West Ham in pursuit of Spartak Moscow midfielder Alex Kral – reliable journalist
West Ham are ‘looking at’ 22-year-old Spartak Moscow midfielder Alex Kral as potential back up to the Hammers’ midfield, according to Athletic journalist Roshane Thomas.
The Irons aren’t well-stocked in the centre of midfield with Declan Rice, Tomas Soucek and Mark Noble the only natural central midfielders in the first team.
Speaking on the U Irons podcast, Thomas detailed how much Spartak value their Czech midfielder and highlighted how his agent already has links to the Hammers.
He said, “West Ham have been linked with a Spartak Moscow midfielder called Alex Kral. He has the same agent as [Vladimir] Coufal and his valuation is in the region between £12-15million and it’s a player West Ham are looking at – but not as a first-team regular, more so as a backup for Rice and Soucek.”
It makes sense that Kral would only be considered back up at the London Stadium with Rice and Soucek impressing this season and the experienced Noble is ready to step in if he is needed.
Paying around £15million for a player who will be considered back up may not be seen as a good move for the club financially.
But if there is hope that Kral can develop at West Ham and become a first-team player in the future then it may be a tidy bit of business.
It also makes sense for the Hammers to be sounding out potential replacements for Rice as he is sure to be of interest to some top clubs when the January transfer window opens.
As you can see from Wyscout‘s heatmap of Kral’s average position this season, he plays all the way across the midfield and constantly moves between the defensive and attacking lines.
Kral has played every minute of Spartak Moscow’s league season in a similar midfield role to the position that Rice has made his own at the London Stadium but as you can see from Rice’s heatmap he tends to stay on the left-hand side of the midfield.
This suggests that the Czech midfielder could be more versatile than the Hammers’ star man.
According to Wyscout, Kral has been averaging similar stats to Rice as the Spartak midfielder has won 58.2% of his defensive duels this season which is just behind Rice who has won 63.9% of his defensive duels.
Kral and Rice also nearly match when it comes to successful actions this season with both men successfully completing 70.7% and 70.4% of their total actions respectively.
Kral’s passing stats are more impressive than his defensive stats which suggest he is better going forward and is more of a playmaker than an out and out defensive midfielder.
For example, he is playing double the amount of passes forward compared to passes backwards on average this season with the 22-year-old playing 19.43 passes forward per match and 9.61 backwards.
The 22-year-old even has two assists to his name which suggests he can contribute to the attack as well as covering the defence.
He looks as if he could be a decent understudy to Rice and Soucek and hopefully, he won’t have to serve as Rice’s replacement if he does indeed move to West Ham.
In other West Ham news, we believe Moyes must hand Said Benrahma his first Irons start against Aston Villa.