da blaze casino： This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets…
da aviator aposta： Back in the summer, Crystal Palace cashed in on the impressive Aaron Wan-Bissaka, selling him to Manchester United in a deal worth £50m.
In doing that, the Eagles were left with just one senior right-back in Joel Ward, and so the alleged search for a direct replacement began.
There was a link to Montpellier’s Ruben Aguilar, although he later joined Monaco – we outlined how that may have been a bullet dodged by the south Londoners.
Then there was an ambitious £25m bid for Chelsea’s Reece James, which was swiftly rejected.
And the Eagles were also eyeing up teenage Norwich star Max Aarons as talks with United continued.
Aarons, another England U21 international, shone in the Championship last season as the Canaries won the league, scoring two goals and grabbing six assists from right-back – the 19-year-old was also named as the EFL Young Player of the Season in his first campaign as a senior professional.
The Norwich academy graduate has since made eight Premier League appearances, but the evidence suggests that Ward – the player he would have replaced – is actually a better fit for the current Palace set-up.
Roy Hodgson’s side are a well-drilled outfit who tend to rely on defensive solidity in order to get their results – that much can be seen in the fact that they sit 6th with 15 points, but have scored just ten goals in ten games. Palace have also kept the third-most clean sheets in the top-flight with three shutouts in ten games.
As a result, each member of the backline needs to be well disciplined and diligent defensively – on that note, the stats will tell you that Ward is a significantly better defender than Aarons.
Ward averages 2.5 tackles per game in the Premier League this term, as well as two interceptions and a huge 3.8 clearances – to compare, Aarons registers 1.9, 0.5 and 1.6 in those respective departments.
Of course, Aarons is a more naturally offensive player, but that side of his game hasn’t been hugely prevalent this season either with less than one chance created per match and no crosses to his name. In comparison, Ward’s produced 0.4 crosses per Premier League outing this season.
Of course, at just 19, Aarons has real star potential in his locker and could go on to be a fantastic Premier League player – Tottenham are believed to be interested in a January move. There’s little doubt he would have proved a solid long-term investment for Palace, and has a higher ceiling than Ward who is now 30 years of age.
As things stand, however, Ward is proving to be the player in better form, and the better fit for Hodgson’s system.