Who Could Realistically Replace Crysencio Summerville? Have We Found The Uzbek Messi?!
In todays episode we take a look at some completed transfer deals and a few interesting transfer rumours that are flying around in the January transfer window.
Here are the charts and diagrams from this episode.
We look at three players today who have either moved on to a new team, or are strongly rumoured to do so in this January transfer window. So how will the teams losing these stand out players manage to fill the gap they leave behind? Those who have listened to the podcast will now that we look at things from a different perspective. We don't want to know who the good players are..... we want to know who the most APPROPRIATE players are to fill that specific role they leave behind.
In order to do that our resident guest David Bromley works his magic and turns the columns and columns of data that would melt your brain in five minutes, into a visual chart that allows us to see how similar one player is to another. First we select the main key performance indicators that contribute to their individual playing style. In short, the things that make them play the way they do.
Each player that makes the long list of around 250 players is plotted on a scatter graph along with our individual players we have chosen to focus on this week. We then find our selected player and draw a circle around him. The closer another player is positioned on the graph, the more alike these players are.
We then make a short list of 20 players which we would look to send to our technical scouts to view recorded footage..... and maybe 1-3 of those players would be considered viable to have our in person scouts to watch and assess.
David explains it much better than me! It's an episode that is well worth watching through our youtube channel so you can follow us as we walk through the charts. Just click here.
Jobe Bellingham is reportedly interesting Newcastle United FC. We take a look at the young player who has been, in spite of his young age, an effective contributor for Sunderland FC this season.
The classy Crysencio Summerville has been the class act from an attacking perspective in the EFL Championship this season. It's no surprise to see our number one ranked attacking contributor attracting the interest of the mighty Liverpool FC.
Finn Azaz has completed a move from Aston Villa to Middlesbrough... but really the biggest loser here is Plymouth Argyle where his outstanding form has no doubt won him this move from the South West to the North East.
Hayden Hackney has also been causing a stir of late with top EPL teams flocking to watch him and we felt it would be interesting to see whether he and Finn Azaz were similar.... and whether Boro saw Azaz as the replacement for the inevitable outgoing Hackney. It was a theory that we thought would be interesting, and it was.
Another player leaving via Plymouth was Wolverhampton Wanderers' Lee Cundle. We thought it only fair to talk about his move to Stoke to reunite with his previous manager Steven Schumacher..... did Schumacher know that Cundle and Azaz were likely on their way out the door before he left for Stoke?
We find some really interesting players that are maybe not even on your radar. Players like Jesur Jalollidinov who some call the Uzbek Messi..... will he be a household name one day? Or another player that when thoroughly assessed will be filtered out with countless others. I guess time will tell.
We also pay tribute to the great Franz Beckenbauer, a true legend of the game and someone who David and I feel changed the centre half/sweeper position from one of destruction, to one of creativity and class. To think that Bayern Munich were a 2nd division team before Beckenbauer pulled them to greatness, and they've stayed at the top of the German game ever since.
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