Raphael Varane is out of contract at Real Madrid in a year's time, therefore this summer is the perfect opportunity to acquire one of the world's best centre backs for a heavily reduced fee. You've likely read that United currently lead the race for the Frenchman, with Varane willing to join United for a fresh challenge in the Premier League. The price set by the Spanish outfit is rumoured to be in the region of £50 million, far lower than if a player of his caliber was securely contracted. At the end of the day, he has won three Champions Leagues with 'Los Blancos' in addition to the World Cup with France in 2018 - not a bad CV!
The 28 year old has spent ten years with Real Madrid, joining from Lens back in 2011. In addition to his three Champions League medals and a World Cup, Varane has tasted a trio of successes in La Liga and also has a singular Copa del Rey victory. The successes in 2018 marked arguably the best season of the Frenchman's career to date: he finished 9th in the running for the FIFA Best Men's Player Award, peaking at 7th in the Ballon d'Or standings. He was also named in the FIFPro Men's World 11 and UEFA Team of the Year for his performances throughout the year. An all-round, strong, fast and technical centre back, Varane would surely be the perfect man to partner Harry Maguire.
It has to be said, he is extremely capable of performing on the very highest stage. Let's look firstly at the 2017/18 Champions League campaign - a spell which helped to earn him many of his 2018 accolades. He played eleven times in the competition, starting on each of those occasions.
Before I shift to the defensive element of his game, I'd like to touch on his technical side - something Victor Lindelof does already offer in abundance partnering Maguire. With 63 touches per game during the tournament, he proved that he is content to be on the ball at the back (even if this isn't quite on Maguire or even Lindelof's extreme current levels). His passing was of an extremely high echelon throughout the aforementioned Champions League campaign, with a 90% accuracy and completion of around 44 passes per game. That accuracy was accentuated in his own half, with 93% of his passes completed in that area. At a slightly lower but still top level completion rate, he made around 14 accurate passes per game in the opposition half; this ability and confidence to step forward to make passes in the opposing half is extremely effective to catalyse transitions. He also proved relatively comfortable making long passes, with around 3 completed per match at an accuracy of 58%. There is a clear intelligence in his game to determine when and where to take risks with his distribution, with no errors leading a goal or even a shot during the competition's course.
Although it is obviously not a specialty for a centre back, it's interesting to know that Varane completed every attempted dribble during Real Madrid's latest Champions League winning campaign - even if it was at an average of only 0.4 dribbles per game. When he decides to carry the ball from the back, there is a clear air of efficiency.
What made Varane so good defensively during those eleven games? Well, he came out on top in over 4 duels per game - succeeding in 66% of his contested duels. Of those duels, he won 2.5 per game aerially (68%) and 1.8 per game on the ground (63%). His discipline is something which is outstanding: he committed an average of 0.3 fouls per game and was only booked once. On average, he was dribbled past below one time per game, with an exceptional awareness of danger expressed through the average of six clearances made each match. This awareness enhances his top tier interceptive and tackling ability, allowing neutralisation of opposing attacks. His initial burst of pace is something that is also integral in order to sweep up attempted counter attacks, and it allows him to fulfill his sense of threat.
I'd also like to briefly focus on Varane's statistical output during the 2019/20 La Liga season, when Real Madrid tasted their most recent league success. He played on 32 occasions during the Covid-hit campaign, with all appearances from the start again.
Once again he showed how assured he is in possession, with a healthy 62 touches per game and an 87% pass completition rate (with around 45 completed per match). Similarly, the accuracy was an impressive 93% in his own half - epitomising exactly why he makes so few costly mistakes. He has begun to attempt and therefore complete a slightly greater amount of long balls as well, with a maintenance of an average of over 12 passes in the opposition half per match. Once again, dribbling frequency was rather minimal though majorly successful.
The rate of success in duels is consistently similar too, with a decent majority won both aerially and on the ground in the 2019/20 season; of those contested, Varane won an average of around 4 per match. His levels of discipline were once again exemplary, with only 2 bookings in 32 appearances in La Liga. In a large portion of matches, the Frenchman didn't even commit a single foul - heavily contrary to options such as Eric Bailly at United. Meanwhile, his defensive output was once again colossal. Dribbled past an average of only 0.3 times per game, his elite sense of danger is absolutely blatant. Once again, he didn't make a single error leading to a goal or a shot - in 32 matches!
Statistically, he is essentially constantly on par with Maguire's outstanding 2020/21 campaign that saw elements of United's defensive structure drastically improve. Let's be honest, no United fan would be adverse to having two centre backs of Maguire's efficiency onboard. The United captain loves to commit to an occasional challenge, so Varane's discipline would likely offer the perfect balance if he was to get a deal done with United.
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