Strootman vs Ceballos: Who should Liverpool sign?
Liverpool are interested in Roma midfielder Kevin Strootman and Real Madrid man Dani Ceballos, but who should they sign?
According to HITC, the Reds are now the favourites to sign the Dutchman ahead of Manchester United – but he will cost a massive £79 million.
Meanwhile, the Independent have written that talented youngster Ceballos is available from Madrid after the La Liga giants have run out of patience with the lad.
Despite the arrival of Naiby Kieta in the summer, Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp is still trying to increase his options in midfield. This could be due to the uncertainly surrounding Emre Can’s contract.
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And that’s led to rampant speculation regarding midfielders, especially those who can be useful at both ends of the pitch.
Using statistics from the 2016/2017 season, Rush The Kop have compared Strootman and Ceballos to see who comes out on top. The engine used was the Squawka comparison matrix.
For a start, both played a very similar amount of games. The Dutchman featured 33 times while the Spaniard made 30 appearances.
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However, look any deeper past that and things start to branch off. For example, Strootman created more chances per game (1.61), played more forward passes (36.21), had a higher pass completion rate (85%) and made more key passes (1.39).
The one area Ceballos was king was in tackles won per game. The 21-year-old puts in 2.23, compared to just over two by the Roma man.
With seven assists and four goals, Strootman is the larger threat to the defence – although Ceballos’s return of two and two isn’t bad for a youngster.
The key difference between these two deals is age. Where one is a 27-year-old, slightly injury prone (but still excellent) seasoned professional, the other is a lad just making his way on the scene.
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Whether or not Klopp wants an instant impact over potential will be seen in how the window plays itself out, but there is enough in the stats to suggest that Ceballos could become a better player than Strootman.