Future Aces: Who Will Fill the Boots of Dembele, Godden, and BTA?

[Music] hello everyone and welcome to episode 17 of the attack in the championship podcast my name is Tom Butterfield I'm your host and let me welcome our resident guest our certified data analyst our Scout and our fa licensed coach and intermediary David Bromley how are you mate I'm I'm well Tom thanks I'm just thinking hang on you've brought all these people where are they all going to sit you are all of them in one mate that's what you are it seems that way yeah so what you been up to um well apart from you know all the stuff that you end up getting dumped on you this time of year yeah all the domestic stuff trying to of course pull it off on the on the day you know make sure things go well um yeah and you know other than that trying to do a bit of work here and there too good about you good stuff yeah usual usual bits and Bobs bit of work like you say little bit of Christmas prep I must admit my wife's a bit of a superhero so she gets a lot of that done that's good but um I try and sort of lend a sort of a finger to hold wrapping paper together and all that sort of thing that's about the level of my expertise really I better recognize my wife as being a superhero as well just on on the off chance that she listens to this and thinks hang on a minute I think probably pretty safe that neither of our wives are going to listen to this podcast I think probably yeah just our Lu they can now now that we've uh now that we've put a little word in for them yeah just our luck exactly but um yeah lots of lots of football coming up but what we wanted to do last episode we were looking through the teams and we're looking at their main contributors uh from a striking point of view weren't we you know looking at the teams who we felt their Strikers were the main men for them and we looked at Somerville from leads didn't we we looked at Isaiah Jones from Middlesboro and we also looked at madidi from Leicester didn't we had to test memory there for a moment and it was interesting to look at look at those three and look at some potential Replacements if they were to be sold or if they were to be uh injured or maybe even called up to an African uh tournament in January who knows may we come back to that later so we were hoping to get through six teams weren't we but it was actually took longer than we thought didn't there was more to say on these teams and players than we thought so we're going to cover the next three today aren't we so if I hand over to you David and then you can you can take it from there yeah sure well as you say um there were in the top 50 as we Define them there were six teams that we felt probably were interested in a striker so we've got our three roles Striker chance cre creat a attacking support player some of those teams of course might been looking for more than just one role but there were six that we felt would possibly feel that they could be if they were being prudent they ought to be considering a striker so it doesn't necessarily mean that they haven't got a striker it might mean that in this case the players that are delivering the most for them delivering the most in those areas and that makes you potentially vulnerable Tom doesn't it because you know if you're heavily dependent on one player or one role and anything goes wrong with that then it disrupts the whole team so we we're trying to kind of look at it from um a recruitment Department perspective and thinking that we've got players that are doing really well for us in these roles um but if anything went wrong you know then we'd need to replace them so we picked on those players those three that you talked about this week we want to cover three different teams and three different players and then we've wrapped up really the the I suppose the teams that are where they would say look our most productive attacking players are Strikers or at least they're act they're they're occupying a striking role because this is another sort slightly subtle point because some of the players we've talked about and and at least a couple probably that we talk about today won't necessarily be the what you would think of as outright Strikers but what when you look at the contribution they've been making for their team as we are it's it's in that role so um we're going to cover those those other three this this episode um and yeah come up with some suggestions as to what they might do it just makes so much sense doesn't it like if if you've got a creno somville who is been fantastic he he has been the the number one attacking contributor isn't he in in the championship so far from our from our metrics that we've we've put together and I say it's you but we're talking about them together I'll take a little bit credit okay we're representing them aren't we so absolutely yeah and it just makes sense if you've got someone who's thriving in a role because you know we we to we've talked previously about the the difference between positions and roles if you've got someone who is excelling in a role in in the team then why not try and get someone in who's almost an exact clone for them so that if need to come out know whether it be through injury or through player sale or maybe you just want to switch the squad around and keep everyone fresh to have someone who can come in with the similar sort of characteristics or playing style who's going to be comfortable in that role just makes sense doesn't it if you've got 22 of those in your squad you know two for each position you should be fairly well set shouldn't you I think well that's right I mean that there's this is where what we've been talking about all the way through regarding recruitment is your recruiting with a specific objective in mind rather than just looking for good players you're saying exactly this is how we play and the way that we intend to play requires us to um demand these things of these players in these roles so if we've got somebody doing it and it's what we want then we if we're looking for a backup then we're looking for a backup that's as you say maybe almost the clone of what we have I mean the other way of looking at that of course is you can say look we've got almost what we need but we really need a player who can do this yeah and you may you may look at a player a