£200,000-a-week Arsenal player has a big chance to impress Barcelona against Real Madrid | OneFootball

FC Barcelona is a team blessed with immense talents across the pitch and the best part about it is that most of them are still young and below 25. Their best years as a footballer are yet to come and the future bodes well for the Catalan club.

Having gone through some dire financial times in recent seasons, it must be said that Barcelona have a huge gratitude to pay to La Masia for producing some of the most talented players in the world and managing to keep the Catalan club relevant.

Despite this, there are certain profiles that Barcelona don’t naturally have and they could look into the transfer market for such profiles. For example, a physically dominant defensive midfielder is not a profile that the Catalan club has had for a long time.

Thus, it comes as no surprise that Barcelona are linked with a potential free transfer for Thomas Partey, whose contract at Arsenal expires at the end of the season. Atletico Madrid are also interested in bringing him back to the club.

Partey has been a regular feature in Mikel Arteta’s team so far this season, having overcome his injury issues from last campaign, but there seems to be no indication that the player is in negotiations with the Gunners to extend his contract.

Arsenal are set to face Real Madrid in the quarter-finals of the Champions League and, as per Mundo Deportivo, this will give Partey a chance to impress and catch the eye of clubs that are interested in him, with clubs from Italy, Germany and Saudi Arabia also said to be looking at the player.

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How does he fare compared to Barcelona starlet Marc Casado?

So far this season, Hansi Flick has used Marc Casado and Frenkie de Jong as the number 6s but the latter is not a natural defensive midfielder and doesn’t necessarily function like one. However, the former has had a very impressive season and looking at his numbers compared to that of Partey throws up some interesting observations.

The stats clearly show that Partey is a defensive midfielder with a similar defensive duel success rate to Marc Casado. The Spaniard tends to win more possessions per 90 than the Ghanaian though and outranks him in this regard.

However, Partey is heads and shoulders [pun intended] above Casado when it comes to aerial duels success %. This is where his physicality comes in and exactly why Barcelona might be trying to sign him for the upcoming season.

Partey wins close to 60% of the aerial duels he attempts, whereas Casado’s numbers drop to close to 31%. That is a significant difference and there have been games for Barcelona this season where the Spaniard has been dominated aerially.

Thus, having a physical presence like Partey could help Barcelona close out games better and this is why the club might be interested in the £200,000-a-week Gunners midfielder. It is also worth noting that the African star has a mean long shot in him.

Although signing Partey should not be a priority, there is no doubt that he has what it takes to provide some valuable squad depth to Barcelona. On the right finances, this deal does make sense and let’s wait and see how it plays out.