View: West Brom plot reported swoop to sign £20m-rated defender likely to struggle in PL
Middlesbrough have been one of the biggest underachievers in the Championship this season with Jonathan Woodgate’s side sitting 19th in the table, just two points clear of the relegation zone.
No team has scored fewer goals than Boro in the Championship this term but the club’s defence has been quite impressive for a struggling club, with them having the 10th best defensive record.
At the heart of their defence has been Dael Fry, who has reportedly emerged on the radar of West Brom.
According to 90min, Boro are prepared to cash in on the 22-year-old centre-back and that has attracted attention from a host of clubs including Premier League clubs Everton, Burnley, Southampton and Crystal Palace.
West Brom are also reportedly keen on Fry, with 90min saying that the Baggies are plotting a swoop to sign the England Under-21 international.
Fry is a decent young English centre-back, but would he be worth the £20million that Boro are demanding for him if West Brom launched a bid?
The Middlesbrough-been ace has helped Woodgate’s side keep eight clean sheets his season in his 27 Championship appearances.
Stats by WyScout show that he has averaged 10.47 recoveries per 90 minutes of Championship football, as well as 3.63 clearances and 6.31 interceptions.
Fry has also averaged 4.58 defensive duels per 90 minutes, winning 61.5 per cent of them and won 60.6 per cent of the aerial duels he’s challenged for.
The 22-year-old has played mainly as the left-sided centre-back this season and Kyle Bartley has been West Brom’s equivalent.
In comparison to Fry, Bartley has averaged more recoveries, clearances, defensive duels won and aerial duels won.
Bartley isn’t known as a ball-playing defender but the Baggies man has also averaged more passes and completed a higher percentage of passes than Fry.
It is easy to make judgements about Fry based on his stats. If you read into them you’ll come to the conclusion that Bartley is a better defender than the Boro man in every single way.
But Fry is still young, attracting attention from Premier League clubs and has a £20million price-tag on his head for a reason.
He’s a good defender in an underperforming team but we believe he’s likely to struggle in the Premier League for West Brom if they sign him upon promotion.
We’d rather stick with Bartley.
In other West Brom news, David Prutton has been raving about this “phenomenal” striker after he was linked with Albion.
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