Why Madueke to Arsenal & Kudus to Spurs actually makes sense

Today we're taking a deep dive into some unexpected transfers. There's a little bit of Ballon d'Or agenda pushing and on top of this loads of social reaction from around the footballing world

I'm Matt from 442 and here's what's on our feed. Right, first things first we're heading over to Reddit because that's where all good social videos start

We should be expecting the unexpected in the transfer market and I actually think there is some sense in that sentence

I'm going to use Nona Maduweki from Chelsea to Arsenal as an example

I heard about these rumours and I came across this Reddit thread from r slash gunners

where it's fair to say opinion is rather split down the middle. It's either a good move, apparently, because of some much needed depth, or a terrible move

Because when nobody really actually says why it's a terrible move, there's just some really amusing phrases like

that's a scam, this is a misuse of funds, which sounds overly political

and stop justifying this transfer. I actually am going to try and justify this transfer for Arsenal

First off, from Chelsea's point of view, it's a very smart deal. They're making a profit on the player they signed two years ago

He's been good for them. It's not a key component. It's not like they're selling Cole Palmer or anything

And they're also slimming down or attempting to slim down a rather large squad. So from Chelsea's point of view, perfect

Great for them. As for Arsenal, initially, like I said, I thought Maduweki's good, right

but are they really going to go to their London rivals and find their next best player when he's

not their best player? I wasn't so sure. However, although £50 million does seem like a lot

it covers a real pain point for them. And that is the strength in depth. Arsenal, like plenty of

other teams last season, saw an injury crisis, which really affected, obviously, not only the

numbers in their squad, but the way they played as well. And I actually think Maduweke could

really solve this problem. Saka was obviously injured for quite a long period of last season

and more than just having to replace him with another body, not having someone who directly

replaces the way that Saka plays, that means that Arsenal play differently. I mean, look at all of

these stats. All of the stats in this table show that in all competitions last season, with Saka

they were a lot better in stuff like goals for, expected goals, chances created, total shot

shots on target, you get the picture. Without him, all of those numbers dropped. Their team

their scouting team, must have then gone and looked at, right, who are we going to replace

Saka with should he get injured again, or even if they just need to give him a rest in midweek

And it turns out, because I've done a little bit of digging as well, especially using Opta stats

that there is one player who is most like Saka in the whole of Europe, and that is Noni Maduecki

According to Opta yst's compare feature on their website, Nuno Madureki is 89.02% just like Bukayo Saka in terms of all the criteria they put forward

And it's actually unbelievable. With 11 goals and three assists last season, plenty of touches in the box, attempted dribbles and shots

and he doesn't really reduce the competencies that Arsenal face down the right-hand side

But the other thing on this chart that I think is really, really interesting is the defensive actions

They're fairly high. Their possession one is also fairly high. This shows you that not only are these important things

for an attacker in the modern game but also that Mikel Arteta and his scouting department are really prioritizing this because defending from the front because of the way they press is so important to them

they need attacker who's going to do it as well. So actually, based on all of those stats

based on the fact that Maduaki is a lot like Saka and regardless of which one's playing

they're going to have someone who fits the team as well as brings the same sort of things to the table

This is really good. This feels like a really good deal. Yes, 50 million feels like a lot of pounds, I was going to say, a lot of money

But then again, that's buying from the Premier League for you these days, especially buying from a London rival and another team who's in the Champions League too

Next up though, an interesting post I saw on Facebook. This is Mohamed Koudouz moving to Spurs

Again, this is slightly unexpected. Or should it be? Should it be expected

Let's get this out of the way first off, because actually it's really funny last season

Mohamed Koudis will have to walk into Spurs, if he does sign, on his first day

and probably do a bit of an apology to Mickey van der Ven and Pat Matassar

West Ham lost at Spurs and Koudis got sent off and a further five-game ban

for, let's call it what it was, slapping and pushing Pat Sarr and van der Ven in the face

