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It’s no secret that Manchester United are out there for a holding midfielder this summer season.
Their precedence gave the impression 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 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 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 points of the sport? A comparability (through fbref.com) yields attention-grabbing outcomes.
First, arguably an important metric for a defensive midfielder, tackling, reveals a transparent winner – Berge.
His sort out profitable ratio is 58.6%, greater than 10% larger 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 recreation 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 document 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 perfect 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 greatest to Danilo, with all 4 gamers posting comparable outcomes.
The very 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 perfect attacking stats of the 4. He scored 4 targets final season, with an xG of 5. The subsequent highest was Berge on 1.8. Fofana additionally had the perfect help charge. Ugarte very not often joined the assault at PSG and didn’t rating a single objective all season, though he did present two assists.
Fofana additionally led the way in which for objective 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 towards these of Ugarte and it’s simple to see why United are contemplating the Norwegian as a like-for-like different to the Uruguayan.
Nonetheless, the added top supplied by Berge didn’t end in higher aerial dominance and his lack of interceptions and disciplinary figures could also be trigger for concern.
At 26, Berge can also 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 towards the worth level, Fofana should come out of the evaluation as simply the perfect worth for cash, however whether or not he has fairly the profile required by United stays to be seen.
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