Potter’s own Xhaka: West Ham now targeting “technically gifted” £15m star
It’s finally time, after a long summer, West Ham United are back in competitive action this afternoon.
Graham Potter’s side kickstart their Premier League campaign with a game away to the recently promoted Sunderland.
On paper, it’s a game that the Hammers should be winning comfortably, but as we all know, it’s never that simple, and the Black Cats have made some brilliant additions to their team this summer, most notably in former Arsenal star Granit Xhaka
The Swiss international is still a top player, and in an interesting development, the Irons are now being linked with someone who’d be their own version of him.
West Ham target their own Xhaka
While it has not necessarily been an exciting window this summer, West Ham have made a few smart additions to the team.
Mads Hermanses impressed for Leicester City last season, Kyle Walker-Peters is a proven Premier League performer, and El Hadji Malick Diouf impressed in pre-season.
Moreover, it looks like the Hammers want to do more business before the window closes and are now targeting someone who could be their own Xhaka
At least that’s according to a recent report from journalist Graeme Bailey, who has revealed that West Ham are interested in Aleix García.
The journalist claims that the Bayer Leverkusen star is someone “they quite like” and that, in good news, no other teams seem to be in for him at the moment.
It’s not clear just how much Garcia would cost the Hammers, but he joined the German side for around £15m.
If he’s available for around that much today, it would represent some incredible business, especially as he could be their own Xhaka.
How Garcia compares to Xhaka
In this instance, the comparison stems primarily from FBref, which looked at players in similar positions across Europe’s top five leagues, the Champions League and Europa League before concluding that Xhaka has been the eighth most similar midfielder to Garcia over the last 365 days.
The best way to gain a better understanding of how such a conclusion was reached is by taking a look under the hood, at the underlying numbers in which the pair ranked closest.
In this case, these include metrics such as progressive carries, passing accuracy, shot and goal-creating actions, blocks, live passes and more, all per 90.
In other words, like the Swiss international, Garcia is an all-action midfielder who can more than help out when it comes to the attacking side of the game, but is also more than happy to dig in and do the dirty work when his team need him to.
However, the pair don’t just share statistical similarities, as they actually played with one another at Leverkusen, and if the former Girona star does move this summer, then he’d likely be following his former teammate to the Premier League.
