Chelsea's new defensive target is one of league's most improved players

Martin Macdonald

21 Feb 2022 17:50 GMT
3 min read

Chelsea are likely to be on the hunt for defensive reinforcements this summer due to an expected exodus of current stars.

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At the moment, the club stands to lose Antonio Rudiger, Andreas Christensen and Cesar Azpilicueta at the end of the season when the trio's contracts expire.

In the summer of 2021, the club came close to signing Jules Kounde from Sevilla only for negotiations to break down near the end of the window. They remain interested in the French defender, though other elite sides want to sign him too.

Other names like Matthijs de Ligt, Ronald Araujo and Wesley Fofana are reportedly on Chelsea's shortlist for this summer.

According to talkSPORT, there is another target who has emerged in the form of Wolves defender Max Kilman.

Kilman has been superb for Wolves over the last couple of seasons, finding his best form in the 2021/22 campaign.

Bruno Lage's side have impressed and are outsiders for the last remaining Champions League place, and that is largely down to their tight defensive record.

Wolves have conceded just 18 goals this season - a record so far which is only bettered by league leaders Man City.

Kilman has started all 24 of their Premier League games.

According to SciSport, he is one of the league's most improved players over the past six months.

In the 2021/22 Premier League season, he averages 1.7 tackles per game, 1.8 interceptions per game, 3.7 clearances per game and 0.7 blocks.

He is also noted for his ability to bring the ball out of defence and can play in any position across a back four or back three.

How is the SciSkill ranking calculated?

Over the course of a season in the Premier League, there are players who will enjoy increasingly poor performances and increasingly positive performances.

FootballTransfers, in partnership with SciSports, has determined 10 players over the last six months within the Premier League whose performances have improved to a higher degree than anyone else, of which Kilman is one.

SciSports explains how our development ratings are gathered:

"Among others, a positive development could be boosted by more playing time, playing time on a higher level or better performances on the pitch.

"A negative development could be due to the player being active on a lower level than he used to play, bad performances or the fact that he does not play that often as he used to do.

"A SciSkill Development of 0.0 could indicate that a player is performing exactly like our algorithm expects him to do. Another reason could be inactivity (e.g. a long-term injury or suspension)."

It should be noted that vast improvement does not necessarily mean that a player was underperforming previously.