West Ham have been linked with Polish centre-back Jakub Kiwior recently but David Moyes should steer well clear of the Spezia man after a poor World Cup display.
Reports from Italy have suggested that the Hammers are keen to bring the 22-year-old defender to the London Stadium in January as they seek a deputy for Kurt Zouma after the Frenchman underwent knee surgery this week.
While Kiwior is yet to concede a goal in two games for Poland at the World Cup in Qatar, with Czesław Michniewicz’s side well-placed to qualify for the knockout stages, his shaky display against Saudi Arabia on Saturday suggests that West Ham could do better.
As per Sofascore, the young defender would earn a disappointing 6.4/10 rating for his display, which was the joint-worst of any Polish player to feature in the game.
Despite once again shutting out their opponents, the Spezia star was fortunate that his mistakes didn’t allow Saudi Arabia a way back into the game.
Do you still want Kiwior at West Ham?
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It was perhaps only down to goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny that Poland were able to keep a clean sheet, as he denied Salem Al-Dawsari from the penalty spot and produced a number of top saves, including after an error from Kiwior led to a big chance for the opposition.
The West Ham target also picked up a yellow card early on and would win none of his three duels during the game, in what was an extremely erratic display from the young defender.
His performances in Serie A haven’t been much better, as he has averaged a poor 6.59 rating from WhoScored for his performances in Italy’s top flight so far this campaign.
The transfer report suggests that Kiwior would be a replacement for Zouma in Moyes’ side but his performance against Saudi Arabia returned no tackles, three clearances and an 83% pass success rate.
The former Chelsea man has averaged 0.3 tackles, 4.8 clearances and an 86.2% pass success rate per game in the Premier League so far this season, which suggests that the Poland international would be a less-than-impressive replacement for him at the London Stadium.
After such a shaky display against arguably inferior-quality opposition, Moyes should ensure that the Hammers don’t sign Kiwior in January.
