Manchester United appear to be in the market for a new striker this summer, and it’s no surprise considering the lack of impact we’ve seen from Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee since their arrivals. The young duo aren’t solely to blame for their lack of production, with Ruben Amorim’s side struggling to create chances, but as a result, they may need to find a striker capable of creating something out of nothing.
Working with The Win Factory, I’ve used their machine learning algorithm to find a player who could suit exactly what United need.
Now, the tool from The Win Factory allows me to compare particular players with others from around the world. As it stands, it’s difficult to argue that Hojlund and Zirkzee are the correct profiles United need, so we may have to be a little clever with our search parameters. Ignoring the algorithm system for a second, there’s one player I think any club in the world would love to have – Alexander Isak.
Can United attract a player of Isak’s calibre at the moment? Probably not. Could they afford to pay what Newcastle will demand? Absolutely not. Will we be seeing Isak at Old Trafford in a Red Devils shirt next season? Categorically not (feel free to bookmark this). So, what I’ve done is used The Win Factory to find some players who are similar to Isak in terms of the data, and hopefully, more achievable and affordable.
Firstly, I’ve set the parameters to only find players playing in a similar strength of league to Isak. I’m also searching only in Europe, for now, while I’m predominantly targeting players under the age of 27. The deal has to make sense financially for United, and bringing in another ageing player on big wages could be detrimental.
Hugo Ekitike
One player who has shown up in the results is Hugo Ekitike. The Eintracht Frankfurt forward scores a percentage of 71.36 in terms of similarity to Isak. At the age of 23, Ekitike is a player who is yet to reach his full potential, but is still performing at a strong level in a competitive league.
Three obvious bits of data stand out to me, and they should to you too when looking at the graph. Non-penalty xG, xG per shot, and touches inside the box. These are three metrics a top-level striker should be scoring high in, first and foremost. What it means is that Ekitike is getting in the right positions to take high-quality shots, he’s getting plenty of touches inside the box to try and finish opportunities, and he’s there to do the main job of a striker – trying to put the ball in the back of the net.
