With Andriy Yarmolenko signing for West Ham United for £17m today, we take a look at his prospects from an FPL perspective under new boss Pellegrini

Just who is Andriy Yarmolenko?

Yarmolenko is a 28 year old, Ukrainian, left-footed right winger, who predominantly plays as an inside forward, cutting inside the full back to get his shots away.

The Ukrainian International is a very fast player who likes to dribble with the ball and is very good at one-on-one situations against defenders.

He has 76 caps for his country and has scored 35 goals (only Andriy Shevchenko has more) and before he got his big move to German giants Borussia Dortmund last season, Andriy Yarmolenko was Dynamo Kyiv’s key man, scoring 143 goals for them in 367 appearances.

Yarmolenko played 11 seasons for Dynamo Kyiv, but 2009/10 was the season he forced his way into the starting 11 on a consistent basis, and truly established himself as a consistent performer.

In the 8 seasons at Kyiv where he made 20 or more appearances in all competitions, he averaged 16 goals a season from an average of 39 appearances, if we round up.

However, last season at Dortmund, he was unable to transfer that same form across on the whole, with just 6 goals and 3 assists in 26 appearances (including sub appearances).

At Dortmund, he was only able to show glimpses of his potential, like in the UCL match against Tottenham where he scored a beautiful curling shot into the top corner.

What’s been said about him?

“He really is the kind of player that we were looking for. He is a left-footed player but can play on the right and is very quick, very good one-on-one against a defender. He gives the team a lot of attacking options and scores goals, is fast on the counter-attack and provides aerial threat with his height. He also has very good experience, of playing for big teams and fighting for titles. At Dortmund, he had some good matches but perhaps didn’t quite show his very best. However, I think Manuel Pellegrini is the perfect coach for Andriy and his style of play. I believe he is joining us in the perfect moment. He is 28, the prime age for football, and we have great expectation about what he can achieve with West Ham United.” – Mario Husillos, West Ham’s director of football.

Sporting director for Borussia Dortmund, Michael Zorc, said when they signed him;

“Andrey is a player we’ve been following for some time and is a top player at both club and international level with Ukraine.”

Is he of interest from an FPL perspective?

I would say yes… in the middle to long term.

We know Pellegrini is a top manager and likes to play an attacking 4231 system – I can see West Ham attacking assets being good value this season.

With Michail Antonio likely on his way out, Yarmolenko should be safe in terms of his selection, but again, we must always be careful of players transitioning to new clubs from foreign leagues.

Some take time to adapt, others take to their new surroundings like a duck to water – we have to ask ourselves whether it’s a risk worth taking given their difficult start?

Perhaps it’s good for us, as FPL managers, that West Ham have a difficult start so we can observe how the new regime under Pellegrini is working without investing in their assets, and with that, observe how Yarmolenko takes to his new home.

Of course, a lot of this depends on his price, but I expect that he will come in at the £7m-£7.5m mark for West Ham and if Pellegrini can nurture the potential that is clearly there, and I personally expect him to, then we could be in for a real gem a little further down the line.