different club and say look that's the kind of player that we need the player who will play in that way and so if you can specify it and say okay let's go and reverse engineer from that player we might consider to be our Exemplar um then we can start looking at players that are close to in their playing profile in their playing style close to that so yeah there's a there's a good reason to be able to sort of hone in on on this at this level this is what we're trying to do here yeah okay great stuff so where do you want to start then so well if what we thought we would do is start with um Birmingham city and actually interestingly Birmingham um so without wanting to go over too much old ground because you can go back and listen to this but we've talked about the expectation of these teams and how are they performing in relation to their expectations um and that's what gives us this sort of weigh in to say well okay this this is an area where we think they're performing up to scratch maybe even they're overachieving but in these areas given what we expected of them they're underperforming and they're the bits where we've we've dived into so and funnily enough Birmingham because you know things have ch changed a bit we've had a change of manager and the change slight sort of change of playing style and so on so theirs has been in a bit of a state of flux but the player we picked on who for them has delivered the most in an attacking role is um siki demele and you know he's he's pretty high up the list and he's certainly their number one attacking contributor the way we Define it so we've picked on him and said right look if anything happened and they needed to replace him you know what given that he's been so important to them this season um what might they do um and we've we've looked at his profile and you know the kinds of things that he's very strong at linking the play um his passing's been very good his One V one abilities have been you know he's he's done very well um there's several um but and we've used these to sort of try to go into the market and say right let's build a sample of players who are attack-minded players Striker minded players it may be that they're you would consider them Wingers but um their the role they're playing is a is a sort of a striking role um and let's try and find some that would be in that mold um so as far as Dem Bell is concerned um the first player we came up with is and you're going to need to help me with some of these pronunciations as always is but is floron musia is the best I can do I think that's that's pretty decent actually yeah I'm pretty happy with that oh good so I mean he's at pador he's in bundas Liga 2 which we know is pretty similar to the championship don't we it is I mean look I know you were going to ask me this so I've got it all there ready and it's it's you know their ELO rating is within 5% of the strength of the championship and I wouldn't think that the style is allog together different I don't think you know it's going to be a massive difference in in demand so yeah I think he you know he's playing it he's playing at that level um he's you know his output this year has been very good I mean he's made 16 appearances in that division he's 39% goal participation so he's you know pretty good isn't it he's scoring goal and getting involved in in the scoring of goals for the team too if you look at his profile you know it's very very similar isn't it we just talked about radar there that's yeah it does come back to what we're talking about yeah you you go ahead with that David So D Bell we're looking at for anybody who's not looking at the screen um we're looking at a radar chart for demell all the way through this little piece that we're going to talk about now and we're looking at how his profile looks so it's it's a shape basically and around the outside of the radar are the 24 key performance indicators that we use and they're things like you know uh creation of space quality delivery running in behind goal Threat all these kinds of things that um are talked about in and around training grounds and we're looking at how strong um demell is in each of these and that gives him a sort of shape on the chart and so if you can find a player with a similar shape on on as on his profile then it's an indication that you know he's going to be a similar kind of player with a similar style and we know look fluid it's football's a fluid game we know that it's it's more subtle more sophisticated than just being able to use numbers but it's not a bad starting place when you want to go and start doing some technical scouting to say well yeah we' we've matched up the player with some players that have got similar styles so we're not just looking at the headline uh performances the goals or God forbid the assists or anything like that we're looking at more kind of you know specific playing style um metrics or yeah so that's his so we think he's a very similar style he's you know his heat map shows him he plays down the Left Right primarily and if you look at the embell which I'm just sort of flicking on to very similar looking heat map to dembele so what we've got on our radar chart is we've got dembele's profile in blue and then Super imposed over the top in red is musa's profile and you can see how close they are it's it's uncanny isn't it it is very close yeah it is very close um so we got a bit of information about him he's 25 um it looks as though he's got dual um nationality M kovan nationality and German played for Germany under 20s played five games for them but he's played 23 games for Kosovo so you know it's difficult to get into the German national team absolutely yeah so um yeah you know his his um performance is he's been pretty solid really has been yeah been very good I think and so he came from he's been around a little bit in Germany I mean he was at KRA as a young player and then he went to Hanover and then actually went to paderborn on a free in in January of 2022 two years ago looks like they got a decent deal I I it does doesn't it you know if you get fully fledged International with with that sort of output that's pretty impressive the age of 25 as well there's still plenty plenty to come by the look of it and it looks like you know again we've talked about values in last week's episode and