5 Reasons Why Chelsea Would Be Signing Another Lukaku If They Pursue Vlahovic

Chelsea have joined the likes of Arsenal and Manchester United in pursuing Juventus striker Dusan Vlahovic.

Reports in Italy suggest that the Blues are interested in the Serbian international, who could cost upwards of €90m (£79m) in January.

Vlahovic is an out-and-out striker, much like Romelu Lukaku, but it is only when you dive into the numbers that you see how similar the two players are.

Press the next page as we look at some startling statistics that demonstrate the parallels between the forwards.

Non-Penalty xG and Assisted Goals

Lukaku hasn’t played as much football over the last eighteen months so it would be unfair to do a direct goal and assist comparison between the two.

If we look deeper at the nonpenalty xG and assisted goals metrics in the league for the two players from the start of last season, though, they have very similar figures. Vlahovic managed a combined non-penalty xG and assisted goals average of 0.52 per 90. Lukaku’s number was 0.53.

Goals Per Shot

Again, considering Lukaku played 22 fewer 90 minutes in the league than his Serbian counterpart, since the beginning of the 2021/22 campaign, it would not be right to compare goals and shots like-for-like. A fairer analysis is to look at goals per shot during that period.

Lukaku has a 0.16 goals-per-shot return over the past one and a half seasons, while Vlahovic is only marginally better off at 0.17, meaning both are likely to score the same number of goals if they get the same number of shots.

Passing

In the passing stakes, you don’t see a good deal of variation either. Both have identical pass completion stats (around the 70% mark), while Lukaku is better at key passes and Vlahovic is stronger in terms of his activity in the final third.

When it comes to passes into the 18-yard box over the past eighteen months, they have exactly the same average per 90 minutes in the league (0.64).

Expected Assists

We have decided to use expected assists rather than simply assists as the latter can be skewed by the scoring player’s ability in front of goal. xA gives us a better idea about how creative the two forwards actually are.

In their respective league games since the start of the 2021/22 campaign, Vlahovic (0.08 xA per 90) and Lukaku (0.10 xA per 90) have nearly identical stats.

Aerial Ability

This fifth and final stat may not surprise that many as both are 6ft 3 so you would expect them to have exactly the same figures in terms of their aerial win percentage.

Vlahovic is ever so slightly worse in terms of winning balls in the air (51%) than Lukaku (51.8%) but it is not a significant difference.

You may also be interested in reading:

Who Is Diego Moreira? 4 Things You Need To Know About The Chelsea Target
The TEN Chelsea Under 21 Stars Who Have Flown Out For The Abu Dhabi Training Camp (PART 2)
The TEN Chelsea Under 21 Stars Who Have Flown Out For The Abu Dhabi Training Camp (PART 1)
Three CONS And Two PROS To Chelsea Selling Christian Pulisic In January
Forget Bailey And Rashford: Chelsea Should Be Targeting Dutch Ace With 30 Goal Contributions This Season
Chelsea’s MVP: Find Out Who Comes Out On Top As We Rank EVERY Player’s Performance This Season
5 Facts About Endrick As Chelsea Become Frontrunners To Sign Brazilian Teenage Sensation
We Profile The FOUR Chelsea Starlets Who Have Been Asked To Train With The First Team This Week

Or

You can visit our blog home page to read more news about Chelsea here