Arsenal prepare Houssem Aouar transfer on bargain deal

Houssem Aouar is Still a Very Good Player

Aouar has not turned bad overnight. Far from it. His underlying metrics have may dropped in certain areas but where he is strong, he is still very strong. Looking at it one way – which is not the right way to do this – he hasn’t become £25m worse.

A progressive carrier and progressive passer, he still sits in the 85th and 88th percentiles for both respectively, regularly passing and dribbling into the final third with silky success. His movement is still sharp, he can still receive the ball on the half-turn and spin an opponent in a flash and his dribbling success rate and volume is still high and mighty.

Drifting out onto the left on occasion too, his vision from wide areas complements his eye for a pass centrally. He doesn’t defend a great deal, at least not well, nor does he press the ball, but he does sit in the 80th percentile for tackles in the final third.

What the allure is and still remains is in his chance creation. For both shot-creating actions and goal-creating actions he is 91st percentile worthy. The standout among them all is his SCA from defensive actions, which is a top level 99th percentile. That’s intelligent tackling in the right zones and counter-pressing not just for the sake of it.

In terms of numbers Aouar performed better than in 2019/20, scoring seven goals and notching three assists in Ligue 1, but the truth is he wasn’t as effective as the previous season. Nonetheless, player don’t turn sour that quickly. While the reasons for that can vary, they generally don’t boil down to ‘he’s not very good anymore’.

Do Arsenal need him, though?

Continued…