Southampton have agreed a £18m fee with Borussia Monchengladbach to sign defender Jannik Vestergaard. The Danish international will reportedly undergo a medical this week to complete his switch to the St. Mary’s.
The 25-year-old is quite a commanding centre-back with the procured physical strength to succeed in the Premier League. He has played 13 games for his country along with spending eight years playing in the German leagues of various levels.
So, we can say he is quite an experienced player at the age of 25 with plenty of talent to showcase upon his arrival in the English top-flight.
Let us take an in-depth look at the player and conclude why he can be the signing who makes the difference at Southampton:
Nationality – Denmark
Age – 25
Main Position – Centre-back
Vestergaard is quite a tall centre-back with fabulous ability to win balls in the air and exhibits the physicality to shrug off centre-forwards. He has an unreal statistic of aerial duel win rate of 3.2 per game in the Bundesliga last season, depicting that playing route one football against him won’t make much sense.
Not only is he a hard, robust defender, the Dane also possesses great match awareness by reading the situations well. It allows him to make key tackles and interceptions without much tranquil, at a rate of 1.8 and 1.3 per game respectively.
His considerable stature grants him to be dominant in the air in both boxes, indicating his capability to be a threat from set-pieces. He has scored 3 goals from 32 appearances epitomising that threat.
In Mark Hughes‘ 4-2-3-1 or 4-5-1 system, Vestergaard can be deployed on either side of the centre-back position. He demonstrates a pass success rate of over 85%, proving his worth of being an all-round defender who is also colossal at the back.
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Well, as far as Southampton are concerned, they are getting a gem of a player at his peak. At 25, Vestergaard has a minimum of 6-7 good playing years ahead of him, and if Saints utilise him for this period, he can become a difference-maker at the St. Mary’s.
The way Vestergaard plays and the stature he possesses, speaks comparably to former Southampton defender Virgil van Dijk.
Stats courtesy: Squawka
