What Will Jules Kounde Bring to Chelsea’s defence- A statistical comparison
EXCLUSIVE: Chelsea have opened official talks with Sevilla for Jules Koundé. He’s the main target as centre back, negotiations ongoing to reach an agreement.
Koundé is open to accept Chelsea as next clubs as he wants Champions League football. Now it’s up to the two clubs.
Those were the words of the Italian journalist, Fabrizio Romano.
In this article I’ll mainly be comparing Chelsea’s current centre-backs to Jules Kounde using various football metrics whilst going through his strengths and weaknesses which I have spotted in his game.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Kounde’s profile is of the typical modern day CB. On the ball he always looks to be as progressive as can be. He suits both a 3 and 4 at the back build-up and defensive block but one of my favourite traits of his is the underlapping (sometimes overlapping) runs he makes. It would be an unpredictable yet very fresh dynamic to have when breaking down an opposing block.
He understands space, meaning his positional awareness and concentration levels are switched on for the most part. His position is right centre-back and an attribute one must have is the ability to get the better of an attacker 1v1. Kounde has recently been flourishing in that aspect. CB’s with this trait often leads to teams developing vertical compactness.
However there are still some weaknesses in his game. These aren’t glaring mistakes particulary, they’re just coachable flaws and in his case it will naturally gets better with experience. Sometimes, Kounde lacks the decision making and is hesitant (at times) when going full throttle into a tackle. He has a slight lack when it comes to anticipating the ball for crosses (ball watching) and this could be due to his height, he stands at 1.78 m.
Statistical comparisons between other Chelsea Centre-Backs’s
The main traits for a CB I’ll be look for are the following:
- Ball-playing abilities (progressiveness)
- Passing range/efficiency
- Aerial ability
- Box defending
- 1 v 1 ability
- Reading of the game
In the first graph below, I look at who has best abilities when it comes to ground defending. The metrics would suit the central centre-back as the main things they should carry out is recovering balls over the top to then distribute or intercepting through balls as the last man defender. Kounde will mostly be playing on the right so it’s not very important he excels in this category as much as Silva and Christensen for e.g .
When it comes to in the box defending Christensen is in a league of his own. This season his overall aggression has massively improved and the stat shows it. Once again, this suits the central CB as they’re the ones who are closer to the box and that’s where most shots are taken from.
Progressive centre-backs are extremely important to Tuchel’s system as making vertical passes into the double pivot is one of the ways Chelsea build from the back. Kounde but more so Thiago Silva are the more forward thinking defenders out of the bunch and Silva has been a massive help to Chelsea’s build-up.
One of the major worries a lot of fans have with Kounde is his ability to win the ball in the air. I think you’d be very surprised with how efficient he is aerially. He may win a lot more duels because Chelsea don’t concede as many crosses and have a larger share of possesion. Another reason could be how good Kounde’s vertical leap is whilst carrying a good amount of aggression.
From a young age, we’ve known about Christensen’s ability to read the game to a high standard and there’s no surprise that he’s on top of most of the graphs when it comes to quality off the ball. He reads the game extremely well.
I previously mentioned how important it is to be comfortable in build up but we must also look at when a team matches our shape and the last resort is to play it long. Silva, Kounde and Christensen’s ball-playing abilities shouldn’t be in any doubt.
Some context here is that Azpilicueta is both a RCB and also a RWB meaning his metrics in this case will be inflated because he gets into more crossing positions.
Finally, we look at 1v1 defending. Rudiger is clearly the best player when going 1v1 along with Silva. Azpilicueta ranks the highest when it comes to number of players dribbled past because he starts higher up and there’s a higher number of players there. Having both Kounde and Rudiger on opposite sides of the central centre-back is an incredibly strong dynamic both defensively and offensively. It has a good mixture of aggression and on the ball quality.
In conclusion, I think that it would be a fantastic signing considering it’s in a swap deal with Kurt Zouma (the reason I didn’t include him in this article). Here a slice chart made by @ExpectedChelsea on twitter.
As you can see, he’s extremely well rounded.
