This January Callum Goodall and Jack Elderton have gotten together to profile one player a day from a list of players that West Ham could sign throughout the transfer window.
Callum Goodall is a data and recruitment specialist who you may know from his radar charts and megathreads on Twitter where he has produced an excellent scouting series taking a look at players that West Ham could, or should, invest in. We’re lucky to have him for now before he’s snapped up by the club itself.
Jack Elderton is a player performance analyst specialising in roles and tactics who has taken over production of the recently renewed KUMB Podcast. Here you can find Cal and Jack talking in more depth about West Ham’s form, tactics and transfers each week alongside our match reporter Chris “Wilko1304” Wilkerson.
Listen back to the latest episode here.
Adam Hložek has been strongly linked with a move to West Ham for some time now. The Czech forward has six goals and 12 assists so far this season.
Since Moyes’ return to West Ham, a string of very talented Czech players have arrived in East London. Tomáš Souček was the first and his impact, alongside Jarrod Bowen’s, played a major role in keeping us in the Premier League in that first season. Then came Vladimír Coufal, arguably one of the best bargain buys we’ve pulled off in recent memory. The Czech right-back joined from Slavia Prague for just £5.4m and went on to be one of the very best performing full-backs in the division in the following season. Alex Král followed from Spartak Moscow and Daniel Křetínský, Sparta Prague’s current owner, has since purchased a 27% stake of West Ham.
With such a strong link to the Czech Republic forming, it’s natural that Czech players are being linked with moves to West Ham and Hložek is among the very best of those that could possibly join.
Now 19, Hložek initially burst onto the scene as a 16 year-old when he began to appear regularly on the wing for the Czech Republic’s most successful club, Sparta Prague. He became the Fortuna Liga’s youngest ever goalscorer when he scored the opener in a 4-0 win over Viktoria Plzeň shortly after his 17th birthday and went on to debut for the Czech Republic at 18, starting up front against Slovakia in a UEFA Nations League match.
Hložek is now a key player for both club and country and can play in a multitude of different positions. He’s comfortable playing as a lone striker, on both wings or as a second-striker-styled number 10.
Mainly based in the last of those positions this season, Hložek’s numbers have dropped off a little from the dizzying heights of the season before as he has worked his way back from the metatarsal fracture that so harshly put an end to his excellent form that campaign – 15 goals and 11 assists in 19 games really is entering the realms of pure silliness.
Whilst the switch of position and the fracture have both contributed to his decreased goal return, they have also resulted in Hložek developing other areas of his game and using them to great effect. Importantly, he has maintained his levels of creativity whilst learning his new role, laying on 10 assists for his Sparta teammates this season and averaging 0.96 shot assists per 90. A striker that is just as capable of creating goals as scoring them is always a welcome addition, but particularly when you’ve got the likes of Bowen, Fornals, Benrahma, Vlašić, Lanzini, and Souček regularly swarming the box in every match.
He will have to improve his finishing numbers though as his goal conversion rate this season sits at 9.9% alongside a 28.2% shots on target record, concerning stats when compared to some of the other targets linked and behind Michail Antonio’s numbers (15.2% and 32.6% respectively). Thankfully, time is very much on his side.
Hložek also seems to have spent a lot of his recovery period hitting the weights in the gym, filling out and seemingly redefining himself as a physical, ball-carrying forward. 2.26 progressive runs and 5.41 attempted dribbles per 90 are both marked improvements on his 2020-21 averages but the most noticeable change is his newfound ability to hold off defenders ten years his senior as he bounds down on goal – see his recent finish against FC Hradec Králové for evidence. Of course, the quality of defending on display in the Czech topflight is inferior to that of the Premier League, but if we get him on Antonio’s weight programme, he could become a real handful.
Hložek’s pace, strength and overall presence when playing in central areas make him an exciting prospect and potentially a good match for the Premier League. To have 124 senior appearances as a teenager is seriously impressive and you can see the benefits dotted throughout his game and perhaps most obviously in his confidence when taking on bigger and more experienced players.
There’s a long road of development still to go and some of you will be recalling the Euros where he struggled to significantly impact games as a substitute for the Czech Republic at the top level. And whilst you’d be absolutely right, it’s probably more pertinent that Czech manager Jaroslav Šilhavý was willing to throw a teenager on in four of their five games.
Right now, Hložek is developing at a healthy rate with a high level of responsibility as a key player for a big team. Seeing out the rest of this season with Sparta Prague would be fantastic for his overall development as he faces the pressure of pushing for Sparta’s first title since 2013-14 (they currently sit three points behind fierce rivals Slavia Prague) and the challenges of European knockout games in the Europa Conference League.
But with European giants like Bayern Munich and Liverpool holding an interest, we would likely need to move early to fend off competition. And with Křetínský in place, it’s hard to foresee any hang-ups in negotiating a deal with Hložek’s club. It may be that the best deal for all parties could be a permanent transfer in January with a loan back to Sparta factored in. Sparta wouldn’t lose one of their key players in their title push, Hložek would get to continue his development playing week in, week out and we would get one of Europe’s most promising attackers on the books for future seasons.
Jack’s Rating: A
Hložek is an exciting young talent with the flexibility to play across a number of positions and the necessary physical attributes to impose himself on Premier League defenders. Moyes would surely love him.
Callum’s Rating: B+
This one just makes sense – a young, well-suited striker with elite potential whom we could sign with relative ease given the Kretinsky connection.
Jack Elderton 