So that was quite funny. I'm sure it'll be bridge under the water once he signs for the club, but he'll definitely have to have a word with them

or rather they'll have a word with him. But as for the actual transfer

It's a bit odd on the face of it. I'll give you that. West Ham weren't very good

Kudus didn't exactly shine like, I don't know, any sort of player of the season shouts or

anything massively important the West Ham did last season. Kudus wasn't really on the face of it

However, there are a few numbers that do lead me to believe Kudus could be good for Spurs

but it may require a little bit of repositioning. Just look at the numbers of positions that he played in last season

One, two, three, four, five, not including sub because that counts all positions, six

Six different positions in the front line slash attacking third for Kudus

No wonder he couldn't put together any sort of form. He didn't even play more than 10 games in the Premier League in one given position

But yeah, and I get that there's a skill in being flexible and being a threat all over the pitch

but he didn't exactly shine. We're talking five goals and three assists in the Premier League

His XG is minus 1.9. His 75 shots resulted in just five goals

which is a really poor 6% conversion rate. So I don't really think there's a case to be made for Kudus coming in

and being a centre forward, even being a backup centre forward. So the second option is what about a winger

At West Ham last year, he had the most successful passes in the final third

The second most successful passes in open play, the second most successful dribbles and progressive dribbles

The highest rate of successful crosses. Sounds good. not exactly there's a little bit more behind the data than this suggests the most successful

crossing rate was actually only one in four and for all his ball carrying last year and progressive

dribbles he ended up with 26 shots 14 chances made but of those zero goals and zero assists

the reason those stats are so damning is that to be a winger in a thomas frank system you have to

be scoring. Brian Obromo is the perfect example of this. Last year, right winger, 20 Premier League

goals Yeah if Kudis is going to come into this team and be the right winger he going to have to do exactly what he hasn been doing for the last few years at West Ham which is getting into dangerous positions and providing goals and assists on a regular basis This leads me to another conclusion The Kudras might be best in that central attacking

midfield role for Spurs. Last season, when it came to Ange Ball at Spurs, and I guess you could say

that they were pretty bad all round, but specifically in the midfield, Spurs were terrible on the

transition, both defensively and offensively. They failed to hold on to the ball. They lacked

the ability to beat a man in one-on-one situations. And I feel like Kudos could bring all of this into

the team. He's got brilliant ball control, fantastic technical ability. He's definitely

got the strength to hold off a man and carry the ball forward like we've seen in the stats

And I just think he's a really, really good option. Certainly something different from James

Madison. It's way too early to make this call, but I'm going to make it anyway. Kourouz could be a

similar player to what Moussa Dembele turned into at Spurs when he moved from Fulham like 10 years

ago. He wasn't scoring a ridiculous amount of goals, but you could see that his talent was there

when it came to dribbling, when it came to his strength and holding players off, and when it came

to dominating with a high amount of successful passes in the middle of the final third and the

pitch. Sounds a lot like the stats that I've just put forward for the Ghanaian International. So

moving further back, as far back as Dembele did, might not be on the cards. But a little bit further

forward, Spurs are going to be possession-based, dominating the midfield and holding onto the ball

in the attacking third. Maybe, maybe this one actually makes sense. This could be another one

that I file under my sort of growing list of expect the unexpected transfers. Maduweki and

Kudus, I'm dropping them right in there. Right, onto some more Ballon d'Or talk, because there's

been a bit of an agenda being pushed by the PSG president himself, Nasser Al-Khalifi, who was

talking about Ousmane Dembele. Now, don't get me wrong. I completely understand the calls for

Ousmane Dembele to win the Ballon d'Or. In fact, I think he is my favorite ever so slightly ahead

of Mo Salah and Laminya Mal. Both of them two have had brilliant seasons and both of them

all three of them, would be worthy winners. But Ousmane Dembele to really use his performances

in the Club World Cup, I think's a bit unfair. Don't get me wrong, he's been good

