While great players like Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez have never been part of the tug of war between teams, if they had been transferred, there would have been a lot of splashing of cash.
However, players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, and Gareth Bale have been a part of big money transfers. While Cristiano and Bale’s moves to Madrid were highly successful, Kaka did not come up with the flare that he had in AC Milan. So transfers either flop or they end up succeeding overwhelmingly.
This summer came up with exciting signings. Leonardo Bonucci moved back to Turin in a swap deal that saw Gonzalo Higuain don the reds of Milan. Cristiano Ronaldo was involved in yet another big-money move that saw him move to Italy after 9 long seasons in Spain. Barcelona and Everton had an amazing mutual business that saw Andre Gomes, Lucas Digne and Yerry Mina, all move to England. Barcelona also reinforced their team with Lenglet, Arthur, Arturo Vidal and Malcolm all joining the team.
The Malcolm saga was one of the hottest stories and also the funniest in this season’s transfer window. While Bordeaux had a verbal deal to sell Malcolm to Roma, they sold him to Barca when they offered a higher sum of money. All this while Roma fans were almost at the airport to welcome their new signee.
In this article, we will look at 5 summer signings who have impressed so far this season.
Honourable Mention
Cristiano Ronaldo
After nine long seasons that saw him win 4 Ballon d’Or awards, Cristiano Ronaldo bid adieu to Real Madrid and left for Juventus. The Old Lady paid a mammoth £100 million to Real Madrid to claim the services of the Portuguese star. Cristiano had a very slow start to the new season. He got away 23 shots to remain scoreless at one point. The highest number of attempted shots without a goal in Europe.
The game against Sassuolo was when Cristiano broke the shackles in Italy. He scored two goals in the game. He followed it up with single goals against Udinese and against Frosinone. Ronaldo also had a triple assist game against Napoli.
Despite his efforts, Ronaldo only earns an honourable mention here. He is a proven star and is always expected to deliver. Yet his numbers of goals are a bit misleading. Ronaldo has started all Serie A games and got away a ton of shots. For the four goals, he has taken about 60 shots at goal. That gives Ronaldo a conversion rate of almost 6%.
A striker of Cristiano’s calibre should have a conversion rate of more than 10% to 12%. Cristiano had a poor start to his Champions League campaign where he was left in tears following a controversial red card. While he might improve his performances but at the moment, there are several others performing better than expected of them.
#5 Gonzalo Higuain
While Cristiano Ronaldo joined Juventus, there were speculations of a lead attacker leaving. Juventus had options to let go of either Douglas Costa, Mandzukic, Dybala or the option they decided to execute, Gonzalo Higuain.
Higuain had a moderately good season at Juventus last season, bagging 16 goals in the league and 5 more in European competitions. Since Ronaldo came in, someone had to leave and it was Higuain. The transfer of Higuain came out as a good thing for him. At the AC Milan squad, he is the lead striker and he has delivered the goods that he is known for.
He scored the equalizer against Cagliari and the first goal against Atalanta in the 2-2 draw. Higuain scored a brace in the match against Chievo. Higuain has been clinical in front of goal, finishing 20% of the shots he releases. He is scoring whilst having a support from the unpopular Milan midfield which doesn’t create straightforward chances.
Higuain also scored a goal each in the Europa League fixtures. In total Higuain has featured in 7 games and scored in 6 of them. Higuain has provided Milan with that striker who is possessed with scoring. Higuain has made a terrific impact at Milan and he will be itching to score against his former team, Juventus.
Higuain has been trolled for his costly misses in Cup finals for his national team. But he is has been in good touch in front of goal for Milan and they will need the prowess if they need to have a shot at UEFA Champions League.
#4 Kepa Arrizabalaga
Thibaut Courtois, trying to force a Madrid move boycotted training from the Chelsea camp and gave indications that the club will need a new keeper. Roman Abramovich with the brilliant business mind of his went straight to Spain and broke the transfer record for a goalkeeper. The replacement for Thibaut Courtois was revealed to be a young Spaniard named Kepa Arizzabalaga.
The Spanish keeper was not popular among the English media but Spain had seen some great showing of reflexes from the youngster. Athletic Bilbao finished 16th last season but conceded only 49 goals. The teams at the top half had conceded about 50 to 60 goals. Kepa’s presence between the sticks was instrumental for Bilbao and kept them safe from relegation.
Kepa’s Chelsea move has been wonderful for the lad. He is having the exposure to the English play and also the media hype. So far Kepa has started in 10 of Chelsea’s games and kept 6 clean sheets. Kepa has edged out Alisson Becker in the save percentage which stands at 81% for the Spaniard. He is working with his feet too, helping Chelsea’s play from the back approach. Kepa has taken about 280 touches in the Premier League itself, which is a huge number for a keeper. He has also completed about 230 passes at 81% success rate.
More importantly, Kepa has looked solid when he needed to. The recent weekend game against Southampton displayed Kepa’s brilliance. Undeterred when shot at and saving shots easily, tipping the poised shot from Redmond just enough to deflect off the bar and saving another long shot soon after, Kepa looked in business mode this season and so far has adjusted to the new country with relative ease.
