Lowdown on Lacazette

After scoring 21 goals in Ligue 1 this season, Alexandre Lacazette appears to have caught the attentions of several clubs around Europe.

West Ham have shown their intent, with a £31m bid rejected on Tuesday, while there have been reports that Manchester United and Liverpool are also interested.

But what would the 24-year-old bring to the Premier League and how much is it likely to cost to lure him away from Lyon? We look at some of the key questions…

Why all the fuss?

Lacazette’s profile has increased significantly over the last couple of years.

From scoring 23 league goals combined in his first three seasons as a regular starter, in 2014/15 he notched 27 times to finish as top scorer in France, and also won the Ligue 1 Player of the Year award.

He started slow this season, only scoring five times in the first 15 games, but finished strongly to end up second behind Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the scoring charts.

At 5ft 9in, he is not as strong in the air as Ibrahimovic and far less of a target man. Instead, he likes to get involved with play, linking up with fellow forwards – mainly Maxwel Cornet and Rachid Ghezzal this season – and helping create opportunities in and around the box.

He created 43 chances in the league this season, had a shot accuracy of 57 per cent, and in 2014/15 he had the best chance conversion rate in Ligue 1 (35 per cent).

While that has dropped off this year, only three players in France contributed to a bigger percentage of their team goals than Lacazette (32 per cent). He was also rated as the second best striker in …

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