Mauro Icardi vs Vincent Janssen: Who Is Better for Tottenham?

Tottenham seem to be in the market for another striker to take the pressure off Harry Kane and even though the London club was linked with move for Saido Berahino, it seems Mauricio Pochettino has set his sights for a foreign import and there have been two different kinds of players who have been linked with a move to White Hart Lane.

On one side you have Vincent Janssen who was a goal scoring machine at AZ Alkmaar and on the other side you have the more rambunctious Mauro Icardi from Inter Milan. Both players bring a different dimension to the side and we would compare their last seasons with their respective clubs to see just who had a better performance.

We would only be looking at the per 90 minute stats from last season using Squawka.com

Who is perfect for Tottenham?

Tottenham mostly play with one striker and more often than not they would need that one player to win headers and link up with the rest of the team. When it comes to passing the ball around, there really isn’t much to separate the two stars with both of them having a pass completion rate of 73% last season in their respective leagues.

What is important is what to do with the ball and it is Vincent Janssen who does the most damage as he creates 1.84 chances for his team-mates per 90 minutes while Icardi only comes in with 1.11 chances created.

The Argentine Icardi though provides more assists, just slightly, when compared to Janssen with 0.15 per 90 minutes compared to 0.14 for the 22-year-old Dutch striker.

In the goal scoring department, there really is no competition as Janssen bagged 0.89 goals per 90 minutes, which is an incredible number to have while Icardi came in with 0.56 goals per 90 minutes. The one comparable stat is their shooting accuracy with Janssen hitting the target 55% of the time while Icardi shot at goal with 50% accuracy.

Chances are a premium in the Premier League and even a 5% difference can be huge when it comes to the end of the season. Icardi though is a better player when it comes to taking on defenders as he possesses a successful take on percentage of 52.63% compared to Janssen’s 46.05%. The Argentine is a battler in the air also with an aerial duel winning percentage of 41.59% compared to just 33.87% for the 22-year-old Janssen.

All in all, if Spurs are looking for a player who can score regularly they should look no further than Janssen, who has been on fire for his Dutch club but if the London club is looking for someone who can be a nuisance to the defenders, it has to be Icardi who fits the bill and it certainly would be interesting to see just which player the club does sign, if they do splash the cash in the transfer window.