According to various sources in the world of football media in the last few days and weeks, Wolverhampton Wanderers are interested in signing Celta Vigo striker Maxi Gomez in the summer transfer window.
Gomez, a star of the FIFA World Cup 2018 for Uruguay, was heavily linked with and almost moved to Wolves’ Premier League rivals West Ham United in the January transfer window, but stayed put in Vigo as his club fight relegation in La Liga. His move to east London now looks in doubt with other clubs, such as the Wast Midlanders, ramping up their interest ahead of the summer.
The 22-year-old forward has been key for Celta this season and without them, their hopes of avoiding relegation to Spain’s Segunda Division would surely lay in ruin as they sit just one place and two points above the bottom-three in 17th place. Gomez himself only moved to the Estadio Municipal de Balaidos in May 2017 from Defensor Sporting in his homeland.
Amid the speculation today, we will be comparing the striker with a fellow 22-year-old forward who is already at Molineux, and thriving too, Diogo Jota. In order to find out which is the better frontman and whether Gomez would easily be able to slide ahead of him in Nuno Espirito Santo’s pecking order, should he sign. Join us.
Statistical comparison
In this statistical tactical analysis, the comparison we’re going to be making between the two strikers is a statistical one. The below whoscored.com image, containing attacking league stats from the season so far for Gomez and Jota, allows us to carry it out.
As we can see from our first two stats, Jota has made more appearances in the Premier League this campaign than Jota has in La Liga, but the latter has featured for more minutes. He has also netted more goals and claimed more assists, by eye-catching margins of four and three, respectively. As well as a better shits per game average.
Jota is able to counteract the strong start made to the comparison by Gomez as the Portugal youth international has recorded more key passes per match and more dribbles.
However, the star of Spain’s top-flight draws more fouls per game and is dispossessed fewer times on average, while the PL man is found offside less and there is nothing to separate them in terms of number of bad controls. Finally, the better WhoScored match average score belongs to Gomez.
Summary
The winner of our comparison today, in conclusion, is Gomez, though it’s tight. The South American wins seven individual stats to the four of Jota.
While arguments can be made that the former is playing in an easier league than the latter, he has been playing in a struggling team in contrast to Jota. We could “um” and “ah” all day about the factors. But one thing’s for sure, Gomez and Jota could undoubtedly be involved in a mighty battle for the second striker’s spot at Molineux.
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