There has been coverage in the media about Atlanta United potentially signing Greek striker Georgios Giakoumakis recently (I have seen his name spelled Georgios and Giorgios so sorry if I get it wrong, I am going with the e because that is the spelling on Celtic's site). So I wanted to see his play style and stats, and I am pleasantly surprised by the front office. I have been praying for some news about us getting close to signing a striker since the start of the winter transfer window and now we are finally linked with one and there has been a lot of coverage saying that we are the front runners, most notably Fabrizio Romano earlier this afternoon (the 24th).
So I naturally wanted to know everything possible about our potential new striker, and it looks good. Giakoumakis is a 28 year old valued at around $5 million which is a reasonable value for a designated player in MLS and more important than that he is 6 foot 1 and from his highlight reels seems to be a good fit. He has scored many headed and volley goals and seems to be a good like for like Josef replacement, at least as close as you can hope someone can be to Josef. He seems to be physical and a good aerial threat in the box. He has also scored lots of get something on it goals, which is an important facet of a target man striker. He seems to also have a little bit more range but would mainly be a big guy to hit in the box.
Looking at his stats this season in the Scottish league he has not been a consistent starter, he has been a substitution in 15 of the 19 matches he has played in, but he has put up decent goals per 90. Other interesting stats are that he slightly undershot his xG of 6.7 with 6 goals, all in the box, and that he took 40 shots and 22 of them were off target (I think including blocked shots). He also seems to be at least somewhat involved in the build up play if you are looking for that; he is 2/7 on successful dribbles, had 129 total passes, and registered an assist.
Looking farther back, last season was far better for him as had 9 goals, again all inside the box, in 861 minutes, because he also wasn't a consistent starter that season. His stats for VVV-Venlo are nothing short of incredible, though. He overshot his xG of 20.5 with 26 goals. Of them two were outside of the box goals and 4 were headers, he also got one assist. To but a bit of a damper on this parade, though, 8 of the goals were penalties and the Eredivisie is known to be exceptionally easy to score in. That being said they are still some very good stats.
All in all I am very pleased with this news, we desperately need some fire power before the start of the season and Giakoumakis seems to be a great fit. He is big, physical and a target man in the box who has proved he can score and it isn't just a pipe dream as there is a lot of coverage saying we are the frontrunners to get the Greek's signature.