Yeah he would be for me a 1 for 1 swap with McTominay. Physically they are similar in stature, can both run all day, except Rabiot is quite decent at a lot of DM stuff (or defensive box to box stuff). Fred would likely still be the deepest in terms of receiving the ball first, as Ten Hag likes to have a playmaker pick the ball up off the defenders. But his partner in Rabiot would be secure with the ball, a decent runner with it (not like McTominay trying a run and almost getting a red card), and good defensively unlike McTominay who is all over the place defensively.
Adrien Rabiot | signs 1 year deal at Juventus. See you all next year
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The fact we pulled the plug on the Kovar loan, makes me think we'll stick with him and Heaton as back ups.
You can say having family as an agent in general is a bad idea - I wouldn't be against that. But I don't see what difference it makes to have his mum do the job instead of his dad (even if he was still alive).
I'm sure she's doing a better job than Harry Kane's brother, who looks like he sleeps in a racecar bed and had Harry commit his whole prime to Tottenham for relatively underwhelming wages.
Quality control
His dad is/was man so would obviously do it better, that's why we are paid more in general. His mum will be too emotional. Pay gap schmay gap.
Before I get banned I am obviously joking.
Aye - any family member - dad, brother, mum, cousin-uncle - being your agent is a bit silly I think, especially if you're a top player.
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Shocking.
It's probably true but many top players don't actually have agents and rely on a family member.
Shit use of stats to compare defensive minded players
Yeah. Goals, assists, and chances created... for a role where your job is to screen the defence and safely progress the ball to the players who do create the chances.
Not really the key ones for me being passes and chances created, you can ignore the goals if you like.
Less passes and possessions won than Scotty McFingerbang sign him up!
He's not even a pure DM so the defensive stats shouldn't matter.
Yeah like at least put per 90 stats. Or just do a quick copy and paste of stats from fbref and cherry pick from there. Its like the dumb stats people brought up to say Modrić wasn't a good player 10 years ago. "Doesn't score or assist goals" for a player whose job isn't about scoring goals or making assists.
It doesn't make any difference.
It's the family thing I'd be a bit skeptical about (if anything), not the gender of the family member.
Great analysis, thank you for that. I didn't know anything about him really. This could be a good signing.
Not sure an upgrade at all but it definitely offers alternative setups. We lack of physical presence in midfield.
Here you go if you want a better analysis of what he is as a player rather than the worst display of stats I've seen in my life.
If Rabiot comes in he will likely play a more defensive role, the role that Fred and Mctominay have shown over and over again that they are completely incapable of playing. The fact that he's comfortable in that role is already a big improvement even if you don't think he's more talented or whatever than McFred as it's very clear neither of them can play effectively deep in midfield.
Even if we don't get FDJ he will massively help stabilize the middle for us. He won't solve all of our problems in the midfield but I don't think that's the idea anyway, it sounds like we're signing him in addition to FDJ/SMS/whoever.
Even if we don't get FDJ he will massively help stabilize the middle for us. He won't solve all of our problems in the midfield but I don't think that's the idea anyway, it sounds like we're signing him in addition to FDJ/SMS/whoever.
Yeah, that's fair enough as I've said. Was about @antohan's post where he's said that fathers as agents are bad news half the time and mothers as agents are bad news all the time.
Can’t we sign tielemans for an extra 10m? Much rather him then rabiot.
Oh, I ain't touching that - you have to ask him.
That's the thing for me as well. Just having somebody who's actually capable of playing as the deepest midfielder, even if they're bang average, would be a huge difference to us.
Even if our midfield is then DM, Fred, Bruno/Eriksen, it's so much better than having either McT or Fred just in front of the defence, where both of them are an absolute bombscare.
This makes sense. Plus if we’re only paying 15m for him then that’s not bad but only if it’s to have him aswell as another midfielder. Him on his own is nowhere near enough but him plus de Jong or SMS like you said wouldn’t be bad at all.
Agree the first part. No SMS for me.
Hey just putting it out there, there are ways to shit on him as a player (he's not perfect and has a lot of weaknesses and wasn't good last season) without putting out a dumb graphic that says "hahaha look at this DM doesn't score or create, useless, let's laugh at mcfrediot".
I see Rabiot very much a signing instead of FDJ. Stylistically they are very similar: can receive a pass with their back to play, keep possession, comfortable moving away from defenders, like dribbling through the centre of the pitch. I very much doubt we will sign both and expect this has picked up pace as we are very much expecting FDJ to stay at Barca or join someone else.
