This £50m “jewel” could be perfect for Aston Villa beyond January.
Aston Villa have had a superb 2023/24 campaign so far and have even found themselves in an unlikely title race, currently sitting second in the Premier League with the same number of points as Liverpool but with an inferior goal difference.
However, performances against Sheffield United, Manchester United and Burnley over the past week have shown that there is still work for head coach Unai Emery to do ahead of the January transfer window.
With that in mind, there is one player that Villa and Emery could turn their attention towards over the coming weeks to help bolster their attacking department.
Aston Villa transfer news – Oscar Gloukh
According to a report from Football Insider in early December, Aston Villa are keeping tabs on RB Salzburg’s highly-rated gem Oscar Gloukh ahead of the winter market and could secure his services for between £40-50m.
Furthermore, the outlet are claiming that, while the Austrian champions are hesitant to let their Israeli playmaker leave, the club may be resigned to doing so due to finishing bottom of their Champions League group, exiting all European competitions.
Gloukh moved to Salzburg back in January for a reported £6m and has been sensational for the side, scoring eight goals and recording eight assists in 42 appearances for the club. 12 of these goal contributions have come this season alone in 25 matches and the 19-year-old was even described as a “jewel” by football scout Jacek Kulig for his displays for Die Roten Bullen.
Now, this jewel may be on his way to Villa Park over the coming weeks and could be perfect to help ease the attacking burden off of both Ollie Watkins and Leon Bailey.
Oscar Gloukh’s stats comparison vs Nicolo Zaniolo
After winning the Turkish Super Lig last season with Galatasaray, Nicolo Zaniolo moved to Aston Villa during the summer and has made 20 appearances for the Midlands club already, although merely ten of these have been from the starting lineup, including just seven in the Premier League.
Emery has preferred to use the Italy international as an impact sub, coming off the bench when Villa need a goal which has certainly worked at times this season, notably his nine-minute cameo against Sheffield United over a week ago in which he scored in the fifth minute of stoppage time to rescue a point for his side.
However, Zaniolo hasn’t had a fixed position at Villa, having been used in six different roles in total throughout the campaign so far, the most prominent being on the left wing and through the middle as a number ’10’ behind the striker.
Nevertheless, the 24-year-old has failed to be productive enough and hasn’t even managed to record a single assist for the club whilst on loan. Gloukh, on the other hand, has been far more creative and has outperformed Zaniolo in several key attacking metrics this season.
| Gloukh vs Zaniolo | ||
|---|---|---|
| Per 90 Metrics | Oscar Gloukh | Nicolo Zaniolo |
| Goals | 0.40 | 0.21 |
| Expected Goals | 0.24 | 0.32 |
| Assists | 0.27 | 0.10 |
| Expected Assists | 0.21 | 0.11 |
| Progressive Passes | 4.72 | 2.92 |
| Key Passes | 1.70 | 1.35 |
| Passes To Final 1/3 | 3.21 | 1.80 |
| Passes To Penalty Area | 1.32 | 0.79 |
| Take-Ons Success % | 35.3 | 30.4 |
| Stats via FBref | ||
As the stats prove, Gloukh has had far greater output for Salzburg this term than Zaniolo and would help ease the creative and goalscoring burden from Watkins and Bailey. Aston Villa have registered 105 goal contributions in all competitions this season under Emery and 36% alone have come from Watkins and Bailey with 22 and 16 in total respectively.
As a result of Moussa Diaby’s struggles in recent months, having bagged just two goals and one assist in his previous 13 outings, Emery has been forced to use Bailey as a second striker, often deploying right-back Matty Cash as a right-winger to compensate.
Adding Gloukh to the starting lineup would allow Bailey to return to the right flank while keeping a player in the frontline who is capable of grabbing goals and assists, something Zaniolo has failed to do consistently for the Villans.
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