Crazy Caicedo stats show him beating Kovacic in every department

Chelsea have sold Mateo Kovacic to Real Madrid and now are looking to replace him – more or less -with Moises Caicedo.

We all know Kovacic is a terrific dribbler and technician in the middle of the pitch, while Caicedo is more of a defensively minded engine room player. But how do their Premier League stats from last season match up?

In terms of passing, Kova averaged 48.5 passes per game, with 0.9 key passes. Caicedo had more of both – he had 59.7 passes and 1.2 key passes.

Defensively, the Ecuador star won again. He had 1.5 interceptions and 2.7 tackles per game. Kovacic had 1.3 tackles and 0.7 interceptions.

Curiously, given their reputations, Caicedo also dribbled twice as much – 0.8 per game compared to 0.4.

Of course all this is conditioned by the teams they were playing in – Kovacic in a disastrous Chelsea side, Caicedo in a well oiled Brighton machine which impressed the whole league.

Caicedo is not only younger, he looks better suited to what our team needs than Kovacic, and has the tools to excel as a true all rounder if put in the right situation.

Now that we’ve secured some sales, we can really imagine the club pushing exceptionally hard for Caicedo at almost any price. Brighton are apparently demanding £100m, which is a crazy amount, but if he keeps those numbers up at Chelsea he could well be the key ingredient which fires us back to the Champions League, and that would be invaluable.