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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 accordance with studies, Burnley’s Sander Berge, AS Monaco’s Youssouf Fofana and Nottingham Forest’s Danilo are all on the shortlist of potential reinforcements.
If studies are right, the most affordable choice 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 evaluate by way of totally different points of the sport? A comparability (through fbref.com) yields attention-grabbing outcomes.
First, arguably crucial metric for a defensive midfielder, tackling, reveals a transparent winner – Berge.
His deal with profitable ratio is 58.6%, greater than 10% larger than the subsequent 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 sport vs 2.27), suggesting that Berge is extra conservative and tends to go in for these he has extra likelihood of profitable.
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 purple.
Ugarte was one of the 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 way more aerial duels than the others (64 vs 14, 17 and 14), however surprisingly, his success price was second finest to Danilo, with all 4 gamers posting related outcomes.
The perfect passer of the 4 final season was Ugarte, whose cross completion price was an unimaginable 91.2%. Second was Berge with 88.1, third Fofana with 81.2 and Danilo final with 77.7.
Fofana has one of the 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 one of the best help price. 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 general, 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.
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 subsequent oldest at 25 and the others each 23. That would 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 one of the best worth for cash, however whether or not he has fairly the profile required by United stays to be seen.
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