Premier League preview: Where West Ham's new signings could fit in next season

It’s been another summer of sweeping changes at West Ham and their supporters will hope this time they’ve got it right. The Hammers have blitzed through three different managers in the last three years and have now turned to former Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini in a bid to fire them into Europe. The east London outfit battled relegation for most of last season before David Moyes eventually steered the club clear of the bottom three and to a 13th-place finish.

Pellegrini returns to the Premier League just three years after he was dismissed as City manager and replaced by Pep Guardiola. The 64-year-old is something of a coup for the Hammers but there will be a lot of pressure on his shoulders after West Ham agreed to make him one of the best-paid managers in English football.

West Ham have been one of the busiest sides in the transfer market this summer and are now on the verge of completing one of the most impressive signings of the summer in Lazio’s Felipe Anderson. The Brazil international is due for his medical ahead of a club-record £35m move and will only further bolster the club’s offensive options following the arrival of Andriy Yarmolenko from Borussia Dortmund earlier this week.

The Hammers made Marko Arnautovic the club’s most expensive signing of all-time 12 months ago and the Austria international cut a frustrated figure up front on his own for the majority of the campaign. Pellegrini has made easing the burden on the 29-year-old a top priority this summer and has certainly achieved that with his summer signings.

The need to strengthen in attack was made more pressing following Manuel Lanzini’s serious knee injury on the eve of the 2018 World Cup that has ruled him out for the remainder of the year. When Anderson signs on the dotted line, the 25-year-old will be the sixth summer signing made by the Hammers this summer, suggesting next season’s line up will look hugely different to the one that ended the 2017/18 campaign.

Joe Hart spent the season on loan at West Ham last term and the Hammers rightly opted against a permanent deal. Hart made as many errors that led to an opposition goal as he did clean sheets in the league last season (4) and Pellegrini’s side made the savy decision to wrap up a deal for Swansea shot-stopper Lukasz Fabianski early this summer.

The Poland international, signed in a deal worth £7m, has arguably been one of the better goalkeepers outside the ‘top six’ clubs in the Premier League over the last few years and should add stability to the back for West Ham. Finding a reliable goalkeeper has been a problem for the club in the past, but only Jordan Pickford (256) has made more saves than the 33-year-old in the last two Premier League campaigns (254).

No team conceded more goals than West Ham (68) in the Premier League last season and it’s important that Pellegrini improves the Hammers at the back. Ryan Fredericks was signed on a free transfer following an impressive Championship campaign with Fulham to compete for a starting berth at right-back with veteran Pablo Zabaleta, while West Ham also went big to sign highly-rated centre-back Issa Diop from Toulouse.

West Ham broke their club transfer record to sign the 21-year-old in a deal worth move than £25m and they will need Diop to settle straight away with Winston Reid ruled out for three months through injury.

The east London outfit looked particularly poor in central midfield last season and Pellegrini will hope the arrival of Jack Wilshere will inject some quality in the middle of the park. The 26-year-old joined on a free transfer after his contract with Arsenal expired, but only time will tell if the England international can remain injury free for prolonged periods during his three-year deal at the club.

Wilshere certainly has the quality to improve West Ham’s midfield but can he wind back the clock and discover his early Arsenal magic? He emerged as a key player for Arsenal during the second half of last season but never really caught fire. The fact he managed to put a good run of games together was seen as enough of a positive to mask over the fact he didn’t hit the heights expected. With Lanzini sidelined for most of next season, Pellegrini will certainly turn to Wilshere to add spark from midfield areas, which the likes of Mark Noble and Cheikhou Kouyate cannot. 

It’s interesting that West Ham have spent more than £17m to sign Yarmolenko and are outlaying double that to sign Anderson when both play in right forward positions. Yarmolenko only spent one season at Dortmund and struggled for regular playing time, but West Ham supporters can expect the Ukraine international to cut inside from the right and shoot with his left at any opportunity. The 28-year-old is similar to Arjen Robben in that respect, but his output is no where near as good as the Dutch legend. It would be a surprise to see Yarmolenko, who is flamboyant with his footwork, to play in any other position for the Hammers.

It wasn’t long ago that Anderson was being linked with a £50m move to Manchester United, but his stock has diminished since those reports in January 2015. A long-term injury at the start of the last campaign forced the Brazil international to miss the first half of the season and he never really regained his place back in the team once fit.

The 25-year-old made 21 league appearances last season but was limited to just nine starts in that time. Despite being forced to impact games from the bench more often that not, Anderson still garnered a hugely impressive WhoScored rating of 7.45. When factoring his performances from starts alone, his WhoScored rating increases to 8.31.

As mentioned earlier, it might seem strange that West Ham have signed two players in similar positions but Anderson’s versatility means it should not be a problem. Lazio manager Simone Inzaghi deployed Anderson up front or behind the striker when trusted to start and Pellegrini could follow suit, particularly with Lanzini unable to carry out a No.10 role for West Ham at the start of next season.

Anderson played a direct hand in nine goals in as many appearances in a No.10 role for Lazio last season, suggesting he is more than capable of providing creative spark in central areas even when it might takeaway his huge dribbling potential. In fact, Anderson made a successful dribble more frequently than any other Serie A player (25+ attempted) last season (1 every 14.8 minutes), at an identical rate to Eden Hazard in the Premier League.

West Ham struggled to get bodies close to Arnautovic at times last season and he did an exceptional job of carrying their attack towards the end of the campaign, but Pellegrini’s new signings suggest the club are making serious attempts to change that.