Anfield Index
Thursday, August 13, 2020, 7:00 a.m. UTC
Following the sale of Dejan Lovren to Zenit in St. Petersburg, Liverpool connected with several defenders to upgrade the Croatian in their squad.
Aissa Mandi, Ben White and Ozan Kabak have been warned as possible targets for the Anfield club in the hope that the Reds will fill the Lovren, back up halfway from the center at the moving market and sell the youth and leave Nat Phillips. Ki-Jana Hoever and Sepp Van Den Berg to the teeth.
Despite all the failures of the former Southampton players, basically similar to concentration and positioning, Lovren possessed a feature – air dominance – that Liverpool will have to locate in which it will point out to update it.
During his stay at Anfield, the Croatian foreigner averaged an average rate of good fortune in a 67.5% aerial duel and Jurgen Klopp appeared to turn to the 31-year-old opposed to the opposition with a strong centre forward.
In context, Virgil van Dijk, one of the world’s top dominant defenders, has won about 80.4% of his headbutt since his time in the Premier League with Celtic in 2015. Similarly, Joel Matip, who recently connected with Paris Saint Germain, has won 77.2% of his air-court clashes since joining the Reds in a loose Schalke move in the summer of 2016.
However, as an ex-defense, Gomez’s only mastery of experience that can be weak is his skill in the air. During his career at Anfield to date, the former Charlton Academy product has won only 60% of its headlines.
Next to Van Dijk or Matip – and with the skinny Fabinho also helping him – Gomez’s lack of aerial prowess is not a problem, but defensively opposite a situation in which the Dutchman and the Cameroonian are injured – touch everything to have. wooden – the Londoner will have to consolidate the opposing team to the long balls and the stopped shots – play alongside some other defender.
To counter this approach, Liverpool will want 3 dominant central media in the air to complement Gomez and mitigate his lack of air dominance, given the threat of injury and the fact that Englishman, when it has compatibility, will often play.
When evaluating the 3 Mandi, White and Kabak, there is a transparent winner in terms of air capability and that is the foreign Turk of the Schalke.
During his two seasons in the Bundesliga, the first with Stuttgart and then last season, with Schalke, galatasaray’s former cap recorded an average rate of good fortune in an air duel of 71.7%. This aggression and air capability give Kabak an advantage over Liverpool’s other movement targets.
Mandi, the 28-year-old Algerian central at Real Betis, has won a little more than part of his head – 56% – in the last 3 seasons at La Liga. Given his age and the fact that he is only 6’0″, it is hard to believe that Mandi is better enough to give Liverpool what he wants and that the Reds would benefit most if they made a move for the former Reims.
White, who inspired Marcelo Bielsa in Leeds, scored the trio’s worst score in terms of good air fortune; winning 52% of their air duels.
With his position, endowed with a good sense of interceptions and, in Gomez’s mold, progressive with the ball, the defender owned by Brighton is an impressive prospect. But his lack of air superiority discourages Liverpool from seeking his signature, as well as the fact that the Seagulls would rate up to 4000,000 euros for an in no-time Premier League player.
Among players related to a move to Liverpool to upgrade to Lovren, Kabak, which may reportedly be available for around 20,000,000 euros, is appropriate.
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caught offside