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It’s no secret that Manchester United are out there for a holding midfielder this summer time.
Their precedence seemed to be Paris Saint-Germain’s Manuel Ugarte, however the €70 million asking value has postpone the Crimson Devils, who’ve turned their consideration to different stars.
In response to reviews, Burnley’s Sander Berge, AS Monaco’s Youssouf Fofana and Nottingham Forest’s Danilo are all on the shortlist of potential reinforcements.
If reviews are appropriate, the most affordable choice is Fofana at £21 million, adopted by Berge at £30m, Danilo at £34 million and Ugarte mentioning the rear at £60 million.
However how do 4 gamers evaluate by way of totally different points of the sport? A comparability (through fbref.com) yields fascinating outcomes.
First, arguably an important metric for a defensive midfielder, tackling, reveals a transparent winner – Berge.
His deal with successful ratio is 58.6%, greater than 10% greater than the subsequent greatest, Ugarte, who posts comparable stats to the opposite two. Nonetheless, Ugarte makes an attempt twice as many tackles as Berge (4.55 tackles per sport vs 2.27), suggesting that Berge is extra conservative and tends to go in for these he has extra likelihood of successful.
Regardless of this, Berge has simply the worst disciplinary report of the quartet, with 10 yellow playing cards in 2023/24 – double Ugarte’s quantity, though having performed 50% extra matches – and one crimson.
Ugarte was the very best of the 4 by way of interceptions final season at 1.86 per sport, adopted by Danilo at 1.75 per sport, Fofana at 1.23 per sport and Berge at a measly 0.69 per sport.
Unsurprisingly, 6ft 5in Berge tried much more aerial duels than the others (64 vs 14, 17 and 14), however surprisingly, his success fee was second greatest to Danilo, with all 4 gamers posting comparable outcomes.
The very best passer of the 4 final season was Ugarte, whose cross completion fee was an unimaginable 91.2%. Second was Berge with 88.1, third Fofana with 81.2 and Danilo final with 77.7.
Fofana has the very best attacking stats of the 4. He scored 4 targets final season, with an xG of 5. The following highest was Berge on 1.8. Fofana additionally had the very best help fee. Ugarte very not often joined the assault at PSG and didn’t rating a single aim all season, though he did present two assists.
Fofana additionally led the way in which for aim creating actions, with 0.33 per 90, with the opposite three throughout 0.2.
Taking the stats total, Fofana might be the strongest all-rounder however by way of pure defence, Berge’s stats maintain up properly in opposition to these of Ugarte and it’s straightforward to see why United are contemplating the Norwegian as a like-for-like various to the Uruguayan.
Nonetheless, the added peak provided by Berge didn’t lead to higher aerial dominance and his lack of interceptions and disciplinary figures could also be trigger for concern.
At 26, Berge can be the oldest of the 4, with Fofana the subsequent oldest at 25 and the others each 23. That might enable extra room for enchancment in Danilo and Ugarte.
When matching the stats in opposition to the value level, Fofana should come out of the evaluation as simply the very best worth for cash, however whether or not he has fairly the profile required by United stays to be seen.
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