Niclas Fullkrug isn't world-class, but West Ham don't need him to be | OneFootball

Whenever Niclas Fullkrug has been given a chance by West Ham, the veteran German striker has delivered on the quality that made him both a Champions League finalist at Borussia Dortmund and a starter for his national team at the last European Championships.

For years, Fullkrug was one of the best strikers in German football at Werder Bremen, showing a real knack for scoring goals, winning any aerial duel within his ZIP code, and creating chances for his teammates, whether that was Marvin Ducksch in Bremen or Donyell Malen and Jamie Bynoe-Gittens in Dortmund.

Now at West Ham, Fullkrug has shed injuries twice to provide flashes of the quality that made the Hammers pay a premium price (27 million pounds) for a player who is now 32 years old with no real future resale value.

By now, some of you may have seen a quote from West Ham center back Jean-Clair Todibo calling Fullkrug "world-class" whlie praising a fellow former Revierderby man for his leadership.

Niclas Fullkrug has impressed lately

Fullkrug has now impressed in two substitute appearances for West Ham, standing out as the team's best attacking player in both the loss to Wolves and the draw against Bournemouth. The German striker scored his third goal of the second (and second off the bench) against the Cherries, and it's worth noting that his only goal as a starter came in a winter defeat to Manchester City.

Despite the positive momentum and the effusive praise from Todibo, it's important to distance Fullkrug away from any world-class talk. It's just not fair to Fullkrug. Even at his best in the Bundesliga, Fullkrug was never world-class. He flirted with being the best striker in the league in the 2022/23 season, but, even then, you couldn't say he was even in the top five of the best attacking players in the league.

World-class players are players who can get into any team in the world. And we have to be brutally honest here: West Ham don't have anyone like that. Center back Max Kilman and forward Jarrod Bowen are the two closest, and while they are certainly "class" players who are among the best in the Premier League in their respective roles, world-class is a stretch too far.

But "world-class" being thrown around isn't just a problem that West Ham have with the way their players are spoken about. You could say the same about even more successful Premier League clubs like Arsenal and Chelsea, who each only have one or two world-class players but have about half their team receiving bloviated praise from their fanbase as being world-class.

West Ham simply need competence at the 9

The reason why I even bother being pedantic is that calling someone world-class after two solid performances off the bench or praising them too much is a sure way to pull the classic move we love to pull in football: build someone up unfairly just to break them down a few weeks later at the first sign of their inconsistencies, struggles, or humanly limitations.

Fullkrug is a solid striker. He has multiple seasons of success under his belt. Fullkrug leads by example, scores goals, creates chances, holds play up, wins 50/50s, works for the team, and is even willing to drop a little deep to build plays up (a trait he showed for West Ham against Bournemouth this past weekend).

West Ham didn't spend 27 million pounds for Fullkrug to be world-class, and they aren't looking for a striker to make that leap to being world-class. All they need is competence. West Ham just need some stability at the position. Fullkrug doesn't have to be an Erling Haaland or Alexander Isak equivalent. West Ham just need him to be a quality anchoring point who provides a box presence, scores a few goals, and facilitates play by bringing the other forwards into the game.

So far, Fullkrug has shown that he can do that for West Ham, just as he did for years in the Bundesliga for clubs who were, quite frankly, playing higher level football than the Hammers are currently. As long as Fullkrug stays healthy, West Ham will be OK at striker. But people can't sit there and pretend like he's one of the best in the world at the position, because he's a couple of steps below that. Of course, that level is still a huge upgrade for West Ham and one the club should be happy about in the short-term, especially after missing his presence for months.