Player Focus: Premier League Summer Imports

With the football seasons drawing to a close across Europe and Euro 2012 fast approaching, a few clubs have already begun preparation for next season by confirming fresh faces to arrive in the summer. The two biggest imports already agreed to enter the Premier League will see Lukas Podolski and Marko Marin move from the Bundesliga to join Arsenal and Chelsea, respectively. WhoScored.com has taken a closer look at their vital statistics from this season to attempt to ascertain just how well they will fit in at their new clubs.

Lukas Podolski

Returning to his boyhood club, FC Cologne, after an unsuccessful spell at German giants Bayern Munich, very few expected Podolski to move on again, but with his side facing a playoff to guarantee their Bundesliga status for next season, he has decided his future lies elsewhere.  Arsenal have secured his signature, and with Robin van Persie yet to sign a new contract, it will be interesting to see whether Podolski will be the Dutchman’s replacement or partner next season. If the latter is the case, the duo could form one of the deadliest front lines, if not the deadliest, in the Premier League.

Podolski has scored 18 goals in 28 starts for Cologne this season, which puts him 4th in the Bundesliga top scorer standings; an incredible achievement for the lone striker of the league’s third-bottom side. Having scored those goals from just 35 shots on target, he has a conversion rate of 51% when testing the keeper, which is only bettered by 3 Bundesliga players who have scored more than 10 goals this season. Furthermore, although Robin van Persie can hardly be criticised for scoring 28 league goals this season, it is worth noting that his conversion rate of shots on target this season is less than 37%.

Six of Podolski’s eighteen goals this season have come from counter attacks – more than any other player in the Bundesliga – and this is where his suitability to Arsenal comes to light. No team in the Premier League has scored more ‘fast-break’ goals than the Gunners, who have scored 9, and Podolski’s tally is in fact more than any other Premier League team as a whole. He could be yet another player to finish off those breaks from defence.

Although he has featured down the centre for Cologne this season, it is likely that he will be deployed on the left at Arsenal if van Persie stays, and so he will need to show his creative side as a result. He has picked up 6 assists this season, 2 of which came after counter attacks and that would undoubtedly increase with the likes of van Persie to provide for. His total of 18 goals and 6 assists equate to a direct involvement in 63% of Cologne’s goals, which is the highest proportion in Europe’s top 5 leagues this season.

He has a tendency to stray out wide anyway and then run at defenders before cutting in and unleashing an effort at goal, and having scored 4 of his goals this season from outside the box, he will certainly add to this threat for Arsenal, who are often criticised for playing too intricately near the opposition area. Only Andrey Arshavin and Yossi Benayoun have provided goals from outside the box whilst playing out wide for Arsenal this season.

Additionally, in total, the wide left position for Arsenal has accounted for only 8 league goals this season and that is something that certainly needs improvement if they are to challenge for honours. Lukas Podolski could well fit the bill.

Marko Marin

Chelsea have confirmed the signing of Marko Marin from Werder Bremen for this summer. The German international made an impact on English football when he scored against Tottenham during their stint in the Champions League, and will hope to make more of an impression on the Premier League next season.

Having been deployed almost exclusively in a central attacking midfield role behind two strikers for Bremen this season, it is not clear how exactly he will slot into the Chelsea team, who often operate in a 4-3-3 formation. His lightweight build and silky skills suggest he will occupy a wide berth and provide a little more creative threat.

This season, he has averaged 2.1 successful dribbles per game for Bremen, which is more than any Chelsea player has managed in league games. Only Ramires (1.6) and Fernando Torres (1.1) have averaged more than 1 dribble past an opponent per game, and third in that regard is centre back David Luiz. In the past two seasons, when Chelsea have been significantly more successful in the Premier League – coming 2nd and 1st – than they have this term, the Blues have had 6 players in their squad averaging more than 1 successful dribble per game, and Marin is certainly likely to increase the individual skill level at Stamford Bridge.

Meanwhile, it is not his passing ability that will have caught the Chelsea scouts’ eyes. His pass success rate of 79.6% is the twelfth best in Werder’s squad, and is only better than Torres, Petr Cech and Didier Drogba in the Chelsea squad. His tally of only 25.6 passes attempted per game shows that he does not get on the ball all too often either. For a creative midfielder, that is a distinctly unimpressive statistic.

However, he averages 1.9 key passes per match, which is second most in the Bremen squad and is only fewer than Juan Mata at Chelsea. He has picked up 5 assists this season and, with Torres showing signs of a potential upturn in form, Marin could prosper at Stamford Bridge. Having made only 1 of his 16 starts in a wide position this season, Marin picked up an assist from a cross when he was deployed on the flank. It is likely that he would also play out wide for the Blues and they would hope for more of the same.

While players who occupy a ‘trequartista’ role abroad sometimes struggle to find their feet in the Premier League, Marko Marin seems more likely to try and make the transition into a wide midfielder, and it remains to be seen how well that transition might go.