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Continuing from part 1 where I selected the spine of my team, in this post, I'll be looking at the remaining attacking players. I had planned to do the defensive positions but that's not as exciting as finding 2 wingers and another box-to-box midfielder or playmaker. I mentioned at the end of my last post that I wanted pace on the wings so my starting point is searching for attacking wide men with a good number of successful dribbles past opponents.

I have a remaining budget of £83.4m (an average of £11.9m per player) so let's see what I can do...

Wingers

The type of player that gets fans excited and puts fear into defenders. Vinicius Junior (£90.0m) springs to mind as do the likes of Adama Traore (£25.2m) and Allan Saint-Maximin (£28.8m) - all of which are too expensive. Once I've got 1 player to fill one of the wing slots, I'll see what that brings and might rethink the other winger - a David Beckham to contrast with Man Utd's Ryan Giggs. This will also dictate what kind of full backs I need when I get to it later. So looking at successful dribbles thanks to whoscored.com in the top 5 European leagues again, and remembering that I've got about £11.9m left per player, let's see what I can do...

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--- Pause for intensive research... most players are too expensive... Patrick Wimmer (Armenia Bielefeld - £7.2m - 2.3 successful dribbles per game, 2.4 unsuccessful)... Neymar, that would be nice... Wimmer... let's have a closer look ---

There is only 1 option with more than 2 successful dribbles per game and that's Armenia Bielefeld's Patrick Wimmer. A right footed player, he scored 3 goals (from an xG of 4.11) and got 6 assists in a team that got relegated from the Bundesliga. The following video bigs him up a bit...

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The video says that he likes to play on the left of midfield but he's played as a right winger all season and that's where FIFA's got him...

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I like the confidence and the pace but he'll definitely need a more defensive right back in behind him and perhaps a player who can cross from deep if I go down this route. At only 20 years old, if I can get my world class coaches working on his final product, he looks like he could be a class act.

--- Pause to search for other options... Emmanuel Dennis (£7.2m - 1.9 successful, 2.8 unsuccessful), Jack Harrison (£13.5m - 1.9 successful, 2.2 unsuccessful), Ademola Lookman (£8.1m - 1.5 successful, 1 unsuccessful - an underated winger)... To Italy... Zaccagni (Lazio (Nice player)- £16.2m pricey - 2.3 successful, 2.1 unsuccesful), Felipe Anderson (Lazio - £11.7m - still playing - 1.9 successful, 1.5 unsuccessful), Sottil (Fiorentina - £8.1m - 1.5 successful, 1.4 unsuccessful)... To Spain now... Embarba (Espanyol - £4.5m - 1.9 successful, 1.1 unsuccessful), Lius Rioja (Alaves - £2.7m - 1.6 successful, 1.5 unsuccessful)... Germany now... Holtmann (Hoffenheim - £4.1 - 1.7 successful, 2.1 unsuccessful), Grifo (Freiburg - £10.8m - 1.5 successful, 0.9 unsuccessful)... Finally France... Bouanga (St. Etienne - £6.3m - 1.9 successful, 2.2 unsuccessful), Moses Simon (Nantes - £9.0m - 1.8 successful, 2.1 unsuccessful), Toko-Ekambi (Lyon - £13.5m - 1.6 successful, 1.5 unsuccessful) ---

I could well be in the territory of overcomplicating things (as usual) so let's split the list between left and right wingers and see what their Expected Goals (xG) and Expected Assists (xA) were like last season (per 90 minutes) - bearing in mind they'll have played a different number of games for varying quality sides - but we want some end product.

Both

Player	xG	xA
Emmanuel Dennis	0.24	0.14
Ademola Lookman	0.29	0.11

Left Wing

Player	xG	xA
Jack Harrison	0.17	0.21
Mattia Zaccagni	0.20	0.16
Riccardo Sottil	0.19	0.17
Luis Rioja	0.08	0.15
Gerrit Holtmann	0.19	0.24
Vincenzo Grifo	0.32	0.27
Denis Bouanga	0.29	0.20
Moses Simon	0.20	0.33
Karl Toko Ekambi	0.46	0.23

Right Wing

Player	xG	xA
Patrick Wimmer	0.18	0.15
Felipe Anderson	0.19	0.20
Adrián Embarba	0.15	0.12

I don't think there's a great deal of choice on the Right Wing so I'm going to stick with the youngster.

👉 Patrick Wimmer (£7.2m)

On the left, there appears to be a lot more choice but one name stands out to me, Vincenzo Grifo of Freiburg. theanalyst.com has him in their team of the season and when you consider that he beat Leroy Sane to this spot, you know that he's a decent player.

How's this for a comparison...?

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He's run his legs into the ground

That's the kind of commentary I like to hear about a player.

👉 Vincenzo Grifo (£10.8m)

Central Midfielder

Having saved a bit of money on my wingers, I now have £65.4m for the remaining 5 players (averaging roughly £13.1m per player).

To complete this article, I'm going to find a midfielder who can play alongside Christian Eriksen in the centre of midfield. Knowing that I've got Kalajdzic who can hold the ball, some pace to run in behind and playmakers Eriksen and Grifo, we've already got a lot of variety going forward. So it feels like a player who can both attack and defend would go well here - knowing that I've got a defensive midfield slot coming who will be on defending duties. I don't really know what I'm looking for here so I'll search for a consistent performer. The likes of Bruno Guimaraes (£27.0m) feel about right - more defensively minded but offer something extra. Other Premier League players that appear are Kovacic (£40.5m) and Thiago (£19.8m).