before and we know that that they're uh they're somewhat subjective but it looks to be around about two and a half million euros at least on the face of it before we get digging into you know I mean we would do our we would do the job the way we do the job which would be to plug in all these information into our model and see what our model came out with but on the face of it at least while you're all you're doing really at this stage is saying look is he within the sort of ballpark financially that would make it worthwhile us having a look further you know we're not trying to do a deal with the club we're not trying to make an offer for the player we're just saying if he's 25 million you know Birmingham are not going to be in that game you know maybe at two and a half and of course it can easily happen that when you start talking it suddenly it's double that but yeah you know that that seems to be to the best the best we can do so far it looks it looks like for for a guy who we you know potentially looking to to replace demele or have someone similar to demele left-sided player his radar chart looks like say almost completely similar similar age as well but a couple of years younger yeah it would be someone that's worth having a look at I think it it would seem to be wouldn't it on the face Scout to at least watch some video clips and see if it's um see if it's worth worth the effort of of checking them out in in person yeah so that's our first sort of potential um name um leading onto to the second one we've got quame poker peterb who's very interesting is he he's interesting and he's sort of in been in the you know he's been in the room a mill for some time um you know and obiously at this time of year everybody's linked with everybody but um yeah been a number of clubs have been talked about and a difficult one to Value actually I would have said because you know you can people tend to every time you every time you listen to a conversation the value seems to have crept up doesn't it um but who actually presses the button but yeah as far as his sort of playing style is concerned you know he's he it's a similar Style but he's done very well and if you look again if you look at his profile you might look at it on the face of it and say well he's done even better now he's playing in League one so we know sorry he's playing in League yeah league league one beg you Parton yes yeah so he's playing in League one and they're doing well in League one obviously aren't they Peter but right out there um but we've tried to allow our model does make an allowance for the strength of the opposition so we haven't we're not trying to just compare apples and oranges but that's always a bit subjective so you know there's again we're just trying to get names that we can look at further in more detail he plays Pro predominantly down the right it looks and so you know he's not he's not from that point of view if you're saying well we're looking for someone who plays down the left then you might say well we would he necessarily fit the bill but really what we're looking at is just players who've made good attacking contributions yeah it may not matter particularly which side they they're strongest that's right I mean when you look at his his radar CH me there's almost every every single metric he shows up better than Dem B doesn't he yeah and like you say it is a bit subjective but when you look at that again the stage we're at it's us thinking is it worth you know passing this on to technical Scouts it would have to be a yes wouldn't it I think you I can't see any reason why you would no you wouldn't at least want to sort of have a look you know he's as I say young lad as well isn't he he's young 20 22 years old and he's already played 20 games in the championship at some point yeah he played yeah when petur in the championship yeah so um he's he the garan national team well he's in the he's been in the squad he's played for them he's not in currently in there yeah um but you know I don't know maybe they're looking at him readying themselves for that no doubt they're looking to put a squad together soon for the afcon coming up in January yeah but yeah scores goals gets involved in goals what's his goal contribution 34% I mean it's pretty damn good yeah is excellent um so yeah I think it's not going to be a massive surprise if somebody has a little go for him no January that's a lot of games for a 22y old to have played what 150 League games that's pretty impressive isn't it yeah I think that's gonna certainly give a manager some confidence that the player is going to be able to to do the job and so the championship would have been probably two years ago wouldn't it yeah two or three years ago so um yeah would have been 1920 at the time so maybe a lot of those matches were off the bench or or limited minutes but no it's it's yeah interesting player to look at for sure yeah well I think you know it's not um it's not a big secret this one is it because we know that FBS are looking at him but um yeah in regards to again what's he going to be what's his value going to be you know transfer Mark got him down at 1.2 million EUR sounds low doesn't it sounds low but then again it's a you know it's taking that step up isn't it yeah um if he was doing it at a level that was similar uhhuh then there's a little bit less risk in that regard sure um but it can be anything can't it I mean you know yeah we've seen some good players from from League one last year for for Plymouth and Ipswich yeah sort of come up and and make a real impact didn't we so yeah potenti Peter I don't think they renowned for letting their players go without a fight either are they so you know no no it's not gonna be they're not going to be rolling over first sign of interest in him so yeah I don't know what the number would end up being um but um yeah once you might once you start the the ball rolling then you find out don't you yeah definitely definitely but yeah but it seems like there there's some reasonable sort of uh justification for taking a look so that's number two from Birmingham and then number three we've got a Brazilian got Ian be yeah BL at um well he's he's playing at Bahia and I don't know I mean that's in Brazil s yeah and you know obviously again look at the profile look at how closely he matches the