Niclas Fullkrug admits he has had an “absolutely awful” start to life at West Ham, hinting that the move wasn’t right for him.

After his performance against Brighton today, it’s clear to see that Niclas Fullkrug isn’t the right man for Julen Lopetegui. Questions have to be asked over the recruitment of the German because of this; perhaps above all other positions, a striker has to be tailored to a manager’s playing style.

However, Fullkrug isn’t one to kid himself and he openly admits that his time at West Ham so far has been a disaster, largely down to injury problems. “Absolutely awful,” he told Copa TS when asked how his time in East London has been. “Of course, I also had very intensive discussions about such a risky step.”

“Because I knew that I was taking a step deeper and taking a certain risk that I wouldn’t play internationally (in Europe) next year, maybe not the year after that either, and that I would make a big, big change.

“I was aware of that, I communicated a lot with the coach, spoke a lot with Tim Steidten, who I know from my time at Bremen, which is how we got in touch so closely.

“Of course, we had completely different goals. Things were going really badly for me too, to put it bluntly.”

We’ve seen from Scamacca and Haller that their style of striker simply doesn’t suit the Hammers, so it was always going to be risky signing another similar player. Unfortunately, it’s not a risk that’s paid off for either Fullkrug or the club.