Chelsea, the English Premier League’s defending European champions, are looking to sign a defender in this or the next transfer window. Their top defender, Antonio Rudiger, will be out of contract in the summer, and his performances have attracted a lot of interest from other top European clubs. Club captain, Cesar Azpilicueta, is also set for a move to Barcelona, and Danish international, Andreas Christensen, is also on the radar of many clubs. Chelsea is targeting French international and Sevilla centre-back, Jules Kounde, to strengthen their defense. Kounde’s has been on Chelsea’s wishlist for some time, and the Blues wanted to buy him at the start of this season.
Jules Kounde is a regular starter for the Spanish club and made five appearances in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League this season. When looking at the above chart, the general rule is that the longer the bar, the better the performance—you can see the league average in the middle, and the % is the percentile rank the player is in.
The defender averages 12.28 defensive actions per 90 and has an 88% success rate. When we look at the aerial duels, Kounde has a high percentile rank. The 23-year-old is strong in the air and is similar to the other Chelsea centre-backs who have scored a lot of goals from corners this season. Kounde is highly ranked for making recoveries, especially in the opposition’s half as a defender. He has made 86 recoveries, and 19 of them have been made inside the opposition’s half. Kounde also has 36 interceptions to his name.
Jules Kounde plays as the right centre-back in the team. The player has contested most of his duels inside his half. He has contested a lot of aerial duels near the half-line, and these duels are mostly contested whenever there is an opposition goal-kick or a long pass is played from the defensive line. If we look at the opposition’s penalty box, we can observe that Kounde has contested ten aerial duels inside the box. This shows that Kounde is strong in the air and contests a lot of duels.
The above visual shows all the interceptions made by the player. Of the 36 interceptions made by the player, nine were made when other players were on the ball, two were made while contesting a duel, and the other three were made while the opposition players were passing the ball.
Jules Kounde was also good at passing, and his accuracy rate was more than 90%. The player even attempted four shots with a 50% shot accuracy rate. He is good in the air and could be a good addition to Chelsea’s backline. Chelsea plays with a three-at-the-back formation, and Kounde likes to operate towards the right side. He is one of the primary targets for the Blues.
