Manchester United – Is This £31m French Defender Better Than Their Long Term Target Hummels?

Manchester United need some defensive cover, with the likes of Jones, Smalling and Evans not being up to the standards expected by Louis Van Gaal, it is no secret that he wants to sign better defensive players and he would be having the funds to strengthen his squad.

United are no strangers to buying big players and have been linked with Nicolas Otamendi and Mats Hummels from Valencia and Borussia Dortmund respectively, both players seem content at staying in their respective clubs but with big money being spent in the footballing world, nothing can be said to be concrete. Another player who has been linked now with a move to the Theatre of Dreams is Atheltic Bilbao defender Aymeric Laporte, the Spanish defender has been exceptional for the Basque side and could end up playing with former Bilbao player Herrera. We look at the 3 defenders and based on stats provided by Squawka find out which player is the best of the lot.

3 good defenders but which one is the best?

The Bundesliga season is still in its winter break and hence Hummels has not been able to play as many league games as the other 2 players from the Spanish League. The comparison of the players would only be based on averages per game as comparing overall numbers would mean the Spanish duo have better stats compared to Hummels.

The three all seem to have the same scores when it comes to tackles won as Otamendi, Hummels and Laporte average 1.79, 1.70 & 1.83 per game making it extremely hard to decide which player is the best from the lot. However when it comes to tackles lost, it is Laporte who is miles ahead of the other 2 as he only loses 1.5 tackles per game while Hummels and Otamendi lose out on more than 2 tackles per game.

It is Laporte who also leads the others in interceptions with him making 3.83 interceptions per game with Hummels only making 2.6 interceptions per game with Otamendi making 3.16 interceptions per game.

In terms of aerial battles, the class of Hummels shines through with the German winning 4.5 aerial duels per match with Laporte only winning 2.28 battles per game and Otamendi making 3.21 aerial battles per game but Otamendi makes more blocks per game with an astounding 1.21 blocks per game compared to the 0.4 for Hummels and 0.17 per game for Laporte.

From these stats it seems that Laporte might be the best of the lot with only his aerial ability being a problem but in terms of experience of playing and winning in the big games, it has to be Hummels’ experience that counts.