Martin Zubimendi: Hitting A Transfer Miss?

Ticking the Slot boxes

“Martín’s a player all coaches would want. He’s generous, he always thinks more about his teammates than himself. He has that ability to generate play, to make those around him better, always offering solutions; to improve the move. He understands what the next step is before the ball gets to him. He has that ability to organise, the axis. I loved working with him.”

XABI ALONSO [Source]

Paul Joyce has posted. The game is afoot. So much transfer news is empty speculation, it’s only worth paying attention to a select few journalists. The Times’ Joyce is unquestionably one of them. When he states that: “Liverpool considering Real Sociedad midfielder Martin Zubimendi,” you can be certain they are.

Aside from getting a Euro 2024 winner, what would the Reds receive for the reported €60million release clause? There are, as you would expect, several things which stand out from his data.

Let’s start with the less sexy but very important stuff. The Premier League is not quite the airborne battle ground it once was. In 2017/18, there was an average of 19.3 aerial duels per match, the most among the big five leagues. Last season, only Ligue 1 saw fewer than England’s 13.4 per game.

There are few midfielders who can cope as well as Zubimendi in this regard. In January 2023, Squawka posted that he had the best aerial duel win rate among the 199 midfielders in the top five leagues to contest at least 150 since the summer of 2019. A look at the up-to-date figures show he’s slipped to third, behind two men very familiar to Liverpool supporters, but he’s still very effective.

Via: https://stathead.com/tiny/f1uez

The Real Sociedad midfielder is also proficient in all types of duel, as Opta Analyst noted in an article back in October 2022. This was a problem at times for Jürgen Klopp’s Reds, particularly in their darkest days. “We didn’t win enough challenges, to be honest,” he said following a 2-2 FA Cup draw with Wolves in 2023. “There are a lot of situations where I thought they win a challenge and all of sudden we are completely open; we had two or three players in the challenge moving to the ball and when you are there, fine, you have to win the ball. If you don’t do that and they can get out then it looks like, ‘Where are they?’” Good question, Jürgen, and it’s one which Zubimendi looks well placed to answer.

The 25-year-old’s proficiency in ground duels helps to explain another eye-catching data nugget, which WhoScored posted in January 2024. “Martin Zubimendi has won possession in the midfield third more times (197) than any other player since the start of the 2022/23 La Liga season,” they wrote. An image shared by OptaJose showed how much ground the Liverpool target covers to make this happen.

Notice how quite a few occurred in the opposition half, which is to be expected from a player who doesn’t solely play as a holding midfielder. Where this is interesting is from a team perspective, rather than what Zubimendi delivers himself.

Liverpool recorded a PPDA figure of 8.9 in 2023/24, meaning that for each defensive action they made in the front two-thirds of the pitch, their opponents made 8.9 passes in that zone. Arne Slot’s Feyenoord posted 10.1; as with the Reds, the second best press in their respective league. Sociedad, for whom Zubimendi started 29 times, had a PPDA of 9.2, La Liga’s best in class. The Reds’ potential next midfielder was part of a very effective high press.

His passing data could be painted in two ways. A recent tweet from Josh Williams (Distance Covered) showed the progressive passing and ball retention data of potential number sixes. Zubimendi (whom I have highlighted) does not stand out.

However, progressive passes can be tricky to read. They are: “Completed passes that move the ball towards the opponent's goal line at least 10 yards from its furthest point in the last six passes (in the front 60% of the pitch), or any completed pass into the penalty area.” The complicated definition means such passes aren’t the easiest to visualise in your mind.

But you can picture a line-breaking delivery which takes opponents out of the game. Mundo Deportivo noted that Zubimendi is strong at these in November 2023. You’ll have to forgive the Google translation, but: “He completes 6.51 passes like this per game, which is the seventh best mark in the League in terms of midfielders, with a 66% success rate in this type of risky passes, which is outrageous.” An image from a recent article in The Athletic hinted at this ability too, as it showed Zubimendi played lengthy passes to Mikel Oyarzabal, frequently his team’s centre forward.

It’s fascinating to examine the players with whom Zubimendi has been statistically similar across the last year, per FBRef. Wataru Endō is one of them, suggesting Richard Hughes is looking to upgrade upon the midfielder signed by his immediate predecessor. But it’s also worth looking back further to 2022, when Julian Ward’s hand was on the transfer tiller.

Liverpool were in for Aurélien Tchouaméni that summer. The Frenchman is the third top match for Zubimendi from the big leagues over the last 365 days, and top for the 2023/24 La Liga season specifically.

If we look back to the Europa League of three seasons ago, when Tchouaméni was with Monaco, we find the pair matching again. Sergio Busquets, a player with whom Zubimendi has frequently been compared, is in the list too.

We know that Liverpool were in for Tchouaméni at the conclusion of that campaign, because Joyce wrote that they were. The Times man was aware of Real Madrid’s interest, which would prove decisive, but said that the Reds would look for a midfielder of a similar profile if they couldn’t secure the French midfielder.

Yet having missed out on Tchouaméni two years ago, the only midfielder who arrived was Arthur Melo on (very, very unsuccessful) loan. Perhaps Liverpool enquired about Zubimendi in 2022, only to be rebuffed. He signed a contract extension in October that year, so was clearly not of a mind to leave Sociedad at that point.

The Reds’ brain trust from around that time is now back in the building at Liverpool. Having failed to recruit their first choice midfield target or one with similar skills two years ago, the club looks set to right that wrong with Zubimendi this summer. Let’s leave the last word to Xavi.

“Zubimendi is an extraordinary pivot. He dominates the game, the moments with and without the ball. He wins duels, he is an extraordinary player in that position. He understands the model we like at Barça.”

XAVI [Source]