The bargain £7m striker who could rejuvenate Fulham’s forward line - if Raúl Jiménez's form fails

A couple of recent defeats to teams who made the top four last season notwithstanding, Fulham have made a fine start to the new Premier League campaign. They sit in mid-table, mostly only bettered by teams that make and spend considerably more money. But with the January transfer window moving slowly closer, Marco Silva seems to be looking at ways he can make things even better.

One potential area of concern going forward is the central striker role. Raúl Jiménez has been in fine fettle thus far, and has scored four in his eight appearances, perhaps his best run of form since the horrifying head injury he sustained while playing for Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2020. For now, that means that there isn’t an issue, but the question stands – what happens if Jiménez, who is 33 and hasn’t hit double figures in the league since the 2019/20 season, runs out of steam?

Rodrigo Muniz hit a rich vein of goal-scoring form in the second half of last season, but he has managed just one since the start of the new campaign and looks some way from his best. Meanwhile, the only other centre-forward on the books, Carlos Vinícius, is injured and has in any case failed to prove that he can hit the back of the net with regularity since arriving in the Premier League a few seasons ago with Tottenham Hotspur.

In other words, Fulham are currently reliant on strikers whose form has, at best, waxed and waned over recent years in order to keep the goals flowing – and adding another option up front may well be a smart move. All of which may explain a rumour which has persistently cropped up in the continental media in recent weeks, which links the Cottagers with a bid for KRC Genk striker Tolu Arokodare.

The 23-year-old Nigerian striker has hit his straps over the last year or so, and has scored seven goals in his first 11 games of the season in the Belgian Pro League, maintaining a record of scoring at a rate of more than once every 180 minutes since arriving at Genk at the start of 2023 following stints in Latvia, Germany and the French second tier.

Sport Witness have picked up on the most recent reports from the Belgian media, which see the striker playing down reports linking him to Fulham in typical, media-trained fashion – but the stories have come round several times in the recent past, and if there isn’t a fire then there has certainly been a considerable amount of smoke. So if Fulham do make a move this winter, would Arokodare be the answer?

He's certainly built in a similar mould to strikers like Jiménez and Muniz. At 6’6” tall, he’s a towering presence and has many of the attributes you would expect a number nine of such proportions to have – strength, prowess in the air and the ability to hold the ball up and opposing defenders off.

A powerful player with the ball in the air, he has nevertheless developed his finishing with his feet, too, and only one of his goals so far this season has been a header. His first touch is improving and he looks like a nightmare to mark. There’s still work to do, however, and despite scoring at a consistently impressive clip since joining Genk, he is undershooting his xG. A tendency to go for power over placement may explain that in part, but he does miss presentable chances, even though his movement and physicality mean he can force himself into dangerous areas enough to make up for that.

So the question is, in part, whether he has the nous to make space for himself and generate the same volume of chances against defenders at the very top level. Few centre-backs in the Premier League will be able to out-muscle him, but his technique would be tested.

The other big question is whether his hold-up play as a number nine counts for anything – and that’s another area in which he has been plainly getting better, and while playing at a lower level will naturally inflate some of his figures, he has been creating shooting chances with his lay-offs and knock-downs at a faster rate than Jiménez or Muniz in recent years. He has generated opportunities half as often again as the veteran Mexican.

In other words, he has the physicality and, increasingly, the nous and ability to link up play to succeed. The debate is whether he has the technique to succeed at the highest level, and the skill to make sure he gets enough chances. Or, perhaps, the debate is over whether Fulham actually need another forward, because if Raúl Jiménez keeps up his current pace then the goals will keep flowing without reinforcements.