da dobrowin： It seems that Aston Villa’s rising star, Jack Grealish, is one of the transfer targets on Manchester United’s radar.
da gbg bet： A recent report coming from the Evening Standard put the 24-year-old midfielder on the list of names that are of particular interest to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, along with the likes of James Maddison and Christian Eriksen.
And with Paul Pogba’s constant links with the exit door, particularly to the Spanish giants Real Madrid, this piece of information certainly doesn’t come as a surprise.
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If the Frenchman really was to leave, he would undoubtedly leave a huge void in Red Devils’ squad.
But would Grealish himself be able to fill Pogba’s boots and take over the mantle left behind by the French World Cup winner? Let’s take a look at the stats in order to find out.
Considering that Pogba has only mustered 521 minutes in the ongoing 2019/20 Premier League campaign, it’s only fair that we compare his figures from 2018/19 to Grealish’s current form.
It should also be noted that all the stats were taken prior to Villa’s clash with Brighton on Saturday.
But looking purely at the stats in hand, it seems that the 24-year-old Aston Villa midfielder can hold his own against Pogba and even outperform him across a wide range of categories.
Still, there is a big discrepancy in their respective game time as we’re taking Pogba’s full 2018/19 season with 3012 minutes to his name and comparing it to Grealish’s half-season in 2019/20 with 1794 minutes.
Aston Villa’s rising star has so far averaged 2.7 key passes and 2.2 dribbles per game, beating the Frenchman’s tally in both instances, with him managing 1.6 and 1.7 per game respectively.
Since he is clearly a more regularly dribbler and more direct on the ball, Grealish is also fouled far more often – 4.8 times per game as opposed to his counterpart’s two times per game in 2018/19.
But the Englishman is also pretty safe on the ball as he registered 85.3% passing accuracy while he has been dispossessed just 1.8 times per game. By comparison, Pogba recorded an 82.8% passing accuracy and was dispossessed 2.5 times per game.
When it comes to scoring and assisting, however, the Man United star’s return of 13 goals and nine assists are much better than his rivals’ six goals and five assists, but we’re still a long way from the end of the season and Grealish is catching up.
When everything is said and done, it seems that scooping Grealish could very well compensate for Pogba’s potential departure further down the line.
All that remains is actually landing their target and bringing him to Old Trafford.