profile of if we if we thought the first one was similar yeah this one it's almost a complete match isn't it yeah in in every in every single way it is see yeah exactly 22 years old playing in Brazil you know 1.7 meters so he's not big lad he's going to be technically accomplished we you know we're sure about that they all as are 30% goal contribution for the team um it's it's a decent level I mean only thing about this is It's a is the style you know is he going to be Hardy enough is he going to be is he going to have the the sort of physical um resolution the pace of play I think is probably something you'd want to want to be looking at isn't it you know how how much is the um the physical side of it and he doesn't show up great in the physical side does he in in the in the metrics but then neither does Dem Bell does he no you know so again I guess this is another reason to say well this guy is almost a complete clone of what we're looking for plays on the left hand side yeah just's take a look and and see what's see what's going on there he's down at three million um so you know it might be that he ends up being out of I don't know what their budget's going to be if they were looking at something like this um you know I don't know there's an indication that they're trying to move things forward at Birmingham so you know it may be that it wouldn't necessarily be the thing that ruled it out but again yeah sorry K come on um if you were a manager and you had 4 million EUR to spend on a a demele um replacement or someone to be the understudy to to dembele would you feel more comfortable spending that4 million euros on BL from bajia or more comfortable spending the 4 million on poku from peterb because one one guy is coming from what you'd expect to be a higher technical level yeah but then you know that the style of play is going to be relatively similar from League one up to the championship where where would you sit with that well you know the I've gotta my answer to that would have to be well I don't know yet because this is the point in the process yeah where we're trying to dig out the names yeah but but it's the right question to ask but the answer would have to be be dependent on what do you look what do you see when you do the technical scouting and then if you move it onto the conventional scouting and then you start doing the due diligence and looking at the character you know there have been some feisty characters coming out of South America uh you know and we might look at them and say Well they're you know they're it's all flicks and and and and you know tricks but there have been some that you know you can remember over the years that they're not going to lie down no they're gonna they're going to be competitive and if you find one like that you know I don't know it you might feel well what they might lack in in physical sort of attributes they more than make up for in determination because you do you know it's a difficult place in Brazil yeah to come through and get somewhere you've got to have something about you yeah you know some places it's tough to survive in where they live let loan through a football in area but I'm glad I'm glad you said that because what comes to mind for me is and the advantages of of this system is that if you start early enough so say we've gone through this in you know three or four weeks ago and this guy's flagged up and you go through the the technical Scout you then send someone to go and see him you've then got the time to do that due diligence haven't you yes whereas if if you were deadline day and I said you okay David we've got six hours to get a deal over the line we haven't seen either of these guys play um we're going to have to be really reactive with this do we sign a guy from Brazil or do we sign poku I would probably ER on the side of poku purely because he's in England yeah but that shouldn't be the deciding factor should it well and I think that has been typical of the way that we've signed players you know this country as you say you go with what you know and it's it's it's determined by the urgency and what we're trying to do is with our proceduralized way of doing things is to remove that urgency or at least mitigate against these sort of last minute quick decisions with saying no that's not how we work because you're never going to find somebody that you know you're you're never going to find somebody like this and I'm not saying that be is the man um because we don't know that much about him yet but if he is the man you're going to dismiss him every time you've got to make a decision quickly aren't he's not even getting through the door is he he's not even getting a look in no no good stuff but there we are interesting so that's that's Birmingham so the next club we came to who again would would appear to need something or at least they've got a player who is doing very very well in our top 50 um from an attacking point of view and were they to lose this player you know things could be difficult and it's centry City and it's Matt Goden and Matt God's a bit of a different Kettler fish some of the others you know I don't think he'd mind us saying you know he's a he's a mature experienced player at 32 um but you know they not only have they got a player who's doing well in a in an attacking sense in in a striking role but overall their their goals contribution has been poor as a team 14th in the league um if you look at where they might have expected to have been we talked about expectation a lot yeah it was eighth at the end of last season or beginning of this season that was the prevailing wisdom if you like so you know in that regard a lot of the sort of metrics that you might look at as being descriptive of good attacking play have been poor yeah very poor generally in so yeah they certainly seem to to struggle to finish chances if if I've seen seen them play you know they they get into good positions at times and just don't seem to be putting the ball in the net a bit like middlesbor had issues with early in the season yes but um they've just had a problem with All Season well they have and you know I suppose the one player that comes to mind is aie r w and you know good player and it may well just be a run of sort of bad luck he's had a lot of chances and and not many of them have gone in