Why Niclas Fullkrug can be the No 9 West Ham need to take them forward after a difficult debut season, writes JAMES SHARPE
- Niclas Fullkrug is a proper old-fashioned No 9 and is just what West Ham need
- The 6ft 2in German has netted in two of his last three Premier League games
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Niclas Fullkrug is a throwback to the old-fashioned striker, a 6ft 2in German with his broad shoulders and missing front tooth – and just what West Ham need to take them forward.
The 32-year-old has twice come off the bench to give Graham Potter’s side the focal point in attack they have long missed.
Fullkrug suffered a hamstring injury 15 minutes into Potter’s first game in January and since then the new boss has mixed-and-matched various combinations of Lucas Paqueta, Mohammed Kudus and Jarrod Bowen, none of them strikers, to lead the line.
The £27million summer signing from Borussia Dortmund has only just returned, coming off the bench against Wolves and then Bournemouth on Saturday and both times he changed the game.
Against Wolves he set up Tomas Soucek for a great late chance to snatch a point and hit the bar with a decent header. Then, just seven minutes after coming on against Bournemouth, scored a bullet header from a James Ward-Prowse corner.
‘If you watch some of my career goals, you will see more headers like that,’ said Fullkrug. ‘That’s one of my strengths. With the crosses from Prowsey, it is easier.’
Fullkrug has stepped up for West Ham lately, scoring in two of his last three league games
The German striker may be hitting his stride after what has been an injury-riddled debut season at the London Stadium
Fullkrug and Danny Ings are West Ham’s only two available natural strikers at the moment
It’s not just his meat-and-potatoes physicality and aerial threat that’s impressed, but also his ability to bring those around him into play. Bowen added a second not long after moving back out wide.
Fullkrug admits himself that it’s been a difficult journey, requiring behind-closed-doors friendlies and warm-weather training in Dubai to get him to this point and, even now, he’s not ready to start a game.
‘What should I do? I had to accept it – and get the best out of it,’ added Fullkrug. I need to be clever and intelligent like now. I still need to adapt. We need to work more and more and more to get me fully fit for the line-up.
‘It is a very, very difficult season. I came here to enjoy the Premier League with a big club. Now I can and I am very happy about it. So, let’s see what the season will bring at the end.’
Fullkrug is nicknamed Lucke back in his homeland, German for ‘the gap’ in reference to the one in his front teeth. Once he’s back to full fitness, he’s shown he can fill a giant one in the West Ham attack. A toothless striker to fix a toothless attack.
