Man Utd targeting one of the WORST Premier League midfielders to replace Casemiro

Robin Bairner

• 22 Mar 2024 19:30 GMT
• 12 min read

Manchester United are in the market for an additional defensive midfield player in the summer, with the Red Devils seeking to replace Casemiro.

The Brazil international is expected to leave the club, with a transfer to the Saudi Pro League mooted.

One of the options that United are looking at to replace the former Real Madrid star is Wolves midfielder Joao Gomes.

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FootballTransfers has exclusively revealed that Wolves are ready to turn down a €46.5 million (£40m) offer from the Old Trafford club for him.

Signed for €18.7m from Flamengo in January 2023, the 23-year-old has not exactly proven a smash hit in the Premier League.

He has featured 28 times for Wolves this season across all competitions, scoring two goals, but he would be a poor replacement for Casemiro, according to data analytics experts SciSports.

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How good is Joao Gomes?

Joao Gomes is a central midfielder who typically plays as a ball-winner, but while he is rumoured to be of interest to Manchester United, the truth of the matter is that he is not good enough for the Old Trafford side.

SciSports rate him as the fourth-poorest central midfielder in the Premier League this season based on its analysis of hundreds of in-game data points.

Only Wolves club-mate Boubacar Traore, Brentford’s Yegor Yarmolyuk and Tottenham’s Oliver Skipp fare worse.

Joao Gomes vs Premier League midfielders: 2023/24

Gomes does retain possession well and recovers the ball to a similar standard of Liverpool’s Alexis Mac Allister and better than other prominent deep-lying midfielders like Arsenal’s Declan Rice and Aston Villa’s Boubacar Kamara.

It is unlikely the Man Utd will see this as making up for his shortfall in other areas, with his prevention and pressing especially poor.

SciSports has given Joao Gomes a SciSkill rating of 83.9, which is based on in-game data. This is higher than Casemiro at the same age, yet the younger Brazilian is expected to only peak at 98.8 – making him no better than a rotation player at Old Trafford.

If Man Utd did move for him, they would be banking on him developing late much like Casemiro did. At Real Madrid, he reached a SciSkill score of 125.1, putting him among the best players in the world.

Wolves' price point over €46m is also way overblown. Gomes has an Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) of just €14.4m.

Should this move become a reality and Joao Gomes become a hit at Old Trafford, it would be one of the most remarkable pieces of scouting in the Red Devils’ Premier League history.