yeah so it's been kind of typical of that really so Matt godden's profile very very different profile and centry fans and you know fish andard of the championship won't be surprised it's mostly about aerial strength strength height discipline there's a goal threat there yeah but it's it's a lot to do with physical attributes rather than technical attributes he's he's a big lad who gets in the right place at the right time yeah isn't he that's that's pretty much pretty much it you you can imagine him being you said before like an oldfashioned number nine someone who's going to be up there leading the line yeah be that sort of focal point for the for the attacks to to move around and be on the end of stuff isn't he yeah I think so so you know it's not it's there's not much what would you call it there's no mystery to him he he does what it says on the team doesn't he really yeah absolutely and very different player to as you said to to demele so yeah we wouldn't be looking necessarily at the people we were talking about before we wouldn't be looking at them to be an appropriate replacement for a Matt Goden character would we no we wouldn't so we've been through the list that you know we've reversed engineered in that way we discussed earlier the first player we picked out was Andre ilit and he's playing in the Norwegian League I believe yes for valerenga ah very good my favorite Norwegian team oh good so you know looking at his profile it's rather similar yeah very much the shape talked about this shape we've super superimposed it again over Matt cens he's on the end of things 53% goal participation you know he's getting involved in the attacks ridiculous isn't it that's very good ridiculous yeah 23 years old good age yeah um outright Center forward yeah big guy you know strength height aggression very similar if not better in some areas as is Garden so yeah goal threat so it just looks like it's not yeah I it doesn't look like a it's not a difficult one to say well we know what we're looking for he'd certainly make your uh big and strong he' said make the short the short list wouldn't he to have a look at I'm sure he would yeah I'm sure I like the fact that he's he's already moved a couple of times at that young age as well so maybe that gives you a little bit more of an idea that he is able to adapt to different surroundings and and different you know if he' scored all of his goals in Serbia you might have said well you know what's it going to be like when he moves you know maybe he's very comfortable at home with family but again this process gives you time to to check those things out doesn't it does and I mean he only joined valer anger in in the summer so he hasn't been there very long so you know he's had a good time since he's been there cool yeah um but again I I think you know you've got to say if a championship Club comes calling in that area is going to be of interest to the player for sure what's his value well you know again the sort of on the face of it it's we're looking at 2.3 million according to transfer marks um so you know I think he they paid about half that for him in the summer so he's improved his value um what would it cost you you know we don't know but I would say it might be in the right ballp part yeah you know and I don't know what coventry's budget would be either particularly but no um you know I think we're not we're not a milli miles away from at least making it work they got a fair bit of money in didn't they in in the summer for they did yares and hmer didn't they they did they got a lot money I don't know if they spent much they did spend money they spent money on right didn't they right yeah that's it so you know um think they spent more money than that too but um was there another Center forward that they did they buy a center forward from Everton so who do they bring in right so they brought in yeah how you WR Ellis Sims um takamoto they brought in he's done well I think for um and a Yari has also done well for them attacking wise yeah you know they're the four um so they've all been pretty good haven't they have yeah but then I suppose what score would gares have had last year he would have probably been over over 200% wouldn't he because he was prolific ridiculous yeah and and played games as well I mean has played 690s so it's not over a big sample that no um but yeah they've done all right Sims as you say hasn't really kind of yet to catch fire yeah I think that's pretty much think that's unreasonable yeah so yeah that's um that's centry well that's that's the that's the first of the three for centry number two he's number two I think yeah is gone I'm going to let you say this V vill Geral GBL yeah no no no relation of the it's a different spelling isn't it I think that was g wasn't it yeah yeah is a different spelling he's 22 um FC s gallan um so and he's you know he's come up through the ranks of the French national team yeah so he's going to have some quality about him mhm and if you look at his profile he's got a lot more about his game hasn't he his radar chart is ridiculous isn't it I mean it's it's a bit a bit similar to to Poco in the fact that it's it's just it's almost like um it's verging on around the edge isn't it of everything you know really really strong there's not really an area where you'd say he's super week what what's the one down at the the very bottom there at the six o00 position yeah uh the only one but ball retention maybe I mean it looks like he's got the physical and the athletic attributes absolutely as well as some decent Technical and attacking attributes as and you know it's as you say it's quite rounded um so I would say yeah he looks decent doesn't he absolutely it's sort of on the face of it you look at it and think hang on why is he why hasn't he sort of moved on up a bit more than he has um because he guess pedigree is good you know as a young as an under 16 under 17 under 18 and under 19 French International and that's not easy to achieve is it no that's right he was at Monaco wasn't heam well so they lo I mean decent teams yeah he went from Monaco on loan to non and then they've let him go on a free to um s gelen yeah so I mean I don't know I don't know why particularly but no that would be something that you'd be trying to kind of look into but on the face of it looks decent