da bet7： This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…
da pixbet： Real Madrid are seemingly not yet done reinforcing their squad for the future. And if the latest reports coming from El Desmarque are true, Los Blancos have their eyes set on N’Golo Kante, and they are willing to invest heavily in him.
What’s the word, then?
Real Madrid need a midfielder and they need one badly.
At least that’s the verdict the Spanish media is going with and looking at their squad, nothing should be more urgent than securing a worthy Casemiro replacement.
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And yes, Luka Modric is slowly getting on and Toni Kroos can’t be expected to pull the strings by himself but the more worrying fact is that the Galacticos only have a single natural defensive midfielder in their whole squad.
If Casemiro were to get injured, Zinedine Zidane would have a major problem on his hands.
For that reason, and if these reports are true, Kante could be the ideal solution to most of their problems.
A perfect replacement
The same source claims that this pursuit, if it were to go through, would not be a cheap one.
Chelsea value their midfielder quite highly and for that reason, Real Madrid would reportedly be willing to fork out €100m (£86.7m) and add James Rodriguez into the bargain as well.
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Of course, Kante is very much worth every penny, especially considering how badly Zidane needs him.
Looking specifically at the stats, however, we can see that he offers pretty much exactly the same things Casemiro gives to the team at the moment.
The Brazilian has averaged 2.8 tackles, 2.6 interceptions and two clearances per game in the 2019/20 La Liga campaign and Kante is not really far behind. The Frenchman has tallied 2.3 tackles, 2.3 interceptions and 1.3 clearances in the Premier League so far.
But they also have a similar playstyle overall – both Casemiro and Kante have averaged two fouls per game in their respective leagues, emphasising how they are often the ones disrupting the opposition’s attacks.
And not to mention that Chelsea’s man is really tough to dribble past.
So far, he’s only been dribbled past 0.8 times per game as opposed to Casemiro’s two.
By all accounts, the Frenchman seems like an ideal replacement and even if Zidane wanted to play them alongside each other, we know that Kante has a good offensive skill set and can be deployed higher up the pitch.
After all, he already has two goals to his name in just four appearances in the ongoing campaign, and he scored and assisted four last season in the Premier League as well.
Of course, this would take a major chunk out of Real’s budget but, really, this is a deal that has to be completed by Los Blancos.