View: West Brom open talks for 22y/o talent, hitman looks like the real deal
West Brom look to have stepped up their hunt for a striker who can lead them to Premier League survival next season.
According to Sky Sports journalist Rob Dorsett, Albion have entered talks with Huddersfield Town over a potential move for hitman Karlan Grant.
It is understood that the Terriers’ current asking price is £16 million.
Grant scored 16 times for Town in the Championship last season, and it has to be said that he looks like a much more potent option than the strikers that Slaven Bilic currently has at his disposal.
Last term, the 22-year-old attempted more shots per 90 minutes than Hal Robson-Kanu, as well as having a higher shot accuracy rate, as per Wyscout.
His xG was also 0.09 higher, while he made more dribbles, passes, and won a higher percentage of his aerial duels.
A quick glance at a recent shot map shows that he comes alive in the box.
All of the goals shown on this graphic come from inside the penalty area, and it’s interesting to see they almost uniformly come from one side of the box too.
Grant is capable of operating on the left flank as well as through the centre, and that has helped him to develop a real talent for cutting inside and finishing from that kind of area.
Take this goal against Hull City in January, for example.
Grant picks up the ball high and wide on the left, but his first thought is to get into the box where he can really hurt the Tigers.
He gets at his man with pace and directness, nutmegging him as he goes and opening up the entirety of the box to himself in the process.
From there, it’s almost as if it becomes muscle memory, and his finish is cooly executed, nestling the ball hard and low into the far bottom corner.
The fact that Grant has scored this kind of goal again and again over the past 12 months is proof that he has a natural lethal streak to him, and if there’s one thing that the Baggies need this summer it is a goalscorer.
£16 million is a lot, and Albion will be hoping to drive that price down, but if it is the fee they need to fork out to secure their survival, so be it.
In other West Brom news, the Baggies have reportedly bid £17million for this attacker.
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