Before Mateus Fernandes and Soungoutou Magassa, there was Ngal’ayel Mukau. West Ham United reportedly looked closely at the Lille midfielder before raiding Southampton and Monaco in late-August.
The similarities between Mukau and Amadou Onana were obvious.
West Ham made a series of bids for Onana before Lille accepted an offer from Everton in the summer of 2022. The emergence of Ngal’ayel Mukau at the Stade Pierre Mauroy, it was felt, offered West Ham United the chance to make amends.
The jury is OUT on Sountougou Magassa! What have you made of him so far?
What does he need to improve to nail down a starting spot?
But as Mukau’s Lille faced off against Onana’s Aston Villa in the Europa League round-of-16 on Thursday night, the gulf between the latter and the former did not take long to shine through.
West Ham United-linked Ngal’ayel Mukau struggles vs Aston Villa
While the Birmingham Mail awarded Onana their Man of the Match award on the back of a typically imposing, powerhouse performance – the sort of performance which endeared him to West Ham while at Lille – Mukau was hauled off after 66 minutes.
The feeling in the French press being that the youngster squandered the chance to make a lasting impression on a Lille predecessor.
“The Congolese midfielder struggled to truly impose himself in the middle of the park,” write Maxifoot, handing Mukau a lowly match rating of 5/10.
“His physical presence was evident in duels, but his use of the ball remained too passive to advance Lille’s play. Against a disciplined English side, Les Dogues’ influence remained limited before he was substituted.”
Reported valued at £17 million by Lille, this was not a performance which suggested Mukau is ready to cross the Channel and play week-in, week-out against English opposition.
Soungoutou Magassa has a lot to prove with the Hammers
The Belgian-born DR Congo international – a teammate of Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s at the World Cup hopefuls – is not even a guaranteed starter at Lille.
He’s made more Ligue 1 appearances off the bench [11] than he has in the XI this term [10].
Kante has just given Nuno something to think about! 🇫🇷
What did you make of his performance?
Mukau offered little protection defensively against Villa; one tackle and no interception. And while a 92 per cent pass completion rate looks impressive, it is worth remembering Maxifoot criticised him for his overly ‘passive’ distribution.
Mukau also missed one of Lille’s best chances in a frustrating 1-0 home defeat, slotting narrowly wide from a tempting cut-back.
Soungoutou Magassa has his critics at West Ham; the jury most certainly out seven months on from that £14 million move from Monaco and some asking if Mohamadou Kante may be about to leapfrog him in the pecking order.
There has been little this season to suggest that Mukau would have been a better use of last summer’s transfer budget, though.
Receive a digest of our best West Ham content each week direct to your mailbox
