Antonio Conte is set to take charge of Chelsea at the end of Euro 2016 and with his Italy side doing extremely well, so far, there are many who believe that the Italian manager will bring in some of those Italian stars to the Premier League and one such player who has been linked with a move to Stamford Bridge is Antonio Candreva.
The 29-year-old might not be the youngest player that Chelsea would be linked with in the summer but he has been good for Italy and could come at a snip of a price from Lazio. The 29-year-old was one of the moist impressive performers for the Serie A side and could well move with Antonio Conte to Chelsea.
Chelsea already have a few wingers and the best way to check if Candreva can be a good signing is by comparing his season in Serie A with that of Chelsea’s best attacker last season, Willian. We look back at their league campaigns and compare their stats using Squawka.com. We would only be looking at the per 90 minute stats for a few metrics last season.
Starting with the most important stat and that is passing; the Chelsea winger averages 40 successful passes per 90 minute while Candreva only came in with 32. While that is just one stat, the others are similar as well.
It is the Brazilian star who does well with key passes as well with 2.46 per 90 minutes compared to the Italian’s 1.35. Even with Chelsea having a poor season, Willian averaged 0.2 assists per 90 minutes while Candreva came in with 0.12.
Willian also came in with more chances created throughout 90 minutes with 2.66 while the 29-year-old Candreva chipped in with 1.48. Even when it comes to take ons, it was the Chelsea star who beat the Italian with a 66% success rate in take ons while Candreva only came in 50%.
The stats all favour the Chelsea star and even if Candreva does come in really cheap, he might not be the best player as he wins none of the stat battles and that would be worrying for any Chelsea fan. Antonio Conte is still a pretty smart manager and he won’t be wasting money and bringing in players that don’t actually provide a lot of quality to the side.
Antonio Candreva might be one of the better players in the Serie A but he would not be the best signing for Chelsea at the moment.