Would Ruben Neves improve our midfield? - This thread contains statistics

Ekeke

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The answer is maybe. He hasnt been in good form this season and because of Pogba's injuries we've used our 2nd choice combination of McTominay & Fred a lot. He's actually performed worse than both of them this season.

You say he'd make lots of long passes, but Pogba when fit and playing Pogba makes 7.4 accurate long passes per 90 mins, while Neves makes 5.9 accurate long passes per 90 mins. He'd make more than Fred and McTominay, but they both put in more work off the ball than Neves does. So you'd be losing that competitive edge in midfield to add an extra long pass per game.

On top of that, Fred's issue as a DM is that while he works hard and attempts to make a lot of challenges, he actually gets beaten by a dribble more often than he wins the ball. Thats exactly the same with Neves who is beaten 1.8 times per 90 minutes, and wins the challenge 1.4 times. Fred is beaten 3.5 times and wins the ball 2.2 times, so more of a workload and effort but the same issue. At least with Fred he's a trier and is doing a lot of legwork for the team getting around the pitch

Unless his form improved at United, it would be a sideways move from Fred. And Fred is our 3rd choice DM after Pogba and McTominay.

Considering that last season Pep said he'd love to have Neves but he heard Wolves would want around £100 million for him, then we'd obviously not be getting anywhere near our money's worth even if he did do a little bit better than our 3rd choice DM. If Wolves were instead reasonable about the fact he hasnt been that good then it might be worth trying to sign him.
 

AltiUn

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I think he's a good player (he's nowhere near as good as he seems to be rated on here) but I don't think he'd improve us to the point he would ever justify the fee we'd have to pay for him. I don't really want us paying upwards of £80m for a player I personally don't believe would be a significant upgrade, for the sort of money they'd ask for you'd want a player who massively improves you.
 

Hoof the ball

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Regarding high percentages of long passes, I think it's important to take into consideration that key variables exist which potentially decrease that number. For eg. not all long balls are created equal. If I switch the ball diagonally, often, and this comprises of the vast majority of my long passes then my percentage is going to rise dramatically. It will look impressive on a statistic sheet, yet it won't tell someone how creative my long passes are. However, players who attempt more high risk, high reward long passes, are expected to take a drop in percentage to account for those pass choices.
 

Walters_19_MuFc

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Very good stats. Didn't think he'd be that high. Nevertheless, I would certainly have him here, as we're desperate for a deep-lying playmaker.

We lack that player who can switch play effortlessly and create 1v1s in wide areas. People used to moan about Rooney's switch of play to Valencia, but we scored countless goals from it.

Going forward, if we can get a player like Neves, playing him in a double pivot with Fred/McTominay would create a good balance.

Scholesy and Carrick's stats, though! :drool:
 

FootballHQ

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Yes.

Moutinho actually would've been a good pick up aswell to take over that Carrick role for a few years.
 

Ekeke

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Also it seems clear that you havent filtered out position so you've included data from when players are playing in the hole or the #10 role, where the description of the data you are comparing is set for a CM or DM role which has a lot more defensive responsibility. Players in the AM position are less likely to be able to win the ball as much, nor are they going to be trying to just keep the ball or play a long pass. Their role is more key passes, shooting and having an overall influence on the scoreline. So obviously that data greatly detracts from single-mindedly looking at deep midfielder data. Filter out Banega's games behind the striker and he won the ball a lot more than Scholes for example.

Things which need to be considered that arent in this thread - Dribbling, how often a player attempts to tackle but is beaten by the opponent, key passes, shots on target and goals. Cards.
 

SAFMUTD

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Last season all would had been all over him, but right now he looks as he's regresed. He has an incredible long distance shot but appart from that he has seems very average, we need quality in midfield not just stacking the squad with average players.
 

Adnan

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He's not good enough. He was inconsistent at Porto and was largely dissapointing in the Portuguese league. At Wolves he's been underwhelming apart from a season in the Championship where he was very good. But his performances in the EPL have been very average and in no way is he gonna help us bridge the gap between us and the leaders domestically. There's much better players we can acquire in comparison and in no way should Neves be targeted by us, because he's simply been bang average at Wolves.
 

Freeney

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He's not good enough. He was inconsistent at Porto and was largely dissapointing in the Portuguese league. At Wolves he's been underwhelming apart from a season in the Championship where he was very good. But his performances in the EPL have been very average and in no way is he gonna help us bridge the gap between us and the leaders domestically. There's much better players we can acquire in comparison and in no way should Neves be targeted by us, because he's simply been bang average at Wolves.
You seem to be in the minority of people who actually watch him play regularly. The hype this guy gets here is quite amusing. Not good enough for a top team. If you lack the mobility as he does you need to be better technically and be a better decision maker.