goal contribution this year 27% six goals um yeah it's pretty decent isn't it and and his as well he's yeah sort of seems to roam quite a lot doesn't he's very much in in the attacking half which is good to see I'd like to look I'd like to see him I'd like to you know for sure look and see what what we what you'd make of him absolutely I mean because from from a physical and athletic point of view you'd say he is made for British football wouldn't you you would wouldn't you because well we we can stick him in and he'll he'll be you know more than capable of living up to the physical side of things yeah it may well be the the mental side of the game maybe the determination and the drive maybe that's not quite could be matching those things but again that's what we're trying to get isn't it trying to buy ourselves the time in order to see if it's worth finding these things out about these players exactly I mean the Swiss league is a bit weaker than the championship but not hugely no no some good players in there good teams um yeah so you know it's um yeah I I think as I say you look at it and think well there is a bit there to make you want to have a bit of a a deeper dive for sure sure definitely so that's Geral for you m and then finally from from centry is janom Rioni and at New England in the MLS gotcha look and again look at the profile it's almost identical it is ridiculous ridiculously similar it's well worth having a look at for sure yeah I mean you know okay he's he's in the MLS um he's 25 he was at Juventus mhm and he went to New England from there for 3.6 million so I don't know why he's kind of valued here at 2.5 million um Albanian national team he was he went through the Italian the young sort of Italian under 18 under 19 route MH but that's tough to you know so he's going to have dual nationality but you can't really hold that against him he did make it there um but again it's another one of those isn't it on the face of it gold anticipation yeah he's got that real sort of oldfashioned number nine seam back isn't he he's quite quite tall big you know aggressive very 188 yeah so he's you're not expecting him to you know run the channels very much and well thing his heat map is is not there's not a lot of heat on it to be fa which probably shows up why his Mobility is is ranked as low as it is but yeah it's ranked in the same areas as as Matt Godin so again if we're looking for someone who's going to be an appropriate style of player to fill that role this could be this could be your guy couldn't he he's one of these I think where you start looking at him from a technical point of view and you might rule him out quickly for some reason that hasn't Shone through here yeah but you would want to look at it because you know again it's quite an interesting sort of page of of information and I when you know so I think you'd want to look at it um and again it may just be he's been around a bit I mean he was at you know he's at Sor he went to Juventus or did they loan him I think he was at UV no it was at Sor wasn't he yes yeah ended up at UV looks like maybe he was you know they thought he was going to be a big a big player for him and it didn't work out and age now he's 25 is he yeah yeah he's played played a lot of games and been in a lot of places for a 25 year old yeah so I don't know you know again this is why you want to just have a look I think and digging into the character and and and everything and how has it work you know as it as it sometimes you find player kind of at 20 F works his way in somewhere strong and everybody's saying oh you know he's going to be a player and yeah and then it can't get over the disappointment it doesn't make it there yeah but then again sometimes it goes the other way doesn't it yeah if they're determined then they're often stronger when they come back from it so yeah I don't know no it's a tricky one isn't it he's a but he's done well this season and he's a similar profile so you know again it might be worth just taking a look definite definite now we're on to the third and final Club West Brom yeah and we've again the their most productive Striker or player in a striking role so far this season has been Brandon Thomas Hy um and you know that they are a funny team this year the expectation wasn't very high the expectation was 11th MH primarily I think because people knew that things were difficult off the pitch and they didn't do any business in the summer to speak up that's not quite true they brought a couple in in the summer but you know that wasn't a lot of business for West Bron no um and unfortunately Mader they brought in Mader and sento M's been injured and still is or been in and out unfortunately for him sento's done a bit but you know um but he came in on loan so I think the expectation wasn't high but you know in some respects even given the expectation only being 11th some of these attacking metrics been very poor shots on target 20th in the league for that it's amazing isn't it XG 14th you know disappointing um so yeah I mean we think they've they might be thinking they need Strikers and attacking support players but we're looking at striking at the moment yeah so Brandon Thomas of sant's profile is yeah I mean looks kind of solid doesn't it without being remarkable isn't it yeah without being remarkable anywhere much it just looks like yeah he can do he can do a little bit of what's needed but he doesn't stand out as such particularly um but you know he is there most yeah he's probably a bit stronger on the on the physical side than the technical side isn't he yeah it seems to be side yeah um quite athletic but and quite strong but yeah I think um so that's where he is and we've looked at his list and we've pulled out three players so again this is this is Brandon Thomas as s's page heat map shows him to be you know pretty much down the- middle yeah Striker MH um and we've come up with federo veness as their first option um hands up all those who've heard of feder Rico my hand is not up no no I know what you mean um so he's uruan and he's played in the national team once but it was only in November of this year so he seems like you know maybe he's making something of a mark 25 he's not really young as such um 30% goal contribution I for Leon not the leyon in France uhuh um but that looks like