West Ham United have signed several attack-minded players in recent years in their attempt to relieve the goal scoring burden of their talisman Michail Antonio.
While the Jamaican is comfortably their best-attacking asset, West Ham manager David Moyes seems to have found the right players in order to share the goals around.
After slow starts to their West Ham careers; Jarrod Bowen, Pablo Fornals and Said Benrahma have levelled up their game this season, contributing to a total of 23 goals between them.
With that extra attacking boost, West Ham find themselves going into matchday 12 of the Premier League sitting in third place, equal points with champions Manchester City.
While the sample size may be small as the season is in its early stages, the question remains, who is the most productive out of the three?
Benrahma (£20.79mil), Bowen (£19.17mil) and Fornals (£25.20mil) were all signed for similar transfer fees and are also producing similar numbers.
Pablo Fornals
It’s easy to glance at the statistics and assume that Pablo Fornals is the next best player after Antonio due to his high volume of goals, however a closer look will show that Fornals has the least amount of goal contributions (5) compared to Bowen (6) & Benrahma (6).
Despite the Spaniard proximately playing down the left flank, the versatile midfielder likes to cut in on his favoured right foot when in the final third, this allows left fullback Aaron Cresswell to push up the pitch in order to stretch the opposition defence.
When Creswell pushes up, Fornals positions himself in and around the 18-yard box, as he is only 178cm tall, Fornals is unlikely to win many aerial duels, meaning he searches for second balls.
Fornals’ averages 1.8 shots per game of which 0.7 are on target which results in an impressive goal conversion rate of 20%.
Jarrod Bowen
Many football fans around England have questioned Gareth Southgate for not giving West Ham forward Jarrod Bowen his first call up for the national team. After a slow start to his Hammers career, Bowen has looked sharp in recent games providing four assists and two goals.
As you can see by Bowen’s heat map, it is almost an exact mirror of that from Pablo Fornals. The only noticeable difference is his willingness to play as an inverted winger and cut into the box. Much like on the left flank, when Bowen cuts towards goal it allows the right fullback Coufal or Johnson to push on and create more options.
Bowen averages 2.5 shots per game while only 1.1 of his shots are on target. The Englishman has a poor goal conversion rate of only 7%.
Saïd Benrahma
Known for his trickery and silky smooth skills, the Algerian international has finally been able to grab some proper first-team minutes this season since his move from Brentford.
Capable of playing a well-weighted pass and finding the back of the net from range, Benrahma is a well-deserved fan favourite who has scored three and assisted three making him the most balanced out of Fornals and Bowen.
Based on his heat map, one would be forgiven for thinking he plays down the wing, however the number 22 is very much a threat through the middle of the pitch. Benrahma is not afraid to shoot, in fact he averages 2.6 shots per game only 0.8 of which are on target due to a lot of the shots being from outside of the area.
While his goal conversion rate sits at a modest 8%, Benrahma’s dribbling ability draws in opposition defenders which allows teammates to get into space to receive the ball making him a unique attacker compared to the rest of the squad.
Is There A Clear Standout?
When it comes to selecting which of the three names is the first on the team sheet, it’s difficult to set them apart.
All three players play integral parts in a brilliant system set up by David Moyes, and while it’s still rather obvious that Michail Antonio will be taking the majority of the attacking responsibility, it’s exciting for West Ham United fans to see offensive reliability being taken on from the rest of the team.
As the season progresses you will see patches where one of the three will outshine the others for a couple of games, however that form will rarely stick around for very long.
It may take a while for all three to be on the scoresheet but don’t be surprised when it happens.
