Manchester United have been looking to buy a new central defender, but options aren’t that many ever since Mats Hummels decided not to join the club. The club have been in need for a central defender for a while and could be in line for making a sensational bid for Nicolas Otamendi. The Argentine has been linked with a move to Old Trafford, but United also are linked with a move for Stefan Savic, the former Manchester City defender.
Both players had great seasons for their respective clubs last season and we take a look, thanks to Squawka and find out just who is the better defender amongst them.
Experience does pay off
Otamendi is 27-years-old and has experience on his side, the Argentine spent last season at Valencia and was one of their star players. Savic didn’t have the best of times at Manchester City but slowly regained his form at Fiorentina. The 24-year-old Savic seems to have retained a lot of his passing game and has the higher pass completion rate at 87% while Otamendi only completed 79% of all his passes last season.
However when it comes to the defensive facets of the game, Otamendi shows how experience does help him, even though he plays in a more attacking league. The Argentine wins more tackles per game than Savic with 2.11 tackles made per game compared to the 1.14 tackles completed per game by the Fiorentina player.
Otamendi also wins more aerial duels than Savic with 3.29 aerial duels completed per game compared to 2.52 for Savic. The dominance of the Argentina is further complete when we look at the other aspects for a defender.
Otamendi averaged 3.17 interceptions per game last season for Valencia while Savic, for Fiorentina made 2.45 interceptions per game. Clearly the experience for Otamendi played a big part in his performance for Valencia. He even shaded the blocks made per game with 0.8 compared to the 0.62 made by Savic.
Manchester United might have a tough choice to make, Savic might not have the best of stats but he has experience of playing in the Premier League and as we have seen for Nemanja Matic, returning back to the Premier League would work extremely well. Otamendi might not have played in the Premier League but he does have more experience on his side and that could be the reason why he could be headed into Old Trafford. Savic did play for City as well and that might be one reason why United may not want to sign him up.