- 2 hours ago
With only 6 months left on his contract with Crystal Palace, Marc Guéhi has been linked with a January move to... everyone. Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Real Madrid, it doesn't matter how great their need for a centre-back is, no team seems to want to let the chance to sign him pass by. But Manchester City look to have beaten them all to his signature.Adam Clery looks at why Pep Guardiola was willing to drop serious cash this winter for a player he could actually sign for free in the summer.
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00:00Ari Chagas, welcome to the Adam Cleary Football Channel where Mark Gaye is leaving Crystal Palace.
00:07That's not a scoop or anything, his contract is up at the end of the season and he is not
00:11renewing,
00:12but this January brings news that Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, amongst others,
00:18may be willing to stump up some decent money to get him now instead.
00:23So why? Why are some of the best teams in the world willing to stump up the GDP
00:28of most Polynesian island nations for a player they can get for free in a few months?
00:34Is he that good or is he just that good for certain teams? Well, let's have a look.
00:43Alright, so the basics for you. Mark Gaye is a 25-year-old...
00:48Brilliant centre-back who is right-footed but very comfortable with his left
00:52and prefers to play on the left but is very comfortable on the right.
00:56He is comfortable in both a back four and a back three and to be completely honest,
01:01we could just stop the video there. All of that stuff I've already mentioned
01:05in today's market is worth paying a paltry £30 million for.
01:10Like, think of the best centre-backs in the Premier League right now, okay?
01:14Yeah, you got them. Some of them are better or stronger or quicker than he is
01:19but none of them have that combination of versatility, either positionally, tactically or technically.
01:26And that is a profile that is so rare at the top of the game that it means
01:30all the clubs currently being linked with him, regardless of what their current options are
01:35at centre-back, can't really pass this opportunity up.
01:39At Liverpool, Van Dijk is 34 and Canate allegedly wants away.
01:43He would solve whichever one of those problems becomes the most pressing.
01:47Arsenal have Gabriel and Saliba and Mosquera and Nkafe and Ben White and Califiori and Timber
01:53but there is always talk of Saliba maybe going to Real Madrid before too long.
01:58And if that's genuine, then Gaye, at that price, probably jumps ahead of everyone else in that queue,
02:05bar Gabriel. So, why not?
02:07And even Man City, Ake is 30, Stones cannot seem to stay fit, Vardyar has broken his leg
02:12and Diaz has somehow managed to get injured for the exact length of time that Meijama
02:18is presenting Love Island All-Stars from a luxury resort in South Africa.
02:24Hmm.
02:25But just to be absolutely clear about this, right, Mark Gaye is already at a level
02:30where he would not look out of place at any of those clubs and I'm going to show you why.
02:36First off, this comes from the Man United game earlier this season.
02:39The ball is being played in here to Fernandes and I think that's Maxime Lacroix
02:44whose job it is to get out and put pressure on the ball.
02:47And if you look, Mark Gaye is not really involved in this phase of play.
02:51He's gently walking backwards to reset his position.
02:55But suddenly, Fernandes leaves this ball and lets it run through
02:59which is absolutely brilliant and catches everybody out.
03:03Except Gaye, who despite only having a split second to read this situation,
03:08somehow does and beats Ahmad to the ball despite all his weight going the other way.
03:13And that might look like a small detail, right, but those are near Formula One levels
03:18of reaction time and decision making.
03:21And that is already a part of his game that is at the very, very top level.
03:25And honestly, right, for all people talk about his pace, his strength, his passing,
03:30all of that stuff, right, it's his reading of the game and his ability to understand
03:35how to handle dangerous situations, which is his greatest strength, I think.
03:40Like here, Salah has slipped in on goal, but Gaye recovers really quickly
03:44to get back goal side and clear the ball.
03:47Like, legitimately, that is a goal if he does not realise what's going on
03:51and make up the distance as quickly as he does.
03:54Here against Wolves, they've again gotten pulled all out of position
03:57and he can't get back to the player, so he reads the direction and timing of the pass
04:02to get back in and cut that out instead.
04:05Which is also almost certainly a goal Crystal Palace concede
04:08if his brain does not tell him to do that.
04:11Here against Arsenal, he quickly sees over his shoulder the run going in behind
04:16and adjusts his position to cut out the pass.
04:19Like, theoretically, he should run this way,
04:22but the slight adjustment to go this direction stops the attack.