Mexico to me yeah Club Deon I think that is yeah yeah so um you know looking at him against Thomas a sant's profile um it's a bit more it's a bit more remarkable I suppose you know there's a there's a few areas that he seems possibly stronger in yeah um his goal threats greater um six goals in 12 appearances in the division so far so he's done well there um what would you say I mean fairly you know fairly strong yeah you'd say physically and not bad technically you'd say there was a potential as as well as Brandon has has been doing it at West Brom you'd say there's potential for an upgrade or certainly for someone to come in as as strong to compete for a slot off just purely off of these metrics wouldn't you yeah um again it's someone that's worth looking at is it the other thing to say Tom as well is you know it's topical all of a sudden because Brandon Thomas and santes declared for Ghana I think in the last you know in the last day or two and there's possibility that he'll end up going to the African Cup of Nations in January and they could do without losing another striking option DK's out long-term injury although you know yeah he could be back let's hope for his sake and their sake he he is but even if he's fit Again by the end of this year or by earlier earlyish in January is he going to be fit enough to play a big part immediately it's going to be tough ask for him yeah with with his injury history it's not someone that you'd want to rely on for the last 20 games of the season is it no it's going to be a it's going to be a big ass to come in for sure you know at this level after being out for so long and hit the ground running isn't it I think I'd I'd want to have him as an option for the last 10 minutes 15 minutes as you know someone to give a a different type of problem I wouldn't want to have to start him if we didn't have to no not not at least for sometime yeah I agree yeah just just to sort of get him back into playing football get and be confident in himself that he's not going to have another big you know set back and and all that sort of thing so yeah and you know they've got Mader out I mean again I don't I don't know how long for but he was out he came back in I thought was looking quite bright got himself injured unfortunately now he's out again so if they lose a s Thomas as Sante and DK and mager aren't back they've literally got no well you know they've probably got young players that they could try out but I would imagine if there was someone a young player who was up to the standard we would have seen him by now well you'd think wouldn't you but you know so is it going to be back to yeah playing players trying to sort of make do amend playing players out of position to be frank yeah and but and trying a system that you know doesn't require an outright Striker but that's not what you would choose is it if you you could avoid it no not really so yeah I mean the problem is of course even at one and a half million which is the again at least theoretically the value of venas I don't know what their budget is going to be even if they've got a budget in January that's right frankly you know and it might require it might depend on losing somebody and they might prer not to lose anybody but you know it might be that they literally can't do anything anything or maybe they'd have to look at a loan but again that still has an impact on the wage bill it's difficult and they're in this PO they're at this point now with the ownership of the club who knows which way that's going to go and how quickly so it's tough to know but you know we we're going over it from we're having to assume that at least something might be possible yeah so we deliberately haven't been looking at 20 million pound that's right but there's there's the first one we picked out good old Mr yes yeah um then we've got Alexander bernardson MH or bernardson yeah for very interesting this guy yeah yeah looking at his profile very interesting yeah he's um again and he's a another strong athletic type um he's he's got some sort of technical attributes I'd say he's probably relying mostly on his physi physical and his his and his athletic yeah um prowess is he there 25 years old at elsborg and you know they've tended to do quite well I mean Swedish the Scandinavians have tended to do quite well they I think we said this last week yeah so you know probably not too much to be he's 1.85 M he's a big big lad mhm um so I don't think you'd be worried about too much about the demands no physical demands and West you know they work hard don't they with the press and things so you'd have to have someone who was mobile someone was able to you know get up and down the pitch and and close things down so he might be a good a good candidate there he's a one in three six from 18 so far this season so he's he's not prolific but he's you know he knows where the goal is so yeah and he's a million euros you know we this is unfortunately yeah I don't mean to be disrespectful to him but this is what we're looking at isn't it so you know can play wide um what was his contract expiry there is it ear Rec I don't know if we got that I think just up just up the top there just the 1 million euros it just says the contract expired there so uh yeah okay how accurate that is November 24 yeah I'm not quite I don't put too much uh Credence on that but it could be the case yeah so it might be that he's got you know he's only got a year left um but again there other things that you would definitely be looking into if you if you went to the next stage and said well let's just take a look from a technical point of view let's watch some video let's make some technical reports and see where we go with it and if it did progress yeah that would that would be a Ser that would be a serious um issue yeah because that will affect the value for sure yeah definitely um so that's Alexander bernardson and then finally we've got Musa Sila at Po in League du in France again come he's come up through the ranks of the national team in France 16 18 19 and under 20 so he's not going to be a bad player is he no um no you'd expect to have say about him would you he's 34% goal participation so France is second division we know players have come in and done well and again it's it's around about the same as the Swiss League it's it's decent