Carlos Soler
I've been tweeting about Soler a good bit, so might as well bring it all together with a short article. Soler is:
a 22 year old midfielder for Valencia
has played on the right mostly this season
not really a goal threat: 0.7 in-box shots per 90
~1.3 key passes per 90
~2.5 defensive actions per 90
Now to why I think these raw numbers might not be the full picture and why Soler is a very good target for Tottenham or anyone needing an offensive midfielder and who can afford the apparent 30 million euro price tag.
Let's go to the Tableau Dashboard to try and look at Soler in context. We are looking just at La Liga midfielders here, those who's completions start with them between 45 and 55 yards from goal (Soler is at 51) and play 35% or more of their passes in the middle of the pitch to weed out the fullbacks.
On the X Axis we have our new trusty Yards Gained Per Minute and on the Y Axis we have Danger Zone Progressions per minute, so passes or carries into Zone 0 or 1.
We can see Soler on the chart is trailing only a few midfielders in danger zone progressions, with Sevilla's Sarabia leading the way there and while Soler trails the big guns like Rakitic/Parejo/Kroos in yards per minute, he's in a decent neighborhood where he's at. Other players right around him in the yardage gained/deep progression group are Beñat, Santi Cazorla, Pablo Fornals and Isco. That's a decent neighborhood...Borja Garcia is there also, but his below average yards per pass mean the rest of the neighborhood association kind of looks down their nose at him. Like come on Borja, mow your yard every once in a while, geez.
His pass volume isn't that high (~38 per game) which could be a worry but it could just be a factor of playing alongside Dani Parejo, one of the true under-the-radar megastars who we are assuming is off the table for either age (29) or $$ reasons. Soler is above average in yards gained per pass.
So to sum up here, Soler
progresses the ball into danger zone at a very good level for a midfielder
gains yardage at a slightly above average rate per touch
passes for 69% of his yards so not a static player like a Parejo/Trigueros and not a carry specialist like Lo Celso...somewhere in between
hasn't shown if he can handle huge touch load, but plays alongside monster volume midfield maestro in Parejo, can't rule out larger load
Valencia's right side has been defensively very solid, hard to say he's a defensive weakness but Soler is not a defensive sweeper
I think he would be a perfect player in the Wijnaldum type role at Liverpool, and much better at getting the ball to the forwards. An improvement on Wijnaldum
30 million euros looks like a very good deal
assorted other previous tweets