Chelsea of the Premier League have been handed a two-window transfer ban by FIFA after a breach of regulations regarding the signing of minors.
Whilst the club have appealed the decision, the punishment is not expected to become any less severe. The ban will add to the pressure manager Maurizio Sarri is currently under after a run of questionable results and performances and bring the mood at Stamford Bridge down after the UEFA Europa League round-of-32 second-leg win over Malmo FF last night.
The news also comes at a very bad time for the West Londoners, just days before they’re due to face league leaders Manchester City at Wembley Stadium in the Carabao Cup final. In addition, it could affect proposed permanent deals for a number of players already on loan with the team.
One of those stars is Real Madrid loanee Mateo Kovacic and in light of the news, today we’re going to carry out a comparative statistical tactical analysis comparing him to fellow summer acquisition and midfielder Jorginho to see which one has performed better in their first campaign in England.
Statistical comparison
To do this, we’re going to use the below graphic, which comes from our good friends over at whoscored.com in order to make our statistical comparison. The image contains the two players’ general statistics in the Premier League so far this season.
Without delving into the stats too much, we can already see that things are fairly even between the pair of midfield stars separated in age by just three years. Including their number of appearances and minutes on the pitch, with Jorginho just edging it by two appearances and well under 1000 minutes.
The Brazilian also beats his teammate when it comes to goals scored, although not registering an assist thus far renders his tally inferior to that of Kovacic on two assists. Whilst neither have seen red, the latter has the better disciplinary record in his first PL term with just one yellow card to his Jorginho’s five. And also, more shots per game on average, plus a better pass completion rate.
Jorginho has just about won more aerial duels with a higher average out of the two central midfielders and a higher average WhoScored match rating, but again it’s close. It’s no surprise to see no Man of the Match awards between them as they have both struggled to hit the heights of previous spells, in England so far.
Summary
In conclusion, the winner of the comparison in our statistics-driven tactical analysis today is Jorginho, with five stats wins to the four of Kovacic. We predicted that it was going to be tight and that’s how it turned out.
We can gather from this that, despite having his fair share of critics, Brazil man Jorginho has enjoyed the better start to life at Chelsea. And whilst both need to improve, Kovacic has slightly more work to do.
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