04:27But this, right, this is the best one of the lot.
04:30That same Liverpool game as before, he is with Salah,
04:33but crucially, he's wrong side and slightly behind him.
04:36And if Rimpom can play this ball around the defender,
04:39there is enough space between Salah and the goal
04:41that he will be in and nobody will be able to sweep it up.
04:44And in a situation like that, right,
04:46nine out of ten really good defenders will just sprint.
04:51They will try and sick up a lung trying to stay with Salah
04:55in the hope they can catch him on his way through.
04:58Like, even from here, if they can pressure him a bit
05:00or hope he just takes a bad touch, rush the shot,
05:02all of that is actually still quite good defending.
05:05But what Marguerite does is so, so good.
05:08He runs away from Salah to instead defend this space here,
05:14which both sounds and looks absolutely mad, I will grant you.
05:17But now, when that ball comes, he has lost the man,
05:21but he can stop the pass.
05:24That's exactly what he does.
05:25Rimpom plays the ball and he intercepts the ball
05:28easily, cutting it out.
05:30Now imagine, through the miracle of Photoshop,
05:33he had stayed tight, he'd be here.
05:35He would have no chance whatsoever of recovering that situation.
05:39And it's just little moments like that
05:42that mark you out as being in that very, very top bracket
05:45where all the big clubs are going to have an eye on you
05:48sooner or later.
05:49But if we go and look at some of his numbers
05:51from this season, right,
05:53and yes, you could absolutely visibly salivate
05:56over some of those passing and carrying numbers,
05:58and we will,
06:00but the one we're really looking at here
06:02is mistakes.
06:03Over the last two seasons,
06:05mistakes that directly lead
06:07to the opponent having a shot,
06:09Vardyol has 10, Saliba has 8,
06:12Rhys James has 7,
06:13and Ruben Diaz and Van Dijk have 6.
06:16Mark Gaye has 3.
06:19He has played 55 matches in the Premier League
06:22over that time,
06:23and on only three occasions
06:24has he got something quite badly wrong.
06:28And that, bear in mind,
06:29is for a team with the third lowest possession
06:31in the Premier League across that time as well.
06:34So he is under far more pressure
06:36and having to do far more defending,
06:38thus far more likely to make a mistake
06:41than any of those other names I've just mentioned.
06:44That's a staggering stat,
06:45but the others aren't bad either.
06:47His comfort on both feet
06:48means he's a really effective passer.
06:50He's brave with the ball.
06:52He likes to try and split defensive lines when he can.
06:54But even if the pass is not particularly incisive
06:57or eye-catching,
06:58it does at least always tend to be forwards.
07:01Top 10% for defenders for progressive passes
07:03is another stat made all the madder
07:05when you think about what low possession
07:08Crystal Palace tend to have.
07:09And yes, he's involved in a lot of counterattacks
07:11where you simply have to go forward,
07:12but even when he's not,
07:14he's clearly playing with his head up
07:16and looking at how he can get his team
07:18further up the pitch.
07:19He also has a brilliant switch of play in him,
07:22which is partially where this passes into the final third
07:24and passes into the penalty area comes from.
07:26Like again, being near the top of the league for that
07:29while playing for Crystal Palace
07:30is really, really good.
07:32And you can see from the attempted long passes
07:35being notably high
07:36and the completion rate being notably low
07:38that this is where, in his game,
07:40he chooses to take risks with the ball
07:43when he thinks he might be able to get a teammate in.
07:46That's pretty good decision-making.
07:48But one thing the big clubs will absolutely love about him,
07:51right, is this natural two-footedness
07:53and being able to play on either side.
07:56It's really, really hard to press him
07:58because you will have more good angles
08:00available to him when looking forwards
08:02than other defenders who are more one-footed.
08:05Now, this is from an England game.
08:06He gets the ball under pressure
08:07and if you're supremely one-footed here,
08:10you haven't really got a choice
08:11but to roll this over to Rice
08:13and keep moving backwards.
08:14But he instead pirouettes around the forward
08:17and moves the ball across to his left foot
08:19to keep his body between the forward and the ball.
08:23And again, I know that probably looks like
08:24quite a small example,
08:25but that is such a rare level of balance
08:29and composure from a centre-back
08:30and the whole movement
08:31somehow opens up a forward ball into Saka
08:34which, if you go back to the start of the move,
08:36did not exist when he got the ball.
