RW: Rob Street – Bertrand Traoré (Sunderland) 70.16%
Rob Street is a nine, that’s widely acknowledged, but his industry and application mean he is deployed wider and does a superb job. We’re quite a tight front four, and he can drop in centrally as well, giving our attack a bit of fluidity.
30-year-old Burkina Faso international Traoré can also play centrally. He’s not considered a nine, but has played there, and he does like to drift in off the right. In terms of profile, he and Street are similar, but what is interesting is when I had Reeco on the right and ran the comparison, the same player came up, suggesting it is more the Sunderland man being a tactical fit for us than similar to the players filling the role.
LW: Reeco Hackett – Patrick Dorgu (Man Utd) 64.50%
Patrick Dorgu has posters of Reeco Hackett on his wall at home, so I’m told. Why wouldn’t he? Hackett has been outstanding this season, with nine goals and five assists according to Wyscout. He was unreal against Peterborough, and he would have been a major loss in the winter window had we not secured his extension.
21-year-old Dorgu is a Danish international who has drifted in and out of United’s side, but who offers similar versatility to Hackett for United. He’s chipped in with some excellent goals as well, so I can see where the comparison comes away from the stats model.
CF: Freddie Draper – Ollie Watkins 79.10%
The comparison model takes your current league as a given, and you can then add another league to it. When adding the Premier League to Draper’s list, only one player comes up in the top ten, the rest are all League One strikers. Maybe that means the profile of a bustling number nine is suited more to the third tier, or maybe there is just nothing quite like Fred in the top flight.
I’m a huge Draper fan, always have been, and his recent run has delighted me. When comparing the strongest and weakest metrics, Draper is most like Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins, a player who came out of the lower reaches with Exeter City. The similarity is almost 80%, but in truth, I don’t see anyone in the top flight in quite the same mould. I just hope Fred keeps up his solid run and finishes the season well into double figures, capping his breakout campaign with a promotion to the Championship.
Provided by https://www.lineup-builder.co.uk/