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It’s no secret that Manchester United are available in the market 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 Purple Devils, who’ve turned their consideration to different stars.
In keeping with stories, Burnley’s Sander Berge, AS Monaco’s Youssouf Fofana and Nottingham Forest’s Danilo are all on the shortlist of potential reinforcements.
If stories are right, the most affordable possibility is Fofana at £21 million, adopted by Berge at £30m, Danilo at £34 million and Ugarte citing the rear at £60 million.
However how do 4 gamers examine when it comes to completely different elements of the sport? A comparability (by way of fbref.com) yields fascinating outcomes.
First, arguably a very powerful metric for a defensive midfielder, tackling, reveals a transparent winner – Berge.
His deal with successful ratio is 58.6%, greater than 10% larger than the following finest, Ugarte, who posts related stats to the opposite two. Nevertheless, Ugarte makes an attempt twice as many tackles as Berge (4.55 tackles per recreation 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 file 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 most effective of the 4 when it comes to interceptions final season at 1.86 per recreation, adopted by Danilo at 1.75 per recreation, Fofana at 1.23 per recreation and Berge at a measly 0.69 per recreation.
Unsurprisingly, 6ft 5in Berge tried much more aerial duels than the others (64 vs 14, 17 and 14), however surprisingly, his success charge was second finest to Danilo, with all 4 gamers posting related outcomes.
One of the best passer of the 4 final season was Ugarte, whose go completion charge 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 most effective attacking stats of the 4. He scored 4 objectives final season, with an xG of 5. The subsequent highest was Berge on 1.8. Fofana additionally had the most effective help charge. Ugarte very hardly ever joined the assault at PSG and didn’t rating a single aim all season, though he did present two assists.
Fofana additionally led the best way 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 when it comes to pure defence, Berge’s stats maintain up nicely 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.
Nevertheless, 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 following oldest at 25 and the others each 23. That would permit 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 most effective worth for cash, however whether or not he has fairly the profile required by United stays to be seen.
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