Yarmolenko aiming to recapture goal-scoring form at West Ham

West Ham United’s summer spending has continued in the last few days with the capture of Andriy Yarmolenko from Borussia Dortmund for an undisclosed fee, thought to be in the region of £17.5m.

The Ukraine international has signed a four-year deal with the Hammers and was Manuel Pellegrini’s fifth recruit after the signings of Ryan Fredericks, Jack Wilshere, Lukasz Fabianski and Issa Diop. Attacking midfielder Felipe Anderson has since signed from Lazio for a club-record fee.

The 28-year-old winger has an eye-catching goal-scoring record in his native country, having scored on 99 occasions in 227 league appearances for Dynamo Kyiv (the fifth-highest goal haul in Ukrainian Premier League history) before his move to the Bundesliga a year ago.

Yarmolenko also registered 65 assists in his time with the Ukrainian giants and has 35 goals in 77 appearances for his national side.

With Marko Arnautovic having been reclassified as a £7.0m forward in Fantasy Premier League ahead of the coming season, Yarmolenko’s listing as a midfielder for the same price is particularly convenient for those Fantasy managers who are unconvinced and unhappy at the maverick Austrian’s positional conversion.

Whereas Arnatouvic has only hit double figures for goals in a season on three occasions, Yarmolenko achieved this feat seven years in a row while at Kyiv.

The 6′ 3″ winger would seem set to play on the flank in Pellegrini’s preferred 4-2-3-1 formation, though attention will have to be paid to the Hammers’ pre-season friendlies for any tactical tweaks by the Chilean manager.

West Ham’s Director of Football, Mario Husillos, said of the club’s latest capture:

He is a left-footed player but can play on the right and is very quick, very good one-on-one against a defender. He gives the team a lot of attacking options and scores goals, is fast on the counter-attack and provides aerial threat with his height.

The History

Yarmolenko’s club career began with Desna Chernihiv in the same Ukrainian city where he had progressed through the youth system.

It was from Chernihiv that Yarmolenko made the move to Dynamo Kyiv, where he had previously – and briefly – spent time as an academy player.

Featuring initially for the Ukrainian giants’ reserve side, the rangy winger made his first-team debut at the age of 18 towards the end of the 2007/08 season. Yarmolenko marked that cameo substitute appearance against Vorskla Poltava with the winning goal in Kyiv’s 2-1 victory.

Yarmolenko made only three starts and seven substitute appearances in 2008/09, failing to register a goal or assist, but his breakthrough year with Kyiv came the following season.

Still only 19 at the start of the campaign, Yarmolenko made 27 appearances for Kyiv throughout the season (starting all but one of those matches), scoring on seven occasions and providing a further four assists. The youngster also made his first appearances in the UEFA Champions League, with Barcelona and Inter among the Ukrainian side’s group opponents.

From 2010/11 onwards, Yarmolenko hit at least ten goals in each of the next seven seasons. His best single-season goal haul (15) was in his final full campaign with Kyiv, while a total of 14 assists in 2014/15 was his creative peak.

Yarmolenko at Dynamo Kyiv

After five league appearances for Kyiv at the start of the 2017/18 season, Yarmolenko signed for Borussia Dortmund for a reported €25m.

The Ukraine international’s first season outside of his home country was something of a disappointment, however, with Yarmolenko failing to recapture the form he had exhibited for several years in his homeland. The winger ended the season with three goals and five assists from 18 Bundesliga appearances – his worst attacking statistics in a decade – although injury did keep him out for two months earlier this calendar year.

Yarmolenko has a wealth of European experience to his name too, having made a combined 86 appearances in the Champions League and Europa League. The wide midfielder has scored on 20 occasions and set up as many goals in his European endeavours.

The Prospects

Yarmolenko’s struggles in Germany temper his consistently excellent returns in Ukraine and the concern for Hammers fans and FPL managers alike is whether the winger will once again flatter to deceive outside of his homeland.

Despite a so-so debut season with Dortmund, Yarmolenko’s underlying creativity statistics still bode well for his prospects this season. The wide-midfielder created a chance every 37 minutes in the Bundesliga in 2017/18, a better rate of key passes than any of his new team-mates in midfield – including Arnautovic.

It should also be noted that Yarmolenko’s impressive assist count for Kyiv doesn’t include many of the “Fantasy assists” that are rewarded in FPL.

Yarmolenko averaged a shot every 33.6 minutes for Dortmund, an only slightly inferior mean than Arnautovic (32.7), who played a large chunk of the season for West Ham as a striker. The Ukrainian winger’s minutes-per-chance rate beat all other Hammers’ midfielders, including Manuel Lanzini.

Yarmolenko started out his career with Kyiv on the left wing but soon became a permanent fixture on the opposite flank as an inverted winger in the Arjen Robben/Riyad Mahrez mould. Nineteen of the Ukrainian wide-midfielder’s 31 attempts on goal for Dortmund last season were from his left boot, underscoring his predilection for cutting inside onto his favoured foot.

With Andy Carroll and Manuel Lanzini out for extended periods and Javier Hernandez having participated in the World Cup this summer, Arnautovic could again be the focal point of the Hammers’ attack at the beginning of 2018/19, though further recruitment in the striking position would seem likely.

Either way, Yarmolenko should be a near-certain starter on his favoured right flank and help alleviate the goal-scoring burden carried by Arnautovic in Carroll and Lanzini’s absence.

Other than appealing home fixtures against Bournemouth and Wolves, West Ham have a difficult-looking start to 2018/19 (the Hammers play five of the “big six” in the first nine Gameweeks) and many of their assets are perhaps best avoided until the fixture schedule eases. That would give us ample time to assess Yarmolenko’s value as a mid-priced midfielder and whether he is worthy of consideration for our Fantasy squads – or indeed, like compatriot Andriy Shevchenko, if his move to the Premier League has come while his powers are on the wane.