Ruben Loftus-Cheek at £18.0m or Eriksen's Danish teammate Christian Norgaard (£9.0m) appear to be the best options from the Premier League.

Most of the players I've come across are too expensive although elsewhere, some cheaper options have surfaced, which I'll list here and then look into further... Simone Bastoni (Spezia - £4.5m), Adrien Tameze (Verona - £6.3m), Ederson (Salernitana - £4.5m), Tommaso Pobega (Torino - £12.6m), Adrien Rabiot (Juventus - £16.2m), Geoffrey Kondogbia (Atletico Madrid - £13.5m), Anton Stach (Mainz - £7.2m), Maximilian Arnold (Wolfsburg - £15.3m), Florian Kainz (Koln - £3.15m), Kouadio Kone (M'Gladbach - £13.5m), Mahmoud Dahoud (Dortmund - £16.2m), Lovro Majer (Rennes - £16.2m), Danilo Pereira (PSG - £12.6m), Flavien Tait (Rennes - £7.2m), Ibrahima Sissoko (Strasbourg - £7.2m), Khephren Thuram (Nice - £12.6m), Adrien Thomasson (Nice - £7.2m), Marshall Munetsi (Reims - £3.6m), Enzo Le Fee (Lorient - £4.5m), Baptiste Santamaria (Rennes - £12.6m).

Since I don't really know what I'm looking for, I'll see if I can find data for "distance covered". I want a work horse in this role...

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It appears that this data is incredibly difficult to find but... according to squawka.com, Christian Norgaard covered on average the 2nd most distance in the 2021/22 season. Also on our list, Maximilian Arnold covered the most distance in the Bundesliga and it appears that Ligue 1 players run less than most other European leagues.

So I'm going to give Norgaard and Arnold a bit of bias but before dismissing everybody else, I'm going to look at each player's strengths and weaknesses according to whoscored.com - we're looking for somebody to work both the boxes so the ability to tackle and break up the game is important as well as popping up and finishing any chances that come his way...

❌ Ruben Loftus-Cheek - Very Weak at Holding on to the ball and weak at Tackling and Defensive contribution
✅ Christian Norgaard - No significant weaknesses
❌ Simone Bastoni - Predominantly a Left Back
✅ Adrien Tameze - No significant weaknesses
❌ Ederson - Weak at Passing
❌ Tommaso Pobega - Weak at Finishing
❌ Adrien Rabiot - Weak at Crossing (not relevant) and Finishing
❌ Geoffrey Kondogbia - Weak at Discipline (I like this 😅) and Concentration
✅ Anton Stach - Weak at Discipline
❌ Maximilian Arnold - Weak at Tackling
❌ Florian Kainz - Weak at Passing and Finishing
✅ Kouadio Kone - Weak at Discipline
✅ Mahmoud Dahoud - Weak at Discipline
✅ Lovro Majer - Weak at Aerial Dules (I don't mind this so much)
✅ Danilo Pereira - No significant weaknesses
❌ Flavien Tait - Weak at Aerial Dules, Finishing, Crossing and Tackling
❌ Ibrahima Sissoko - Weak at Passing
❌ Khephren Thuram - Weak at Concentration
❌ Adrien Thomasson - Weak at Passing and Aerial Duels
❌ Marshall Munetsi - Weak at Passing and Tackling
❌ Enzo Le Fee - Weak at Finishing
❌ Baptiste Santamaria - No significant weaknesses

I didn't realise I had such a long list but we're down to 9 now and I'm pleased to see my favourite - Norgaard has made the cut. I'll look at each player's strengths now before diving into some data and see if anybody stands out.

✅ Christian Norgaard - Strong on Interceptions, Tackling and Concentration
❌ Adrien Tameze - Strong on Interceptions and Concentration
✅ Anton Stach - Very Strong on Interceptions and Aerial Duels, Strong on Long Shots and Taking Set-Pieces
✅ Kouadio Kone - Strong on Dribbling, Tackling and Concentration
✅ Mahmoud Dahoud - Strong on Passing, Through Balls, Long Shots, Key Passes and Dribbling
✅ Lovro Majer - Very Strong on Key Passes, Strong on Taking Set-Pieces and Through Balls
✅ Danilo Pereira - Very Strong on Passing, Strong on Aerial Duels, Long Shots and Blocking the Ball.

This is getting tougher by the minute and you'd think I was going to have to sign one of these players at the end of all this! I suppose I am 🤣

I have Christian Eriksen so I don't need to worry about Set-Pieces and I already have my key creative players so I'm not too concerned about Passing or Key Passes either (so long as it's not a weakness) - This doesn't make much difference but does reduce the appeal of Lovro Majer.

So I'm down to 5 and I think I already know where I'm going and it's the man I mentioned earlier...

👉 Christian Norgaard (£9.0m)

Team So Far

So 5 days researching 3 players, another £27m spent from my budget meaning that I've spent £93.6 of my £150m. £56.4m on 4 players so £14.1m per player left - it's looking like I might have some money left over and if I do, I might revisit some areas once I'm done.

Once again, please let me know what you think so far. Are things coming together and are we on track for a decent team?

For those that commented last time with the view of creating a team yourselves, how are you getting on with that? I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.