Goncalo Inacio — The Portuguese defender to Solve United Woes?
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Man United’s defensive woes are well defined. The duo of Raphael Varane and Harry Maguire, the former bought from Real Madrid to stop conceding goals, had a very troubled first season riddled with injury and loss of form. His replacement Victor Lindelof couldn’t make the job easier as Man Utd shipped lots of goals. This summer, new boss Erik Ten Hag has a few transfer priorities, bringing new players and offloading players. His priority is to strengthen the backline. He has a few players on his shortlist in the form of Jurrien Timber, Pau Torres, and Jules Kounde, and the latest player to be linked to United is Goncalo Inacio.
Beginnings
The Portuguese plays for Sporting, where legendary footballer Cristiano Ronaldo came through the ranks. But the difference is that Goncalo plays as a defender while Cr7 was a winger turned striker. The Sporting man started his career at local club Almada, before moving to Sporting Academy. He had his first professional start on 6 June 2020.
He primarily plays as a center-back, but he doesn’t have any problem playing in either right and left center-back position.
Looking at his season’s heatmap, we can see that he has played through the middle,right and left side of the defense. Though his heatmap indicates more down in the right center-back position.
Passing Stats
He is an amazing passer, as its evident that he usually starts attacking from the back. He excels in long passes, as he is usually known for sending long lofted passes to the strikers. He is known for spraying diagonal long passes to the onrushing wingers. Inacio ranks 90.9% in his passing accuracy. He usually takes advantage of the highline and starts an attack from the right side of the pitch. He ranks 85 percentile in long passes.
He ranks 0.3 in defense splitting passes per game. Being a defender he has 2 assists to his name. He ranks 99 percentile in assists.
Touches
Looking at his touches, he has made maximum touches in his defensive area. He has made a total of 85.2 touches. Inacio usually progresses with the ball to the opponent’s half. He accelerates and decelerates depending on where he needs to carry the ball.
Defensive Actions
According to data in fbref, the data provided is inaccurate, because one needs to see him play and defend to see how good of a player he is. Playing in the right center back position, he rushes down to challenge the opposition. He is the hardest worker in the room, rushing down to close the space on his opponent and dispossess them. The Portuguese has made tackles at 1.4 per 90, and he has won 0.76 of them. This goes on to show how good of a tackler he is. He is good at one vs one defensive duels, as he has made 186 of them, having a success rate of 56%. He is good in the air, as he jumps to thwart the danger. His Aerial ability(duels) won is 52%.
Inacio has made 26 interceptions by intercepting the ball and blocking deadly passes or shots. He ranks 0.9 interceptions per game. The defender helped his team keep 14 clean sheets. He has made 2.4 important goal line clearances per game. When opposition players usually run to the penalty box, he sticks his foot and clears out dangerous chances created by the opponent.
Another reason why Manchester United are after him, is because he has picked up only one yellow card this season. He is careful while making tackles, so that he does not accumulate cards(red and yellow both). However one drawback of his game is, he loses possession. He lost 8.1 possession per 90, which can be fixed under the new manager if he makes his move to Old Trafford.
Goal Contributor
Being a defender, he has 4 goals to his name. Which is a quality which Man Utd looks for in a defender. To defend and chip in with goals or two to help the team.
Out of the 4 goals he scored, 3 were from inside the box, while the 4th one was from outside. He has a strong left foot, because he scored a fierce goal right from the 18 yards box. Inacio ranks 97 percentile in shooting from distance.
He has taken 19 shots out of which 5 were on target.
The Final Verdict
Only 5 Premier League teams have conceded more goals than Manchester United. It’s worrying, because during the yesteryears, the duo of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic did not let attackers have a sniff at their goal. Now, Man United have fallen to a new low. United need a center-back as soon as possible to stop the leakage in terms of conceding goals.
Inacio can be a long and short term solution. He is good with goals, passes, plus he is Portuguese. He can unite with Bruno Fernandes and Cristiano Ronaldo, his Portuguese teammates in the national team and know how he can help Man United to reach its former glory.
His release clause is 45 million, which shouldn’t be a bother for the Red Devils, as they are expected to make massive changes during the summer window.
