The 30-year-old can give Hull City a whole new dimension going forward.
Dieumerci Mbokani scores for Norwich against Southampton
Amid David Luiz’s return to Chelsea, Moussa Sissoko’s Tottenham/Everton transfer saga and Jack Wilshere’s surprise loan move to Bournemouth, Hull City’s signing of Dieumerci Mbokani was rather swept under the rug on Deadline Day. Even to many Hull City fans, the signing of Markus Henriksen was the one which seemed the most exciting, along with Ryan Mason smashing the club’s record fee the day before.
To the casual Premier League football fan, Mbokani is a 30-year-old big man up top who had an unspectacular season with Norwich last season and has largely been brought in as Hull were and are desperately short of options. Nothing to see here then; except, if one digs a little deeper, it is clear that the Congolese forward is a very important signing for Hull City.
Mike Phelan brought Mbokani to the KCOM Stadium on Deadline Day
Whilst everything in that aforementioned paragraph could quite easily be justified as true, it doesn’t come close to telling the full story. Mbokani may not have had a spectacular season with Norwich, but he did have a very respectable one. He scored 7 goals in 15 starts for the Canaries. A record of (virtually) a goal every other start for a relegated team, rather impressive, especially as only Aston Villa and West Brom scored fewer goals than Norwich overall last season.
In fact, Mbokani’s goal tally made him Norwich’s top scorer in both the league and all competitions last season; something which bodes quite well when you consider that most Hull City fans wouldn’t expect Mbokani to have been brought in solely to score goals.
Mbokani celebrates one of the 39 goals he scored in 87 games for Standard Liege
If you look at the statistics across Mbokani’s entire career it will tell you that the 30-year-old has scored goals everywhere he has been. His club record stands at 184 goals in 350 games, scored across spells in the DR Congo, Belgium, France, Germany, Ukraine and England. That ratio of roughly a goal every other game is continued in his international stats, scoring 16 goals in 35 caps for the DR Congo between 2005 and 2015.
Yet, as alluded to earlier, Mbokani’s goal scoring prowess is by no means the only reason why he should be deemed an important signing for the club. In fact, it could be argued that it isn’t even the primary reason. Mbokani is a crucial signing for the Tigers primarily because he provides the team with a ‘plan B’, so to speak.
Hull City’s Abel Hernandez had very little competition last season
What Hull City have lacked for so long now is a big man up top. Even if you take a sample as large as the last decade, you will find very few big men who could hold the ball up, win aerial duels and bring people into play regularly. Instead, Hull City fans have been much more used to seeing wingers shoe-horned into forward roles or tricky number 10-type forwards being asked to play as out-and-out strikers (often as lone strikers with little or no support).
This really reached its apex during Hull City’s last Premier League campaign under Steve Bruce, which saw the likes of Sone Aluko and Gaston Ramirez playing as lone forwards at times. Even more physically imposing players that have played up front for Hull in recent times such as Nick Proschwitz, Dame N’Doye and Nikica Jelavic, none could really play a target man role, and the less said about big Dele Adebola’s 10 outings in black and amber the better.
Nikica Jelavic is Hull’s all-time leading Premier League scorer
For a long time now, Hull City fans have become accustomed to seeing crosses fly across the box, whether they be floated into a danger zone or flashed across the six yard box, only for no-one to get on the end of them. The Tigers have had some wonderful crossers of a ball in recent years, but you have to go back some way to find a striker who regularly connected with them and scored from them.
Mbokani could be that man, and with the form of Robert Snodgrass, twinned with Ahmed Elmohamady and Andy Robertson’s deliveries from deep, the former Anderlecht forward should flourish in this Hull City side.
Hull City’s Ahmed Elmohamady often sees his dangerous crosses fly across the box untouched
The on-loan striker should also provide valuable competition for Abel Hernandez. Hull City’s second top scorer last season Mo Diame departed the club for Newcastle this summer, whilst their third highest scorer last term Chuba Akpom was only ever on-loan from Arsenal. Those departures leave a serious lack of goals in the Hull City team, and with Adama Diomande already in the first team, Abel Hernandez had very little competition for his centre-forward role within the team.
There is also now the possibility of Mbokani partnering Hernandez up front for Hull, particularly late on in games when the team is desperate for a goal. The Uruguayan was always considered to play best in a partnership, and whilst he learnt to play up front alone last season, there’s a possibility that playing in a two could see the former Palermo man flourish further.
Norwich supporters were big fans of Mbokani
The reaction of many Norwich City fans is somewhat telling, many of whom took to Twitter in congratulating Hull City fans on a very good signing, ruing their own club missing out on bringing the player to Carrow Road on a permanent deal. Mbokani didn’t make the squad for Hull City’s 1-1 draw away at Burnley last weekend, and Arsenal this Saturday is expected to come too soon for him as well. The forward should be available when the Tigers travel to Stoke in the League Cup on September 21.
How many goals will Dieumerci Mbokani score for Hull City this season?
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
