Mohammed Kudus makes West Ham United forget Jesse Lingard after transfer twist
For many of the last few weeks, it has felt as though Jesse Lingard has been destined to make his return to West Ham United as a free agent.
The former Manchester United star had been training with the Hammers in an attempt to build up his fitness and potentially earn an incentivised contract at the London Stadium [Simon Jones, 4 September] and was even pictured playing a part in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Ipswich Town [Joe Davis, 7 September].
But after weeks of discussion over whether or not Lingard would earn a move back to David Moyes’ side, Fabrizio Romano took to Twitter on Friday (22 September) to announce the 30-year-old would be joining Saudi club Al-Ettifaq for training over the next month.
While some Hammers fans will likely feel frustrated to see a player that had seemingly had some time and effort invested into him over the last few weeks, the business completed by Moyes earlier in the summer has ensured he has more than enough talent to ensure Lingard won’t be missed.
The brightest example of this quality is Mohammed Kudus, who made his first start for West Ham in the Irons’ win over TSC Backa Topola in the Europa League on Thursday (21 September), scoring once and creating a second goal at the London Stadium.
But on top of his goals, the Ghanaian international produced one of Moyes’ side’s brightest attacking displays in what otherwise was a difficult evening for the Hammers, completing the most dribbles in the game with three and winning the most fouls in the match [Fotmob].
The 23-year-old created two chances in the match for his teammates and even went about his business superbly in defence, blocking two efforts from the Serbian side, winning two tackles and coming out on top in an incredible 10 duels both in the air and on the ground.
While it is expected that a £38 million signing [Sky Sports] should impress against the standard of opposition the Irons faced on Thursday, Kudus demonstrated that he is capable of doing everything that Lingard is typically capable of, to a better level.
According to his Fbref scouting report, in the last year, Lingard fell in the bottom 10 per cent of attacking midfielders for successful take-ons, progressive passes and progressive carries. Whereas Kudus sits in the top one per cent of his positional peers for successful take-ons and the top 50 per cent for progressive carries.
Should Kudus take the form from his first West Ham start and last season’s exploits into the rest of his Hammers’ career, there will be very few fans suggesting the Irons’ fortunes would have changed had Lingard joined the ranks.
In other West Ham news, Chris Sutton has predicted the result of the Hammers clash with Liverpool