Maybe one of the best January signing Manchester United have ever made was a deal to carry Bruno Fernandes to Previous Trafford. He signed from Sporting CP for upwards of £67.7m together with add-ons, the fifth costliest January deal of all time.
Fernandes’ impression on the membership has been unfathomable. He’s the United captain and has performed 268 instances for the membership. In that point, he has scored 88 targets and registered 77 assists, a outstanding file.
Maybe United’s most up-to-date reported January goal can have the identical impression as their Portuguese Magnifico.
Man Utd’s seek for a striker
The participant in query right here is Juventus ahead Dusan Vlahovic. Based on a report from Graeme Bailey, the Purple Devils are thought to have enquired about his present ‘state of affairs at Juventus’, and will pursue a late transfer.
They’ll face competitors from some massive Premier League rivals. North Londoners Arsenal and prime 4 contenders Aston Villa have additionally requested Juve in regards to the striker’s state of affairs. Given it appears unlikely he’ll signal a brand new deal, there’s a probability they might carry him in.
Why Vlahovic could be signing
Regardless of an absence of alternatives beneath Juventus supervisor Thiago Motta, Vlahoivc has nonetheless been in spectacular type through the 2024/25 marketing campaign. He has performed 28 video games up to now this time period and has 13 targets and two assists in that point.
Maybe the striker’s most important contribution this marketing campaign got here in opposition to Manchester Metropolis within the Champions League. He scored one objective in Juve’s 2-0 win over the Premier League champions. It’s actually a strike that may resonate with the Purple Devils followers.
Ought to United get a deal for the Serbian “monster” – as hailed by analyst Ben Mattinson – over the road, he may very well be an ideal different signing to Bayern Munich attacker Mathys Tel. The Frenchman appears unlikely to make the transfer to Previous Trafford, in line with Jamie Jackson.
Now, there is no such thing as a doubt that Vlahovic and Tel are barely totally different gamers. The Juve man is an out-and-out centre-forward, whereas Tel is extra versatile and might play up entrance or out on the wing.
Nonetheless, United want targets on the minute, so it’s absolutely not a lot of a problem for the Purple Devils. The truth is, to get an thought of how good of an alternate Tel could be to Vlahovic, you possibly can evaluate them statistically on FBref.
Utilizing knowledge from the previous two home top-flight seasons in Italy and Germany respectively, Vlahovic’s pure striker intuition shines by means of, as proven by his anticipated targets tally of 0.65xG in comparison with simply 0.31xG for Tel.
Moreover, the Serbian worldwide is somebody who can carry teammates into the sport and truly averages 0.93 key passes per 90 minutes over the previous two seasons. That’s barely greater than Tel, who performs 0.9 key passes per recreation.
|
Vlahovic & Tel key stats in contrast |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Stat (per 90) |
Vlahvoic |
Tel |
|
Anticipated targets |
0.65xG |
0.31xG |
|
Targets per shot heading in the right direction |
0.35 |
0.33 |
|
Targets |
0.59 |
0.48 |
|
Shot-creating actions |
2.53 |
3.38 |
|
Key passes |
0.93 |
0.9 |
|
Stats from FBref |
||
Signing Vlahoivc may very well be the right different transfer to Tel. The Frenchman appears unattainable for United now, however the probability to signal Vlahovic, a “lethal” striker as Mattinson described him, may be too good to be true.
This may very well be United’s dream signing, and maybe find yourself being their greatest January addition since Fernandes 5 years in the past.
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