Everton have been linked with a transfer deadline day move for Luka Jovic but what would the Real Madrid man bring to their side?
Mike McGrath of the Daily Telegraph reports that Everton are considering a loan option for the 24-year-old Serbian international, who would be allowed to depart the Bernabeu in a temporary switch and the ECHO understands the club have mulled over a move for him but their deadline priority remains in midfield.
New Blues boss Frank Lampard of course played under one of his Goodison Park predecessors Carlo Ancelotti – now back in charge of the Spanish giants for a second stint – so there could be a direct line of communications between the clubs.
With Donny van de Beek poised to occupy Everton’s only remaining domestic loan option after they drafted in Anwar El Ghazi from Aston Villa earlier this month, any other loans would have to come from outside of the Premier League.
Jovic joined Real Madrid for €60million in 2019 after netting 27 goals for Eintracht Frankfurt the previous season but has been unable to replicate his prolific form from Germany in La Liga.
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He’s struck just three times in 47 outings for the club, including one in 15 this term and spent last season back at Eintracht on loan where he scored four goals in 18 games.
Everton have endured problems up front this season with last season’s top scorer Dominic Calvert-Lewin missing most of the first half of the campaign through injury.
The England international grabbed 21 goals in 2020/21 but after striking three in as many matches last August he picked up a quadriceps injury that kept him sidelined for four months.
Despite returning to the side against Brighton & Hove Albion on January 2 – a game in which he fired a penalty over the bar – he has looked off the pace as he tries to regain his match sharpness.
Understudy Salomon Rondon, who was brought in on a free transfer on deadline day last summer by the now sacked Rafa Benitez, who he previously played under at Newcastle United and Dalian Pro in China, has struggled to re-adapt to the English game.
The 32-year-old has scored just once in 15 games (curiously an identical record to Jovic in 2021/22) but he did score a hat-trick on Friday for Venezuela in a 4-1 win over Bolivia in the South American qualifiers for the World Cup in his first international match for 14 months.
When using Comparisonator to see how Jovic measures up this season to strikers already operating in the Premier League, he is actually ahead of them all in terms of the number of head shots he gets in per game, suggesting he would make an effective target man and alternative to Calvert-Lewin.
Jovic gets 0.73 per game which is considerably more than his closest challenger Diogo Jota of Liverpool (0.4) and Newcastle United’s Callum Wilson (0.35).
Two Everton players make it into the top 10 with the aforementioned Rondon in fifth with 0.25 and Richarlison at 10 on 0.19.
Another area in which Jovic scores well is shots on target where only Harry Kane of Tottenham Hotspur (1.5) can better his figure of 1.46 while is matched by Jota.
When combining various parameters, Jovic would also lead the Comparisonator Index of strikers with a score of 421.21 and Comparisonator Offensive Index with 375.94 with Jota (402.01 and 333.84) his closes challenger in both categories.
- Comparisonator is a football data comparison tool from 271 professional leagues around the world which compares players and clubs by utilising over 100 different parameters. Click here for more details.
