Oleksandr Zinchenko’s tears at Goodison Park as fellow Ukrainian Vitalii Mykolenko put his arm around him was an image that went far beyond just sport but the Manchester City player might soon be returning to Everton on a permanent basis. After six successful years at the Etihad, it is understood that the 25-year-old could now be surplus to requirements with Pep Guardiola prepared to let him go and the Athletic report that Blues boss Frank Lampard could be prepared to swoop for him.
The Premier League champions are eyeing a move for Brighton & Hove Albion’s Marc Cucurella, potentially pushing Zinchenko down the pecking order but if he was to make the move down the East Lancs Road to Goodison, it seems unlikely that he’d be earmarked to take up the left-back berth currently occupied by compatriot Mykolenko, who was signed for around £17million back in January.
Everton have earmarked bolstering midfield and centre-back as priorities and with a free transfer for Burnley’s out-of-contract James Tarkowski now understood to be done and boxing off the latter, Zinchenko could instead take up a position in the Blues engine room akin to where he often plays for his national team in what is in fact his preferred position. Although he was playing almost exclusively at left-back for City last term – a Champions League group game at home to Paris Saint-Germain being the sole exception – are there any clues from Zinchenko’s statistics from the 2021/22 campaign that point to what he might be able to offer Lampard?
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Looking at Zinchenko’s figures on Comparisonator alongside his Premier League peers operating at left-back, it’s his passing figures that stand out as you would expect from a Manchester City player under Guardiola. Zinchenko is in top spot in the whole division in the position for passes per 90 minutes (83.9); successful passes (76.2); received passes (69.06) and successful passes into the final third (27.35). In all four of these categories, club colleague Joao Cancelo was next best (82.25; 70.17; 67.56 and 25.95) followed by Liverpool’s Andrew Robertson (75.33); 63.08; 56.89 and 19.9).
The same trio also dominated in the key passes category with Cancelo top (1.67) followed by Robertson (1.52) and then Zinchenko (1.12). However, when it came to successful key passes, Zinchenko (0.72) moves up to second behind Robertson (0.79) above team-mate Cancelo (0.49).
Among the offensive tables, Zinchenko was tied for top spot with Robertson for the highest expected assists (0.38) with Manchester United’s Luke Shaw third on 0.34 and when it came to actual assists he was just behind the Reds player who led the division with respective averages of 0.33 and 0.32. Only Cancelo (0.61) managed more shots on target than Zinchenko (0.4) while he was third for overall shots (0.96), again behind Cancelo (1.96) and Arsenal’s Nelson Tavares (1.6).
When it comes to defensive tables, Zinchenko is at the summit for both ball recoveries (6.9) and ball recoveries in the opposition half (2.01) with his nearest challengers in each category being Watford’s Hassane Kamara (6.84) and Burnley’s Charlie Taylor (6.15) plus the aforementioned Shaw (1.83) and Cancelo (1.63). As Ukrainian football expert Andrew Todos told the ECHO, for his country, Zinchenko is essentially a box to box midfielder with freedom to roam across the pitch and “he’s got superb vision and a varied range of passing especially when it comes to quick releases, combinations and crossing.”
In these respects, he certainly seems a much more dynamic option than Harry Winks of Tottenham Hotspur, another midfield option who has also been mooted as a potential Everton target. Similar studies found the Spurs man as offering a different dimension to Allan and Abdoulaye Doucoure but his figures appeared far from outstanding.
- 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.
