Pierre-Michel Lasogga may be the answer for Everton
With the success of Everton under Roberto Martinez in his first season at Goodison Park, he brought to the table the ability to show faith in younger players and their ability to guide the Toffees to a very respectable fifth place finish, and had it not been for their incredibly though run down the final stretch of the fixture list, Everton could have finished in the coveted fourth spot in the table and with it Champions League pay-dirt.
Much of Everton’s success this season can be attributed to the highly successful loan spell of Romelu Lukaku. Seen as not being good enough for the Chelsea first team this past season by Jose Mourinho, another loan spell was on the cards for the young Belgian striker. His seamless transition into the Everton attack saw him form a strong partnership with the likes of Ross Barkley, fellow Belgian Kevin Mirallas and on loan Spanish winger Gerard Deulofeu.
15 goals in the league is a fantastic return for a loan signing, but to bring Lukaku back full-time for next season would cost Everon far more than they can afford. As they are league rivals to Chelsea, he would certainly be an acquisition that would cost upwards of 20million pounds, and that is cash that Everton cannot afford to burn on just one player. There is however a player incredibly similar to Lukaku sitting in Germany that would fit the bill for Martinez’s needs; Pierre-Michel Lasogga.
Lasogga just completed a highly successful loan spell himself this past season at SV Hamburg in the German Bundesliga. 13 goals in only 20 league appearances for a Hamburg side that narrowly escaped relegation is fantastic. Much like Lukaku and Barkley at Everon, Lasogga formed a wonderful attacking partnership with young attacking midfielder Hakan Calhanoglou, a player who is very similar to Barkley. More importantly, Lasogga is much the same player that Lukaku is. Both are strong, very good in the air and are deceptively quick for players of their stature. Lasogga also brings a physical side to his game much Lukaku, which would be well suited to the Premier League, and is highlighted by the fact that he averaged wining a shade under six aerial duels per match and averaging a little over two fouls against per match, thus showcasing his preparedness to fight for the ball.
Most important of all, Lasogga loves to have a go at goal – averaging a little under 4 shots per match and always looking to score. However unlike Lukaku, the young German is strictly a target man, preferring to run through the central channels to be put through, whereas Lukaku does have a tendency to drift to wider areas to look for the ball if needs be.
There will be questions raised on whether or not Lasogga’s future is with his current club Hertha Berlin, as they do have another talented striker on the books in Adrian Ramos who scored 16 goals this past season. Given that Hertha prefer to operate with just a single striker, is Lasogga prepared to split time with Ramos up top or will he prefer to be the man to lead the line for whichever club he calls home?
The beauty of the case for Lasogga is two fold; 1. Hertha are by no means a rich club, and as such, would not be in a strong bargaining position to demand a bloated transfer fee as any fee that matches the value of the player would be more than enough for them, and 2. Lasogga is currently valued at 9million pounds by a bid slightly higher than his valuation may be necessary, but that should only increase to 12million pounds at most – very affordable for Everton considering they must also address the void left by Deulofeu returning to Barcelona as well as Gareth Barry returning to Manchester City.
Everton are at a current point where the summer recruitment campaign by Martinez as well as their league and European performances next season will define if the project under the Spaniard will continue to be built upon, or if they will succumb to the inevitable resurgence of Manchester United and miss out on another top six finish. Who Martinez brings in this summer will bear massive weight on how the club plans to go forward and compete with the big boys, and if the successful season of Lukaku is any indication, the Gladbeck-born striker would certainly be a key cog in the Goodison wheel.