Gabriel Magalhães may be heading to Arsenal soon from Lille. The 22-year-old was a solid defender at a Premier League standard this season in Ligue 1 and the UCL. He's an outstanding tackler and very good in the air on dead balls.
Magalhães played quite a different style at Lille to what Arteta is likely to use at Arsenal next season. But he did cover the flank when the left back got forward, as our smartermap shows:
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In terms of playing style, the closest match for Magalhães among Premier League LCBs in recent seasons is Yerry Mina, another veteran of the Brasilerão. Mina is a better overall defender, but he's quite a bit more experienced, too. Will he be worth €30m+? A calculated risk.
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P.S. Just to be clear, we're asking if Magalhães will be worth €30m+, not Mina!
Pro: 22-year-old natural LCBs with solid numbers don't come along too often.
Con: Low ball retention is something to keep an eye on, and he hasn't been flagged as a smarterscout young prospect.
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First off, the basics. Vlahović has a total of 13 non-penalty goals and assists in about 3,000 league minutes over two seasons at Juventus. (Juventus! In Serie A!) You don't need fancy stats to say that's not too impressive. But let's look at the fancy stats anyway....
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Vlahović's attacking output in our models has actually declined since he left Fiorentina. His ball retention has also been decidedly lousy. So what's special about him? He's an avid defender and a great finisher. But let's find out just why he looks like such a deadeye....
Chelsea's new owners spent more than £550m in the transfer market – what did they get, and how have the players performed?
We start at the top with Enzo Fernández. Though his attacking output is down, his numbers are similar to at Benfica:
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Next, Wesley Fofana. He has also looked good, though not quite as good as at Leicester. And playing wide in a back three tends to boost metrics (more attacking opportunities, fewer backstop defending plays):
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Mykhailo Mudryk. There was supposedly a battle to sign him, but we warned about his poor finishing. Pretty sure we got that one right. But even his underlying attacking output is way down from Shakhtar.
He's now 23 and was never flagged as a smarterscout young prospect. His attacking output was decent last season (even at Atleti!), but he rarely got shots off for a striker. His finishing and skills are so-so at a Premier League standard:
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A big reason behind the drop in João Félix's attacking output this season has been lower shot quality. But his shots were never so great for a striker – we'd want to see something more like 0.15 to 0.20 xG per shot:
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Here are João Félix's shot maps in open play from this season and last at striker. Lots of lousy long-range efforts and, when he's successful, finishes from the edge of the six-yard box. Feast or famine.
THREAD: Where does Enzo Fernández fit in at Chelsea?
We flagged him as a smarterscout young prospect in 2021 with Defensa y Justicia, and just two years later he's a World Cup winner heading for the Premier League. His overall stats at a PL standard are amazing:
The main caution with Enzo Fernández is that his skill ratings are pretty average for the Premier League so far. But he's an aggressive player on both sides of the ball. He's a very attacking DM, involved in the majority of Benfica's goals when on the pitch:
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But the majority of Enzo Fernández's attacking comes from incisive passing – he hardly gets into the box at all, as our smartermap shows:
A short thread on Casemiro. At age 30, he's still a very aggressive defender with high ball retention and good attacking output at a Premier League standard. But his defending quality has been dropping, and he's been relatively worse in the #UCL.
Casemiro covers a lot of ground but stayed quite central for Real Madrid last season. He doesn't come out to cover on the flanks very often, and he rarely gets in to the box. That doesn't stop him from taking pot shots, though....
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Right now Casemiro has a lot in common with countryman Fernandinho in his early 30s. Casemiro is better in the air but worse in 1v1s. He also dribbles less and does more progressive passing than Fernandinho did back then.
Norwich have signed forward Milot Rashica ("hra-SHEET-sa") from Werder Bremen for €11m. We've been following him since 2015 – and he hasn't been as productive lately as he was in 2018-19. Let's find out why not.
Stats at a Premier League standard:
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As you can see above, Rashica has played mainly as a striker for Werder Bremen, with great skill in 1v1s but declining attacking output. His style hasn't changed much, but his passing has gotten less aggressive and his dribbling has declined a little bit:
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The share of Rashica's ball progression contributions from receiving doubled since 2018-19, while the share from passing is about the same. The remainder is his individual actions – so he's not taking the ball forward and winning as many duels as he used to: