Won’t forgive Todd, He’s an ‘electric player’ better than Mudryk: Fans slams Chelsea for missing £70m World class attacker in January
When Chelsea announced that they had won the race to sign Ukrainian winger Mykhailo Mudryk back in January for an £88.5m fee, you would be forgiven for thinking that he could be a player to take the club to the next level.
He had starred for Shakhtar Donetsk during the first half of the season, registering 18 goal contributions across all competitions, and he was one of the most sought-after wingers on the continent.
Since arriving at the Stamford Bridge outfit however, he has underwhelmed so far, grabbing just two assists, while the 22-year-old has an average Premier League Sofascore rating of 6.38/10, succeeding with just 27% of his dribble attempts and failing to score.
Would the Blues have been better off pursuing another January target instead – perhaps one who could have offered a greater attacking threat and settled in better than Mudryk? In Portuguese forward Rafael Leao, Chelsea appear to have missed a trick.
The club were linked with the AC Milan player throughout the winter transfer window, with the Serie A side demanding a fee of €80m (£70m) in order for anyone to sign him, which would have worked out cheaper than the Mudryk deal.
There is no doubt Leao would have been a much better signing for Chelsea than Mudryk when you take a deeper look into their respective stats this season.
Across various attacking metrics, Leao has registered more goals (ten to six), shots per game (3.59 to 1.82), shot-creating actions per game (4.55 to 2.83) and delivered more crosses (57 to 11) this season than the Chelsea winger, suggesting that they may have signed the wrong player.
Leao ranks in the top 10% across Europe’s big five leagues for assists, progressive carries and successful take ons over the past year, whereas the Ukrainian barely ranks in the top 40% for the latter two statistics, clearly suggesting the Milan star is one of the finest on the continent in his position.
Having been dubbed “electric” by teammate Fikayo Tomori, the data does suggest he may have added more goals to a struggling Chelsea frontline and in turn, could have saved Graham Potter from the sack.
That is all conjecture of course, but the stats don’t lie – Leao has been in much greater form than the current Chelsea winger and perhaps in hindsight, would have made a bigger impact at the club.