Frank Lampard revealed during his team’s tour of the USA that Everton are searching for a number six type player to provide their midfield with more balance. But could Leander Dendoncker prove the answer?
Fabrizio Romano reports that Everton want to sign an extra quality midfielder and Lampard has Dendoncker, who is appreciated by both board and manager, on his list with the Blues ready to explore the move in the coming weeks.
Originally arriving at Wolverhampton Wanderers on loan back in 2018, the Belgian international has played 154 games in English football so far, scoring 12 goals. But could he be the answer that Everton are looking for? In terms of pure style, the 27-year-old seems to fit the bill given that Comparisonator’s Similarity Comparison algorithm places Arsenal’s Granit Xhaka, and Manchester United’s Nemanja Matic – now reunited with Jose Mourinho once more at Roma – as the Premier League players from last season most like him in style having both been calculated as having matches of 79%.
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But when it comes to attributes in a midfield holding role, what does Dendoncker actually bring? When compared to his Premier League peers in his position last term, the one area he came top of the class in was for headed shots with 0.18 per game, ahead of Leicester City’s Wilfred Ndidi (0.17) and West Ham United’s Tomas Soucek (0.14) while Everton’s Abdoulaye Doucoure was next up on 1. A useful attribute perhaps and given that Dendoncker stands at 6ft 2in, perhaps not too much of a surprise.
He was also good at retaining possession given that only Leicester City’s Nampalys Mendy (2.38) had fewer ball losses than his 2.89 with West Ham United’s Declan Rice next best on 2.93. However, given that Lampard wants to put more of his own stamp on Everton’s style of play next season, Dendoncker’s low placings among passing figures might cause concern.
The former Anderlecht man was just 44th for passes with 34.72 per game (leader Jordan Henderson of Liverpool had 83.59); 39th for successful passes on 31 (Manchester City’s Rodri led here with 75.56); 44th for key passes, and had no successful key passes at all. How do those figures look against Everton’s existing players in the position, though?
When going head-to-head with Allan, Dendoncker received more passes (28.58 to 25.83); made more key passes (0.33 to 0.23) and more successful key passes (0.12 to 0.08). However, the Brazilian outperformed him in eight other passing areas: Passes (37.49 to 33.55); successful passes (30.72 to 30.03); long passes (1.42 to 0.5); successful long passes (0.77 to 0.21); passes to the final third (11.63 to 7.88); successful passes to the final third (8.39 to 6.35); crosses (0.35 to 0.21) and successful crosses (0.15 to 0.04).
Both offensive and duels parameters are a mixed bag between the pair but the differences in their defensive figures is stark with just Dendoncker’s aforementioned ball losses better than Allan’s 4.16. However, the Blues player is ahead when it comes to ball recoveries (4.73 to 3.94); ball recoveries in the opponents half (1.12 to 0.71); interceptions (5.5 to 4.11); ball losses in his own half (0.92 to 1.12); ball losses in his own half that led to a shot in 20 seconds (0.35 to 0.46); defensive actions (20.71 to 13.94) and successful defensive actions (12.7 to 8.63). It’s a similar story against Doucoure, who is also ahead of him in all the same categories while he also makes more passes.
With just one year left on his existing contract, perhaps Everton reckon they might be able to tempt Wolves over Dendoncker in a manner they have so far not been able with Morgan Gibbs-White. However he is understood to have an option to extend by a year so that might not be straightforward either. As well as being a player that Lampard supposedly likes, director of football Kevin Thelwell will, like Gibbs-White, be aware of his attributes from his own time at Molineux. But while familiarity might bring reassurances, based on these figures at least, it might prove prudent for the pair to start casting their scouting net a bit wider.
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.
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