Aston Villa are on the hunt to sign a new centre-back before the window slams shut, with one target currently the most realistic.
Aston Villa have signed seven new players this summer but Unai Emery has neglected adding to his defence, which was arguably the area that needed the most improvements.
The Villans did capture left-back Ian Maatsen from Chelsea however, it’s in the central position where Villa are thin on options.
Currently, Ezri Konsa, Pau Torres and Diego Carlos are the only senior players Emery can select from in that position, which explains why multiple targets have been linked.
The most prominent are Chelsea’s Trevoh Chalobah, Liverpool’s Joe Gomez and Feyenoord’s Lutsharel Geertruida, although only one is the most realistic.
The latest on Lutsharel Geertruida to Aston Villa
Aston Villa have been chasing Feyenoord defender Geertruida for the last few weeks and were said to be in advanced talks with the 24-year-old.
The Dutch giants value Geertruida at £30 million while the player is waiting to see if Villa take action in their pursuit to sign him, perhaps tabling a bid.
Villa would be killing two birds with one stone if they could land the ‘sublime’ Dutchman, as he’s capable of playing as a centre-back or right-back and would therefore provide Emery with some healthy competition.
Last season, Geertruida was one of the standout players in the Eredivisie, as the 11-cap Netherlands international produced eight goals and five assists from primarily defensive roles, evincing his quality in the final third.
Not only that but he also served up metrics that placed him comfortably among some of the best defenders on the planet.
How Geertruida ranked against William Saliba
Defenders in an Emery side have to tick one major box and that is being a progressive, ball-player who can comfortably carry the ball out from the back.
Luckily, many of the greatest defenders on the planet possess such a skillset – including Geertruida – who would slot perfectly into a centre-back or right-back role at Villa.
As highlighted by FBref, the Dutchman collected some monstrous possession-based metrics, recording an 89.7% pass completion, 7.85 progressive passes and 2.93 shot-creating actions per game across the past year.
To shed light on how incredible those particular metrics were, he averaged more progressive passes per 90 than Arsenal’s William Saliba, who recorded just 3.94 in the same time frame.
Considering the Frenchman was recently named in the Premier League Team of the Season for his efforts last campaign, Geertruida is performing at a spectacularly high level.
If Villa needed any more encouragement to sign the Feyenoord talent, then perhaps the above metrics will prove why he’s worth the £30 million outlay.
