Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino was known to be searching for a new central defender – if not two – and Federico Fazio of Sevilla has now signed for the north London club.
Fazio, 27, is a strong defender who Pochettino will look to lead the line at the back following Spurs’ terrible defensive lapses last season. The Argentine has taken over at White Hart Lane and knows exactly the area of the team that needs a lot of work, and that is the defence. So often last season Spurs fell apart defensively against the big sides and were punished.
Spurs sign Federico Fazio for £8 million
Over two games against Manchester City, they conceded 11 goals; 9 goals against Liverpool and lost 4-0 to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. It simply wasn’t good enough and Tottenham were incredibly easy to play against.
Pochettino will make sure that is not the case this season after guiding an impressive Southampton side to a top half finish last season.
The signing of Fazio is a clear indication that Pochettino is looking to strengthen his defence. Backing that up is the sale of Michael Dawson, who joined Hull City on Tuesday after nine years at White Hart Lane. He made four defensive errors last season, while Hull made a combined total of just seven, showing truly how poor he was.
In terms of the defensive Performance Score in the league last season, Dawson just edges out Fazio by a misely 0.08 points. The Argentine central defender averaged a defence Performance Score of 15.79 per 90 minutes last season, just shy of Dawson’s. Younes Kaboul – who stood in as captain a lot last season – averaged a terribly low 6.03.
However, he did make up for that in the tackling department, averaging more successful tackles than Jan Vertonghen, Dawson and Fazio with 1.62 per 90mins. Fazio actually averaged the fewest out of the four with 1.06, but that may come down to the fact that tackling isn’t as important or frequent in La Liga as it is in England.
Fazio vs Vertonghen, Dawson & Kaboul
He certainly improves in the heading department, though. Michael Dawson won a total of 126 headed duels in the Premier League last season, which was 11 more than Fazio, but the Argentine played five games fewer than his English counterpart and thus averaged more successful aerial duels per 90 minutes than him. Fazio’s average of 4.34 also beats Vertonghen (2.25) and Kaboul (2.77).
In terms of overall success in the air, Fazio again comes out on top. He won 76.67% of his headed duels, a greater percentage than any of his rivals.
Fazio is also the most reliable of the four based on last season’s performances, too, as he averaged the fewest defensive errors (0.08) with Kaboul averaging the highest (0.29).
Pochettino looks to have pulled off a good deal by signing Fazio for Spurs. He has sold the club’s most unreliable central defender and replaced him with a player who could, potentially, lead the defence for the next few years.
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