West Ham United secured two deadline day signings, and one of them was in action last night as Nikola Vlasic featured for Croatia.
The Hammers twice went into the Russian market, first signing Vlasic from CSKA Moscow to bolster David Moyes’ creative options going forward.
West Ham then raided Spartak Moscow with a loan deal for Alex Kral, capping off their summer transfer business in style.
On Wednesday night, Vlasic played his first game since becoming a West Ham player, featuring for Croatia in their World Cup qualifier against Russia.
Vlasic played as a number 10 for Croatia as they went with a midfield diamond, meaning he played behind Ivan Perisic and Andrej Kramaric in attack.
Vlasic took five shots, registered two key passes and recorded almost 91% pass completion on 32 passes, but just couldn’t help break Russia down in a 0-0 draw.
West Ham fans seem pretty impressed, taking to Twitter to suggest that Vlasic is ‘going to be deadly’ in claret and blue.
Some are really excited by Vlasic’s potential in West Ham’s counter-attacking style, and were even comparing him to Marko Arnautovic.
Others felt Vlasic was tidy and showed promise on the half-turn, but needs more energetic players around him than he had with Croatia.
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