Midfield

Ivan Varfolomeev – Mateus Fernandes (West Ham) 75.07%

Varfolomeev most closely aligned with Conor McGrandles, and Florentino, who was McGrandles’ match, so I went to the next one down, West Ham’s Fernandes. The former Southampton man cost £40m this summer, making him one of the most expensive West Ham signings ever.

That certainly aligns with Varfolomeev, who is one of our most expensive signings ever, but in his short time as a City player, he has certainly impressed. I quite like that the player he is most like is McGrandles, as it shows continuity in approach from us.

Dom Jefferies – Noah Okafor (Leeds Utd) 71.47%

There were plenty of positions I could have used for Jefferies, but in the end, I plumped for wide left. He’s hard to pin down and I’m not sure there is anyone with quite the same profile, but the model suggested the Leeds man, Noah Okafor, for when Jefferies is wide left.

He is a Swiss international who can also play up top, which reflects Jefferies’ versatility, in that he actually matches with a player whose primary position is completely different.

Jack Moylan – Florian Wirtz (Liverpool) 73.91%

Wirtz is right up there with goals and assists, pulling strings for Liverpool behind the striker in a 4-2-3-1 formation, which is pretty much the same as us. Moylan sits in the same role, and while we had Ben House paired with one Liverpool midfielder, we now have our Irish magician paired with another.

I wonder if that says as much about the way we deploy our nine as anything, in that stylistically, they play the same role as Liverpool. Odd that none of our other attackers pair with Anfield stars.