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 performance analyst 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.
Armando Broja is an Albanian striker currently playing for Southampton in the Premier League. He has appeared 21 times this season in all competitions, scoring seven goals.
The latest in a long line of prodigiously talented footballers to have come out of Chelsea’s Academy, Armando Broja has been performing brilliantly on loan with Southampton in the Premier League this season. Quickly establishing himself as one of the strongest counter-attacking and pressing forwards in the league, his combination of pace, strength and finishing ability is enough to make any Premier League centre-back nervous.
With five league goals and two in the Carabao Cup, Broja has probably already exceeded expectations. Adam Armstrong, Southampton’s £15.93m summer purchase from Blackburn Rovers, was likely expected to be the main man this season alongside Che Adams. But with Armstrong struggling to adapt to the step-up in quality, Broja has emerged.
In complete contrast to Armstrong, Broja has handled the transition to senior football seamlessly. After starring for Chelsea’s youth squads, the Albanian went out on his first senior loan last season to partner club Vitesse Arnhem in the Eredivisie where he would score an impressive 10 goals across 30 league appearances; the pick of the bunch coming in a 2-0 win over ADO Den Haag. Largely deployed in a front two alongside the rapid Loïs Openda by manager Thomas Letsch, Broja was able to display his devastating impact on counter-attacks to full effect.
This was enough for Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhüttl to take a punt on bringing Broja in on loan, though we don’t think anyone would have expected it to go quite as well as it has. While obviously talented, Broja only had 2,168 minutes of senior football under his belt and had only appeared once in the Premier League, a four minute cameo in Chelsea’s 4-0 win over Everton in March 2020. Six months later and Broja has become one of the Saints’ key players alongside Mohamed Salisu, who we covered earlier this month, and James Ward-Prowse.
So far, when writing about strikers, we’ve understandably started by taking a look at their shooting. With Broja though, it only seemed right to do things a little differently because he is such an excellent presser. Although this is obviously impacted by Hasenhüttl’s stylistic approach, Broja is averaging almost five more pressures per 90 (17.9 > 13) than Michail Antonio at an almost identical rate of success (30.7% > 30.6%); numbers that make for positive viewing and will no doubt please David Moyes, a manager who demands effort above all else. Broja is excellent at approaching opposition defenders with the right angle so as to cut off the most obvious forward option, often to the number six, before closing in to try and win the ball. As in the example below, where Broja presses tight on the centre-back without ever allowing the out-ball to the defensive midfielder and wins a high turnover for his team.
And this brings us onto one of the key areas that Broja must improve upon if he is to earn himself a big move away from Chelsea in the summer; his creative output. As we’ve mentioned time and time again this month, one of Antonio’s most important contributions to this West Ham side is his ability to create chances for teammates, something Broja is yet to prove he can do. Registering just 0.17 key passes per 90, 0.26 shot assists per 90, and 0.68 passes to the penalty area per 90, Antonio is miles ahead of Broja in this department (0.73, 1.29, 2.24). And Broja is similarly insecure in general possession. Averaging 2.98 dispossessions per 90, the Albanian ranks alongside Antonio in the bottom 9% of Premier League forwards for keeping the ball.
In overperforming his xG by 0.12 per 90, Broja is doing an excellent job of putting the ball in the back of the net this season. Hitting the target with more than half of the shots he has taken in the league (52.2%) he can comfortably better Antonio’s 35.2% accuracy. And whilst it’s all well and good finding the target, that’s not much use if, like Dieng who we covered yesterday, you’re not able to put the ball in the back of the net. Though this hasn’t been something that the Albanian has struggled with this season, converting 21.7% of his shots into goals compared to Antonio’s 14.8%. These positive numbers will in part come from the fact that Broja doesn’t shoot very often, having taken just 1.97 shots per 90 this season, the Albanian clearly picks his moments well.
Capable of timing his runs perfectly and maximising the impact of his impressive acceleration, Broja has also been excellent at regularly finding space in behind Premier League defences this season. Key to his success is his ability to remain in the blind spot of opposition centre-backs for as long as possible before timing a burst in behind. Southampton’s most recent game against Manchester City provided a good example of this as Broja showed Aymeric Laporte a clean pair of heels and used his body fantastically to protect the ball and fashion a good chance for himself.
And this is what makes Broja so exciting, he’s as good with the ball as he is without it. So far this season, Broja has averaged 4.27 dribbles per 90 with a success rate of 52%, whilst also recording 2.14 progressive runs. Though his dribbling metrics are marginally weaker than Antonio’s (5.09 at 56.8%), they are still high for a striker and suggest that he would be more than capable of taking on ball-carrying responsibilities in transition at West Ham.
Finally, Broja also outperforms Antonio in the air. Engaging in 12.82 aerial duels per 90 and winning a third of them this season, Broja has more aerial success than Antonio (29.3%), who challenges for less than half the number of duels (6.03). Whilst he is statistically better than Antonio in the air, he is by no means an imperious figure and is actually losing more aerial duels (8.5 per 90) than any other striker in the league this season. Of course, this is in part due to the high volume of aerial duels that he is attempting, but at 6’3” it doesn’t seem unreasonable to expect a little more from Broja in the air. In Broja’s defence, there is more to aerial ability than just winning headers, and when he has been able to get to the ball first he has shown that he can make intelligent decisions, whether that be nodding it out in front of himself and running onto it or making a deft pass to a nearby teammate.
This season has been Broja’s first at Premier League level and only his second ever in senior football. The fact that he is excelling in so many areas already is quite rightly earning him rave reviews and Chelsea may even be keen to keep him around with the Albanian matching Romelu Lukaku’s goals total for the season. Southampton will be glad to have him on loan for the rest of the season and the next step of Broja’s career will be crucial in determining his future in the game.
Jack’s rating: B
Broja’s lack of creative output is a concern but his pace, power and excellent movement make him an attractive option and given that Chelsea already have numerous options at the top of the pitch, it’s hard to see where Broja would fit in. There are rumours of a buy-back clause though and I would lose all interest in a deal if this were to be the case – a transfer with a buy-back clause is just a glorified loan.
Cal’s rating: B+
Broja is one of a small handful of strikers who look as though they could come into this side and do a similar job to Antonio. His lack of creativity is a bit of a worry but he’s as good a ball-carrier as Antonio, a better finisher, and he possesses exceptional movement in the opposition half. The only hurdle is that Chelsea might welcome him back in the summer, and if they are willing to sell then we’d be competing with Southampton and their new ownership.
Jack Elderton 