Tielemans vs Paqueta. Who should Arsenal sign? by Zikora
Arsenal are interested in signing a new midfielder to bolster our ranks and the two main players touted for a move are Youri Tielemans of Leicester and Lucas Paqueta. But which of the two should Arsenal sign?
We have already signed Fabio Vieira who plays as an advanced playmaker in a three. He got 14 assists in Liga Portugal last season and averaged 1.3 key passes per game. He got a 7.45 average rating on Sofa Score which, albeit he plays in a lower league, is higher than all the current Arsenal midfielders. He did score 6 goals, meaning he had 20g/a in the league and 22g/a in all comps, this shows that he is a creative force that can also add goals to the team. But his defensive numbers tell a whole new story, he makes just under 1 tackle per game and a pitiful 0.4 interceptions per game, telling us he lacks the defensive acumen to play deep. Now, let’s look at Paqueta and Tielemans’ stats head-to-head and then in comparison to Vieira.
Attacking statistics (all comps)
………………Lucas Paqueta – Youri Tielemans – Fabio Vieira
Goals…………….. 11……….. 7…………. 7
Assists …………….7……….. 5………… 15
Shots (per game)….. 2.5 ……….1.3……….. 1.6
Key Passes (per game) 1.4 ……….1.0……….. 1.3
Dribbles (per game) ..2.1………. 0.9……….. 0.8
Touches (per game) ..60.7……… 67.6………. 38.4
Big chances missed …11……….. 2…………. 2
Big chances created 15 8 16
Defensive statistics (all comps)
………………….Lucas Paqueta – Youri Tielemans – Fabio Vieira
Tackles (per game)……. 1.9………… 0.8………….. 0.7
Interpt (per game) …….0.3………… 0.5………….. 0.4
Fouls (per game)……… 1.8………… 1.1………….. 0.7
As shown in the tables above Paqueta brings the most to the table defensively, and is also the best in the attacking sense; he scored the most goals and second most assists while shooting the most, dribbling the most and making more key passes than everyone else. But he did miss 11 big chances last season showing he’s wasteful but that may just come with the fact that he shoots more than everybody else.
Fabio Vieira is the weakest in defence but second best in attack, he created three times more assists than Tielemans and more than double Paqueta’s 7. He created the most big chances and second most key passes per game. Although he sees the ball the least and has the lowest dribble numbers out of all of them.
Finally, analysis of Tielemans numbers paint a disappointing picture as he is seemingly the worst attacking threat and even though he played in deeper positions than the Paqueta he had less than half of his tackles per game and was only a marginally higher number of interceptions per game. He created half of Paqueta and Vieira big chances, had the least assists and the second least dribbles per game. He did, however, have the most touches of the ball showing his teammates trust him to distribute it well.
The stats at least show that Tielemans is the worst player – at least based on last season – out of all of them, most definitely in attack but also doesn’t really have the defensive numbers to give him the boost he so desperately needs.
Of course, Arsenal have already signed Vieira so that cannot be changed but it seems to me personally that Paqueta is the one to go for.
My few concerns are that Paqueta hasn’t been consistent over the past few seasons unlike Tielemans who has been and also doesn’t play as deep as Tielemans can and often does. If Paqueta is signed the midfield suddenly becomes very attacking and without much deep lying playmakers such as Tielemans is.
If Paqueta is signed then perhaps Odegaard can take on a deeper role on the left while Paqueta plays Central Attacking Midfield and Vieira plays centrally on the right in the middle of the park.
In contrast if Youri Tielemans is signed, he can play as a deep lying playmaker on the right, while Fabio plays Left Centre Midfield, in a little more advanced position above the half way line, then Odegaard can play CAM drifting to right when we are attacking.
But at the end of the day as fans we do not decide who is coming in and we will have to wait and see who Arteta and Edu decide on, and hope it’s the right decision.
Zikora
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