it's strongish yeah it's not as strong as a champ but it's not far off um so you know um looking at his profile he's just he looks like a a slightly more accomplished version of Thomas Asante at least on the face of it doesn't he yeah he does he certainly knows where the goal is seven from 16 starts decent um and you know he's got a bit of technical ability um 24 years old so he's a good age yeah yeah we know he's got some pedigree about him because he's come through the you know the younger now team ranks yeah um actually here's the thing he's on loan ah right okay so that could be a good thing for West Brom couldn't it yeah potentially I mean whether that means he's available in January I don't know but but if he they might be looking at something longer term but yeah or for the summer you know so but he he looks again like somebody that he's got he's got that sort of Thomas a Sante feel to him yeah very similar characteristic aren't they as far as you know their their output is concerned that's for sure yeah he's played in Holland so he's been around a little bit you know he's not he's not a novice so Siller interesting so he would be yeah I would imagine he's not on many people's radar as far as was no you know looking you know frch Second Division I don't think I've seen his him sort of mentioned around the place I mean Haven of course we could do um because as things hot up you know yeah lots of people get mentioned and well last last week we mentioned um aor Adams from Mon pelier and then three days three or four days ago I noticed that Fulham have been linked with him yeah so that's a guy that I hadn't really heard much of and he's you know playing at a good level in in France yeah um so yeah when when you're looking at guys in the in the Swiss first division or the French second division yeah I wouldn't imagine there's quite as much attention on there really no and again you know he's 1.2 million on theoretically so we are look this is what we're looking at on on behalf of West Brom so absolutely you know we're not with with all due respect we're not going to be looking at the Melos we're going to be looking at the pose aren't we yes yeah exactly and because we're having to be a bit more sort of creative in what we do and where we find the talent I think so with with cor brand being the the type of guy he seems to be the type of Coach who's extremely detailed he would he strikes me he would want round pegs in round holes he I do this and if if Brandon th is doing a good job for him he will want someone with similar characteristics to be able to do that same same same job where possible yeah and you know sometimes when you you're right and sometimes when you look up when you overlay the profiles you can see areas where you may say look we think that what we've got is a little bit weak at the moment in certain areas are there are there areas where the overlay is stronger sure you know so can you kill two birds one stone in a way there yeah um but interesting so they're they're the they're the players uh that we've come up with so three for each team and that more or less covers the teams that seem to be relying on heavily on players that are delivering a Striker's contribution gotcha and where they might be a bit vulnerable if they were to lose lose them for different reasons yeah I I like it I like the fact you know in here I'm looking at the the the screen here I've got all the sort of summaries and everything there that you helpfully put up David to make it you know really easy to to look at I think we're going to try and put this on to YouTube aren't we so that people can see this and follow along with it um I like the fact that we've got you know for for Brendan Thomas of Sante gold threat Pace you know height those sorts of things I he's not the biggest of lads but you know it's very much he's he's a quick goal threat isn't he so we're looking for quick guys know who are good goal threat and um whereas when we were looking at demele earlier there was a lot more you know dribbling oneto one incisive passing all that sort of thing that's not what Brandon's been asked to do that's not his no exactly no exactly so we know these guys that we're looking at for to to potentially replace or compliment dembele are good players yeah but they wouldn't be appropriate for the role that we want from from Brandon or the role he's been doing you know who's who's to say like you said that the team might evolve and change if we if we wanted to replace or have someone to compliment then these are the type of players we want to get in the most appropriate ones yeah and and I suppose maybe the the biggest difference is when we were looking at Matt Garden he was very much you know he the dimension there is physical yeah um you know it's about he's a goal threat but he's a physical player he's got the physical attributes and that's what so if you are looking for a straight swap then you as you say you're you're looking for those and it's a different profile it does highlight what we've been talking about I think but it's not about getting good players it's about because you you can look at every player who's scored at least say one in two and a half games mhm and say well let's go through that list but they're so different yeah you know we the profiles are so different yeah so what you're really trying to do is hone in on the ones and say well we want ones in that style aren't you so there we are that's where we are with those three excellent excellent okay and we're uh we're fast approaching Christmas Day David aren't we so yeah the next the next time we we get together to record an episode um is either going to be after Christmas or after New Year so I guess we should get our schedules together and see see what we're going to be doing yeah we'll be about two Stone heavier that's right yeah exactly oh dear I'm just holding on because I know once I you know once I take the breakes off it's mad um yeah well I don't know I think we yes you're right we we do need to do that yeah good well I think that brings us to a conclusion of a a very interesting episode 17 so thanks for that David thanks for listening everybody and we'll see you in the next episode whether that's after Christmas or in the New Year where we look to attack the championship see you then [Music] byebye