Over the past few weeks, the hype surrounding Krzysztof Piatek died down a bit as the 23-year-old went five games in the league without a goal, until Sunday.
It was just a penalty, as Genoa drew with Sampdoria 1-1, but finding the back of the net will have been a huge boost for the Poland international, and it will have pleased some of the scouts in attendance.
According to Corriere dello Sport, one of the representatives was there on behalf of Manchester United, although we’re not convinced Piatek was the recent of his presence.
While the striker could be of use to José Mourinho, who is cursed with a goalscoring problem since both Romelu Lukaku nor Marcus Rashford (at least against Basel and Crystal Palace) are currently struggling in that department, our guess is the scout was there to watch Joachim Andersen.
The Sampdoria defender has been a named target for the Red Devils for a month or so now, having sent people to watch him in the past, and the Portuguese manager’s insistence on signing a new centre-back over the summer suggests this is an area he’s far more concerned about than up front.
As we mentioned in our Tottenham article on the matter earlier this week, the Denmark international was partly at fault for Piatek’s penalty goal, misjudging the flight of the ball and forcing his goalkeeper to rush out and take out the onrushing striker.
We certainly could have an interesting Spurs-Manchester United battle on our hands here. That is unless Mourinho signs Toby Alderweireld, in which case it won’t be much of a fight at all.
