fantasy premier league tips – New player profile – Mauro Zarate

West Ham have signed 27 year old, 5 foot 9 inch,  Argentinian striker Mauro Zarate from Argentinian Club Velez Sarsfield.  We look at the background to his acqusition, his stats and his fantasy premier league prospects

Background

Last season only 5 teams had more clean sheets than West Ham and only 8 sides conceded less goals.  Attacking wise though it wasn’t so pretty.  Only 5 teams scored less than their 40 goals.  While it’s true that the injury to Andy Carroll definitely didn’t help things, the style of play as well as the lack of goals saw Big Sam the subject of some pretty strong “feedback” from the West Ham fans.

While I don’t think anyone could argue about their final position of 13th being acceptable Big Sam kept his job on the basis that he improved the style of play.  Teddy Sheringham was subsequently hired as the attacking coach.

So far though West Ham have signed a CDM, a CM, and a FB.  Zarate as a forward is the first attacking player.  Meanwhile they’ve released Joe Cole.

Zarate has certainly played with a number of different clubs although ironically his last club was also his first.

Here’s his stats with only league games counting, not European or domestic cups:

Internationally he’s only played 5 matches for the Argentinian under 20 team and scored 2 goals.  In the Europa League he’s scored 4 goals and 3 assists in 11 matches at a rate of a goal or assist every 122 minutes.  In the Champions league it’s 7 games with 1 goal and 1 assist at a rate of a goal or assist  every 217 minutes.

So a pretty up and down series of stats to say the least.  His Birmingham stats although 7 years ago showed a goal or assist every 122 minutes.  That is comparable to Rickie Lambert last season who’s 13 goals and 11 assists were at a rate of either 1 every 117 minutes.  His Serie A stats were quite variable but he did have 2 seasons of good returns.

He has a bit of a loose cannon reputation thats for sure.   2 incidents standout.  1 when he got embroiled in some Nazi salute scandal (while suspended for insulting a referee) and the other when he went on holiday instead of getting injury treatment.

Here’s what Big Sam had to say when he signed.  It gives you a clue as to the type of player he is

This signing is based on his record from being in Argentina, where he has scored the goals that he has scored because we are looking for some goals,” he told the club’s official website.

“Hopefully he is going to settle in quickly and bring us those sort of options that we need to be more successful in terms of goalscoring next season.

“We hope that a combination of the fact that he knows the Premier League [after a spell at Birmingham City] and now he has become more experienced and more mature, he is going to have evolved in terms of giving us a few more goals in the Premier League when he gets the opportunity.

“He is a different type of player to what we have already got, which is what we have been looking for for a while.

“He is small and sharp and quick and has got good feet, so hopefully he can give us another dimension for what we don’t have in the squad at the moment.”

Fantasy premier league perspective

Gametime firstly will very much depend on who else comes to West Ham to add to their attacking revolution.  Zarate is certainly versatile given he can play wide, as a striker or as a number 10.  At this stage it’s difficult to know how West Ham will line up.  Last year they lined up as a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3 depending on what you think Kevin Nolans position was.  I can’t imagine the panic attacks that would result from Big Sam playing 2 strikers although he maybe forced to as a way of complying with the new attacking ethos.

As I said at the moment it’s too difficult to predict where he will play or his gametime prospects and he’ll be another watchout in pre-season.  He certainly made an impression in his short spell at Birmingham but that was 7 years ago so again difficult to take too much from it.  Essentially he’s a small quick player who can go past people.  Last season he was the Argentinian leagues top goal scorer

At the time of writing this West Ham are thought to be interested in Striker Enner Valencia and Yehven Konoplyanka which would certainly complicate issues for Zarate.

If I had to guess his position on the current information, at the moment in the squad as is I can only seem him as a wide player in a front 3 or in the midfield 3 of 4-2-3-1.  That is unless Big Sam goes for a front 2 as part of his attacking philosophy.  His assist rate seems a little low for a number 10.

Here’s West Hams first 6 fixtures:

6/08/2014    West Ham United v Tottenham Hotspur
23/08/2014  Crystal Palace v West Ham United
30/08/2014  West Ham United v Southampton
13/09/2014  Hull City v West Ham United
20/09/2014  West Ham United v Liverpool
27/09/2014 Manchester United v West Ham United

With 3 of last years  top 7 in the first 6 games plus 2 strong home defencesof last season in Hull and Palace to visit then the fixtures dont warrant a panic buy thats for sure

I imagine in FPL he will be a budget friendly forward rather than a midfielder.

So on to pre-season to assess any prospects for him

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fantasy premier league tips

fantasy premier league tips

Stats from transfermarkt.com