English Premier League side West Ham United on Sunday 27th August, 2023 announced the signing of Mohammed Kudus from Ajax. The Ghanaian international joins after impressing with 18 goals and seven assists in all competitions last season.
Kudus is a versatile player capable of playing anywhere across the midfield or frontline. Under the guidance of ex-Everton defender John Heitinga as Ajax head coach, he was largely deployed on the right wing or up front, but his predecessor and current Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag preferred to use him as number ten, or number eight, in seasons past.
Irrespective of his starting position on the pitch, one of Kudus’ biggest strengths is his ability to be a direct goal threat. In the 2022/23 Eredivisie season, he recorded the sixth highest xG per 90 (0.6) in the league and the eighth most shots per 90 (3.19) of forwards who played more than 1,000 minutes.
When playing in a counter-attacking style, it’s vital that attackers take shots from good positions and maintain a high level of accuracy in front of goal. Crucially, though, Kudus takes lots of shots and likes to directly attack the box, the Ghanaian also maintains a high level of performance in both of these areas. He recorded a respectable xG per shot of 0.17 last season – a metric that indicates the average quality of shots taken based on the likelihood of scoring – and managed to find the target with 39.1% of those shots, making him more accurate in front of goal than Premier League duo Bukayo Saka (38.3%) and Bruno Fernandes (38.2%).
Another of Kudus’ strongest qualities is his dribbling ability. In the Eredivisie last season, he averaged 5.91 dribbles per 90 – more than players like Jack Grealish (5.7) and Luis Díaz (5.35) produced in the Premier League. And this directness is something that West Ham could make excellent use of on counter-attacks with Kudus being able to carry the ball upfield and turn defence into attack extremely quickly. Pleasingly, as with his shooting, Kudus maintains a high success rate of 52.3% when dribbling and progresses the ball well without introducing too much risk.
As well as threatening the goal himself, Kudus is more than capable of providing for his teammates when arriving in the final third. He recorded 0.6 key passes per 90 last season – just over one clear goalscoring opportunity created for a teammate every other game. And again, his desire to continuously threaten opposition defences doesn’t come at the cost of accuracy with as 80.2% of his forward passes found their target.
If Kudus can’t produce an opportunity from open play when carrying the ball forward, his directness often draws fouls – Eredivisie defenders conceded 1.89 free-kicks per 90 while tackling Kudus last season – and this production of dead-ball scenarios could see him dovetail brilliantly with fellow new signing, and free-kick specialist, James Ward-Prowse.
Who will score the most goals for West Ham in 2023/24?
POLL ENDED
- Michail Antonio16%
- Saïd Benrahma1%
- Jarrod Bowen52%
- Mohammed Kudus29%
- Lucas Paquetá1%
Kudus also actively applies himself out of possession and recorded 4.62 defensive duels per 90 with 59% success last season. Considerable defensive engagement from forwards is a trait prized by manager David Moyes and Kudus’ 4.71 successful defensive actions per 90 place him comfortably alongside fellow West Ham attackers Jarrod Bowen (5.78) and Saïd Benrahma (4.84).
Despite being just a few weeks past his 23rd birthday, Kudus is already reasonably experienced and has been capped 24 times by Ghana and featured in nine UEFA Champions League fixtures. Impressively, he has scored seven times for the Black Stars (with two goals coming at the 2022 FIFA World Cup finals) and he has four goals and two assists from those Champions League appearances. That’s just below one in three at international level and just under one in two at the highest level of club competition.
It is always difficult to anticipate whether a player will be able to translate their qualities from one league to another, but this shows that Kudus is capable of performing to his best level in high pressure situations in elite competitions. West Ham fans can be excited to see another exceptionally talented player joining the Club and David Moyes will be happy to have such incredible competition for places in the attacking positions.
