Chelsea target tops European charts in defensive stat – but looks desperately limited on the ball | OneFootball

It was interesting to see Chelsea linked with Brentford midfielder Yehor Yarmolyuk in rumours today.

He’s a name that nobody seems to mention much, despite the fact that he’s a 21 year old racking up Premier League appearances at quite some rate. It feels like he’s someone we will gradually hear more and more about – but what’s deal in terms of stats?

A look at Yarmolyuk’s stats

Yehor Yarmoliuk’s Premier League stats.

A glance at his FBref page shows… a lot of red. But he’s a defensive midfielder, so we shouldn’t worry about a lot of those more attacking stats. Clearly he’s strong in the number 6 vital categories – racking up blocks (where he’s in the 97th percentile in Europe), tackles and clearances.

Meanwhile he maintains a solid pass completion rate for a player in a long ball, relegation battling team. He even does well in some areas you wouldn’t expect – he’s above average in progressive passes received and successful take ons, showing he’s more than a steady destroyer.

A major weakness is his aerial ability though. He’s in the 19th percentile for aerials won, despite being a solid 5’11.

All of this is conditioned (for better and worse) by playing for a lower mid-table team who play a very distinctive style, of course.

Comparisons aren’t kind for midfielder battling at Brentford

We already discussed that we thought it was unlikely Chelsea buy him simply because he’s going to be expensive – and we also are not sure he’s that good. The “similar players” category is often a good way to see someone’s level and here he’s lumped in with a bunch of nobodies. Former Blue Lesley Ugochukwu is the only really familiar face in the mix there.

Perhaps the scouts are picking up on something we’re not seeing, or perhaps he’s just not very good…