We had Matic for the past 4 seasons and he's isn't bang average but playing alongside Pinky and Perky you're up against it.
How long is this bloody deal taking??
Same old story.
Even the transfers that are simple, never are with UTD.
Contents not withstanding, why does this look like it's plucked straight out of the 90s?
It wasn't the best, most informative graphic for sure but it's a indication of what you're getting with Rabiot.
I think it's almost universally agreed that he's a pretty mediocre player, the Italian football expert on Sky (Forgot her name sorry) said it best when she claimed she didn't even know what he excelled at.
If a DM in the team is putting out less passes per 90 than Scott McTominay there's cause for concern. He doesn't even recover the ball back as much as Scott either.
Yeah he played because Martial was injured and Ronaldo wasn’t match fit. Nothing to do with getting use to players
Key word “ideally”…
Those stats mean nothing. I guarantee you FDJ who everyone is crying out for probably has less goals assists fouls won than the ones we have too.
Haha, I was in the middle ofreplying to someone else this morning, forgot to finish it, then forgot I had a part-finished post when I made the newest.Did you change your mind halfway through writing a post
My fault for not checking preview before sending.
That very same italian football expert on Sky (Mina Rzouki or something) claimed that she didn't see the point in Liverpool signing Salah and that he was basically Cuadrado with no end product. So.... yeah.
If you actually want to compare, then just check out their actual analytics. Ignore last season as we wouldn't be signing him for what he did last season, but anticipating him to return to what he was before that. Compare that to McTominay before last season since that was disaster for us as well.
- Rabiot is 76th percentile for total passes completed, McTominay is 57th
- Rabiot is 98th percentile for pass success, McTominay is 76th (Rabiot 54th when it comes to progressive passes, McTominay is 65th)
- Rabiot in the 88th percentile for tackles, McTominay in the 44th percentile
- Rabiot in the 90th percentile for dribblers tackled, McTominay in the 47th percentile
- Rabiot in the 72nd percentile for successful pressures, McTominay in the 28th percentile
- Rabiot 70th percentile for touches, McTominay 59th percentile
- Rabiot in 60th and 55th percentile for being dispossessed and miscontrols, McTominay 17th and 29th percentile
- Above point especially relevant when you consider that Rabiot carries the ball far more than McTominay (76th in progressive carries, 83rd for carries into the final 3rd, 79th for carries into the penalty area. McTominay is 67/66/64 for those, while giving it away constantly unlike Rabiot)
Again, he wouldn't be the deep playmaker. He would keep things safe, he wouldn't give it away stupidly, pointless, constantly (what Fred and McTominay repeatedly did on the weekend and the last few years). That's what we need out of the defensive partner to the deep playmaker. Of course, we also need the deep playmaker, hence the pursuit for Frenkie. But even if it's Fred next to Rabiot, it's still a massive improvement. Or Eriksen next to Rabiot. Massive improvement. At this point... just be happy we are signing a midfielder whose best qualities are to do with defending and not giving it away constantly.
Also to add - if you look at his time at PSG when he actually played as the DM and not just a defensive #8, his passing stats were excellent. 90's for progressive passes, total passes, etc. Analytics wise looks like a world class DM according to his PSG time as a DM, but of course it's an easier league, more dominant team, different role/system. But he has shown a high level playing deep before, and at Juve showed still good defensive numbers, but just stopped being progressive with his passing (again, might be system though). He's a player who has shown a high level in things we lack at 2 clubs in 2 leagues. One way or another, he's a massive upgrade on McTominay.
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When people start throwing stats for midfielders, Modric comes to my mind. His goals and assists are worse than many average midfielders have.
Yep. People used to always bring up goals and assists for Modric 10 years ago when they tried to argue he wasn't very good. Idiotic at the time even when analytics weren't a thing in football.
Murtough is on it. So deal is off then
Good post, fair enough I'll take your point.
It just seems like a mess doesn't it and that's more from the clubs side than Rabiot's I suppose.
Oh that is for sure. But that seems to be the case with every signing we go for. Even Eriksen was a free transfer, and we couldn't get it done until after our pre season tour. And as others have said, there are other issues like his mother causing some issues (apparently Rabiot himself hasn't caused issues really), and last season just not being a good one. But he's 27, so no reason to think it isn't a one off in a struggling team. Wages of course he might be asking for way too much, but I think we really should be able to convince him to come without too much trouble, so that's on the negotiating team failing time after time.
At this point though, I'm just so tired of us ignoring the defensive role in our midfield year after year that I'll be happy with him and just want it to get done asap so we can integrate him asap and stop wasting time. Should've been done months ago.
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