Kepa has made about 2.25 saves per match for Chelsea and a total of 18 saves in the Premier League.
Kepa gets the nod ahead of Alisson due to a couple of reasons. First, Kepa’s defensive line is not as good as that Alisson has, with Van Dijk hardly letting anybody go through. Another reason is because, of Alisson’s horrific mistake that led to a goal against Leicester.
#3 Jorginho
When Chelsea replaced coach Antonio Conte with Maurizio Sarri, they also ensured that Sarri’s trump card accompanies him to Chelsea in the summer. Jorginho was Sarri’s secret weapon at Napoli and Abramovich played a brilliant trick in bringing in the duo from Napoli.
Jorginho is an unerring passer in the midfield and plays the controller role as good as anyone. Sarri’s vertically oriented play suits Jorginho well. He acts as cover for his centre-backs and has the precision to come up with through balls to open plays up. In the very first game for Chelsea, Jorginho displayed his passing ability. He completed a stupendous 158 passes, the most by any Chelsea player in a single game and complemented it with a goal.
Jorginho has settled into the deep-lying playmaker role and has pushed Kante to play a different role for the team. He is as intelligent off the ball, as he is on it. His positional play to stay away from man marking is commendable.
Jorginho has completed 853 passes for Chelsea in 8 games. It results in an average 100+ pass per game for the midfielder. Most of the passes are sideways which result in good build-up play. Jorginho has been sharp on the precision with about 91% of his passes being successful. In addition to the build-up play, Jorginho has been pivotal in the defence. He has made 6 interceptions in the 8 games in PL. Apart from that Jorginho helps Sarri in organising a shape for the team. He stays in the central part of the field and dictates terms for every player.
Jorginho has been good so far for Chelsea. To drive Kante out of the defensive midfielder role is no easy task. But Jorginho has succeeded in it and looks in firm control of the midfield in England.
#2 Paco Alcacer
Paco Alcacer joined Borussia Dortmund for a 2 million euro loan deal. Paco had a plethora of competition for his spot at Barcelona and he took a good decision in joining Dortmund for playing time. Alcacer has been a vital addition to the team’s attacking department.
Mario Gotze has been terribly out of touch, and youngster Christian Pulisic needed a man to accompany him in front of goal. Paco has been a good player up-front. He has only made three appearances for Dortmund in the league and played only 81 minutes in total.
In the short amount of time he has played, he has scored 6 goals for Dortmund. In the start against Monaco in the UEFA Champions League, Paco looked threatening and scored a goal after hitting a penalty off the crossbar. Paco has come as a revelation for Dortmund and he has saved them off the bench on three different occasions.
In the game against Frankfurt, Paco replaced Maximilian Phillip in the 67th minute and scored a goal in the 88th minute to put the game to bed. Against Leverkusen, Paco came on for the same man in the 63rd minute. Leverkusen was leading 2-0 before halftime. 2 minutes after Paco came on Dortmund got a goal back and they got another back in the 68th minute.
The game tied at 2-2, Paco scored a vital goal of Achraf Hakimi in the 85th minute to put Dortmund ahead. In the final minute off the game, Paco scored again off an insane counter-attack to seal Dortmund’s win by 4-2.
Most recently against Augsburg, Paco replaced Phillip again in the 59th minute and made a sudden impact. In the 62nd minute, Paco drove in a pass from Jadon Sancho to equalise for Dortmund. In the 80th minute, Paco scored again from close range following Phillip Max’s goal for Augsburg. With the score tied at 3-3, Paco had a free-kick from way outside the box in the 96th minute. Paco stepped up and curved the freekick over the wall into the bottom corner to win the game for Dortmund.
Following his amazing performances, Lucien Favre will consider starting Paco more often. Paco has been on fine form for Dortmund and is one of the biggest surprise performers from the transfer window.
#1 Andre Silva
The young Portuguese star was not known to many till his spoils in the La Liga. Andre Silva had scored only 2 goals in his 24 matches with AC Milan last season and Gatusso was determined to do away with him. Sevilla acquired the services of the youngster this summer following the departure of Joaquin Correa and Juan Munoz.
Andre Silva has been the biggest revelation this summer transfer window and is certainly the best performer till now among the players involved in the transfer. He has already scored 7 games in 8 goals while moving into the international break. Silva will probably start for Portugal in the Nations League game against Poland.
Andre Silva started his season with a hat-trick against Rayo Vallecano. The 22-year-old then scored in the 6-2 thrashing of Levante. Andre Silva’s big performance came against European Champions Real Madrid. The Galacticos on a visit to the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan were shocked by Sevilla. Sevilla beat Real Madrid by 3-0 margin and Andre Silva scored twice in the game. The Real Madrid defence was beaten for pace by the young and energetic duo of Silva and Ben Yedder. Silva’s contribution in the scoring of the counter was vital for Sevilla.
Andre Silva has been in rampant form this season and his next big game comes against FC Barcelona. If he manages to score in that game, it will be a vital step in Sevilla’s title challenge. So far, it was no coincidence that Andre Silva managed to score 7 goals in his 8 games. If the goal-scoring spree continues, then Portugal can trust Silva to lead the team in UEFA Euro 2020.
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