandez who only managed 1.62 shots per 90 under David Moyes.
Finally, we look at the attacking scores and Moussa Marega actually has the best attacking score suggesting there is more to his game than just finishing. Marega averaged 35.93 per 90 which was even better than Bas Dost.
Conclusion
Moussa Marega is available for a decent price and is in the right bracket for West Ham United. They are looking to do a double deal with his teammate Yacine Brahimi, a player responsible for creating many chances for Marega over the last two seasons.
With West Ham’s need for new strikers high and knowing the aisle in which they can shop I would say Marega is as good as option as any other that is available to them.