And if PSG go on to win it, he'll be very good. But the point is, firstly, that Salah and Yamal

aren't in this Club World Cup through no fault of their own. And secondly, it's just not up there with the toughest and best

and sort of competitions that every team is putting everything into. There's so many factors from players not really being able

to give their best due to the heat. squads that involve some youngsters

a transfer window going on. Obviously, everyone's knackered at the end of the season. I can't really quantify this as a top-level competition

to then go ahead and justify giving a Ballon d'Or to a player too. If the Ballon d'Or was judged on the domestic cups

the domestic leagues, obviously individual stats, and the European Championships, sorry, the Champions League

which Jamal Salah and Dembele, the front three, were all part of

then it would still go to Ousmane Dembele. But yeah, the PSG president coming out and saying

there's something broken about the Ballon d'Or if Dembele doesn't win it

is a massive sort of thing to say, purely because we know it broken anyway We know that the Ballon d isn actually an official thing and I wouldn put too much stock in it Right next up and I actually saw something very very interesting on

This was Instagram. This was an Instagram post. About Aston Villa spending £20 million on loans in January

The reason I thought it was quite interesting is because loans don't really get spoken about when it comes to a financial outlay

Everyone talks crazy numbers, and there are massive, massive wages in football

but £20 million on loan players feels like quite a lot. However, I get it

You've got to push for the Champions League. Aston Villa in January were like

you know what, we're well in this top four race. They've made a few good signings

to really push for the Champions League and it hasn't come off, probably due to a very, very dodgy decision or two

on the last day against Manchester United. And, you know, that's unfair for them

But yeah, I just thought it was a really interesting point to make that actually a lot of money does go into loans

even though there isn't a huge, you know, whatever up front. There are some big wages. Essentio was a good signing, I thought

Rashford, maybe not so much. From club football to international football, though, Maurizio Pochettino

This is some excellent memeing. Pochettino and the USA lost in the final to Mexico 2-1

It's not ideal, and I think it makes a case that Pochettino is in hot water over whether or not

he's going to be leading the US out as a home nation next summer for the World Cup

It's not great that they're losing, though. And this isn't just a one-off

I'm not just saying this because they've lost to Mexico in a cup final. Pochettino's overseen four losses in a row earlier this year

That was the first time they've lost more than three in a row since Jürgen Klinsmann 10 years ago

And given the talent at their disposal, you would think they'd be able to muster up, I guess

a little bit of a better fight when it comes to playing any half-decent teams

not only is he going to do well to hold on to the job by next summer, but there's going to be a struggle for him to turn his reputation around

to then afterwards get any sort of high-level job back in the Premier League or in Europe again as well, which is a bit of a tough one for him

In America, though, we do have the Club World Cup going on at the minute. And Thibaut Courtois, I can't stop thinking about that save

The strength in his arm. Honestly, this TikTok doesn't do it justice. You need to watch it in as slow a motion as possible

to fully get just how ridiculously good that save was from Thibaut Courtois

It just gets better and better and better. I guess that really proves a top-level goalkeeper

That is, what, the 96th, 97th minute? Unbelievable goalkeeping. Lastly, and obviously we couldn't speak about everything

that's come up on our feed in the last week all over the internet without mentioning

the sad passing of Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva as well. there was loads of content going around

from the likes of Ousmane Dembele and Kylian Mbappe and others who paid tribute on the pitch

I believe it was Raul Jiménez who also wore a shirt with Diogo Jota's name during Mexico's win too

that was really really cool I just wanted to send on the thoughts

and the condolences of myself and everyone here at the 442 team as well

to the family friends of Diogo and Andre and everyone who knew them as well

so i'll leave you with that for this week uh if you want to give us your thoughts on this show

and any other of the content on 442 make sure you get down in the comment section for us

um but that's all from me for today i'll see you in the next video