I personally don’t think we’ll buy a CB because of the ability to dribble. It is not obvious why Lindelof and Maguire (also Varane) have so low numbers of take-ons a/dribbles. Is it lack of ability, their style or instructions? It’s nice with a CB who makes a dribble, but it is not nice with a CB who fails a dribble, as it is often quite dangerous .Failed and succesful dribbles:
Failed dribbles
Player | Failed dribbles | Succesful dribbles |
White | 17 | 24 |
Kounde | 11 | 32 |
Maguire | 7 | 6 |
Torres | 5 | 29 |
Varane | 3 | 7 |
Lindelof | 2 | 2 |
It is risk management. How many goals do you score extra because your CB is dribbling and how many extra do you concede. Maguire failed 7 and was successful 6 times, Lindelof failed 2 out of 4, do we want them to dribble more? Did they create anything? But Torres on the other hand has a very high success rate, then it might be worth it, if he creates something with his dribbles.
You misinterpret the stats when you say the others offer more when comes to carrying the ball. You need to consider how many matches they have played otherwise it is not relevant. Here are the same stats but per 90 minutes and you'll see it looks quite different.
Carried distance, our CBs have pretty much the same figures:
Torres | 339 |
Lindelof | 318 |
Maguire | 317 |
Varane | 315 |
Kounde | 308 |
White | 199 |
Progressive distance is also quite similar between our CBs, Maguire’s is about 8% more than Lindelof and Kounde. Maguire and Kounde have more progressive carries, but shorter, compared to the others.
Torres | 219 |
Maguire | 192 |
Lindelof | 176 |
Kounde | 176 |
Varane | 148 |
White | 107 |
Kounde is at the top when it comes to progessive passing (distance per 90 min):
Kounde | 440 |
Torres | 408 |
Lindelof | 368 |
Maguire | 364 |
Varane | 327 |
White | 266 |