West Brom Opinion: Kenneth Zohore would be a decent buy for the Baggies
According to The Telegraph, West Brom are on the verge of wrapping up a deal for Cardiff City forward Kenneth Zohore, with reports claiming that the Bluebirds have accepted a bid of £8million for the 25-year-old Danish frontman.
The Telegraph understands that Zohore has left Cardiff’s training camp in the United States and he is set to undergo a medical at the Hawthorns within a few days to complete the move before the end of the week.
The move, if it materializes, would be Slaven Bilic’s second signing of the summer following a season-long deal for Croatian playmaker Filip Krovinovic from Benfica.
Bilic is yet to make any statement signings following his appointment at the helm of affairs but the news of Zohore’s impending arrival is bound to create a lot of noise amongst the fans at the Hawthorns.
Zohore, 25, struggled with injuries in the Premier League the last term, as Cardiff failed to beat the drop. However, it remains to be seen if the Dane can play a big role for them in the Championship next season.
The 25-year-old only scored once in 19 appearances for the Bluebirds in the Premier League but his record in the Championship is likely to interest the Baggies.
Zohore, who had initially joined Cardiff City on loan from Belgian side Kortrijk in January 2016, went on to establish himself as one of the key components of the club’s attack before making his stay permanent in the following summer.
Zohore’s tally of 23 goals and 10 assists in 77 appearances in the Championship looks decent on paper and, in all honesty, it would be unfair to judge his strike rate playing under a rather old-school and orthodox manager like Neil Warnock.
The 25-year-old was instrumental in the Bluebirds’ promotion-winning 2017-18 campaign in the Championship and West Brom have every reason to hope that he can replicate that same kind of form next term.
As a matter of fact, he has quite a good profile for a player in the Championship, having played in the Champions League with Copenhagen earlier in his career and represented Denmark at the U-21 level.
To put things into perspective, West Brom are in dire need of bringing in fresh faces to bolster their attack following the departure of the talismanic Jay Rodriguez to Burnley, whilst last season’s top-scorer Dwight Gayle has also returned to Newcastle United.
Zohore might not be as prolific as the two aforementioned strikers but the Dane is very much capable of delivering the goods in the Championship and he might prove to be a handy acquisition for a fee of £8 million.
And even if the Baggies sign him up this summer, they would probably need to bring in another striker to play alongside him or act as cover, given that they have lost two of their front three from the previous campaign.
Standing at 6ft. 2 inches with a towering frame, Zohore is quite fast and agile for a player of his stature, although his most impressive attributes are his physicality and aerial ability.
The 25-year-old combines his sharp reactions, quick anticipation and natural poaching instincts with his raw power and determination to get into scoring positions inside the box. His dribbling ability and general nous for picking out key passes in the final third make him a more complete centre-forward.
Bilic adopts a far more dynamic approach in the attacking third as compared to someone like Warnock and that should help Zohore adapt quickly to the surroundings at his new club and hit the ground running right from the start of the upcoming campaign.
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All in all, this looks like an affordable deal for West Brom and they should complete the formalities at the earliest to make Zohore their second signing of the summer.
That said, this is a deal that might prove to be the difference between promotion to the Premier League and another long and hard slog in the Championship for the Baggies.