Friday, July 11, 2014

Is Marco Reus the 'dream signing'?

It seems some people believe that Marco Reus would be the 'dream signing' for us.  Well, other than the fact that he would cost at least £35m to sign him, yes, he would be a great pick up, but do we really need him? I don't think so, he is a better all-round attacking midfielder than Sterling and Coutinho, but he's also 6 years older than the former and 3 years senior the latter. Let's look at their outputs from last season:

Marco ReusCoutinhoSterling
age252219
app(subs)26(4)28(5)24(9)
mins220823232220
p9024.525.824.7
goals1659
assist1375
chances906451
npgp900.410.190.36
gcp901.180.470.57
ccp903.672.52.06
ap900.530.270.2
ccv14.410.89.7
pass%74.580.681.7
bp%44.536.746.8
sacc%43.628.748.9
shot%14.5720
TTI9017.61112.1
gap901.271.431.26
gsp902.413.022.8
gop901.141.591.54
tgop1.241.321.32
Stats definitions can be found here.

Reus seriously dominates the individual p90s, his 3.67 chance created per 90 is impressive alone, but 14.4% of those are converted into goals, better than both his above counterparts.  His passing overall could improve and probably the most perplexing stat is his goals on pitch 90 being -0.10 less than his team's gop average. Also his true turnover rate is a dismal 17.6, mainly due to his errant passing and being easily dispossessed.

Do we really need to spend £35m on an attacking midfielder? Don't get me wrong, I understand we can play him 'in the hole' behind Sturridge, but we could also you those funds to buy better defenders and not have to try and outscore all of our opponents.  Plus I think we need to give Sterling, Coutinho, and even Jordan Henderson as much time on the pitch as possible to so they can become as good as Reus is now.

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