08:38But here, my friends, is the main thing
08:42because the clubs at the very top
08:43come up against low blocks all the time, don't they?
08:47And as much as they love a defender
08:48who can pass the ball,
08:50they really love a defender
08:52who can carry the ball.
08:54And this is Mark Gay's heat map
08:56for just this season.
08:58And again, playing as a centre-back
09:00for a team who don't have loads and loads of the ball,
09:03he is spending a silly amount of time
09:06pushing up into this sort of left-sided half space,
09:09into the final third,
09:10and even occasionally all the way to the byline.
09:13He is brilliant at driving the ball
09:15and himself into pockets of space.
09:17He's strong, he's quick, he's technical,
09:19he possesses a lot of the major attributes
09:22which you would want in a 10 or in a winger,
09:26and he's also got the confidence
09:27to actually use them.
09:29The numbers back it up as well.
09:30His carries forward are in the top 10%,
09:32his carries into the final third are top 25,
09:35and he winds up making his team
09:37a lot of chances by doing this stuff.
09:40Like this year, for example,
09:40I can't really picture many other centre-backs
09:43playing as a centre-back
09:45who would be doing this
09:47in a Premier League game right now.
09:49Aha, but the final question though,
09:50the really big one,
09:52can he actually defend?
09:54And, yeah, yeah, of course he can.
09:57The same physical tropes
09:59that make him good on the ball
10:00as well as the aforementioned reading of the game
10:02means he very rarely gets outrun
10:04and his timing in the tackle
10:06when leaving his feet
10:07is as good as you will see.
10:09Like if you've ever watched him play
10:10for Crystal Palace,
10:11this next bit will not be a shock at all.
10:13But here, he keeps pace with Jared Bowen,
10:16which is obviously not easy.
10:17Here, he gets in late to stop Arsenal
10:19and here, this is really good,
10:21he is totally done
10:22by the bounce of the ball
10:24and Mbuermo should have him on chips.
10:27But instead of getting into a panic
10:29and locking onto the ball
10:30and just trying to deal with that
10:32even though it's like a cursed sphere of chaos
10:35and will never do what you want it to do,
10:37instead, he deals with the man.
10:40He gets a hand on Mbuermo
10:42and leverages him into a position
10:44he can manage while he waits
10:46for the ball to settle down.
10:47And then again,
10:48he turns away brilliantly.
10:50He's not the most dominant in the air
10:52but that is a part of his game
10:53that's improving.
10:54He went from being one of the league's
10:55least airily dominant centre-backs last season,
10:58won just over half of his headers,
11:00to really asserting himself this.
11:02He deserves a lot of credit actually
11:04for getting that number
11:05all the way up to 65%
11:07because if you go and look at the raw numbers there,
11:09right, the headers per match,
11:10it's not that he's doing less of them,
11:13playing it safe
11:14and not going for ones
11:15he doesn't think he can win.
11:16He's actually going for more headers
11:18and being way more assertive in the process.
11:21And if I really, really, really
11:23had to try and find a downside to his game,
11:25there is one currently,
11:28ground duels,
11:29like physical side-to-side contact,
11:30that sort of thing.
11:32That's not his strong suit.
11:33He's still a strong lad,
11:34do not get me wrong,
11:35but that is a part of his game
11:36you do have to tactically manage.
11:38He avoids getting involved with them
11:40when he doesn't have to
11:41because he does not win them
11:43as reliably as other defenders.
11:45But that, of course,
11:46is why you always have
11:47a cat and dog
11:49centre-back partnership, isn't it?
11:50His job is not to go charging around
11:53trying to aggressively challenge for the ball.
11:55He has to exude, calm, read the game
11:58and react to what happens in front of him.
12:00You go back to that Ahmad tackle
12:02right at the start of the video.
12:02You can have a defender
12:04doing what Lacroix is doing here
12:06because Gay behind will read that situation
12:09and act accordingly.
12:11So it is not the case
12:12that Mark Gay is the perfect defender,
12:14but he is, possibly,
12:16the perfect defensive partner
12:18for some fucking lunatic.
12:22And that is why
12:23when you've got a player
12:24who can do all of that
12:26at that age
12:28for only 30 million quid,
12:30it doesn't really matter
12:31what other defensive options you've got.
12:34It's too good an opportunity
12:36to just let your rivals
12:38easily go and do it
12:40ahead of you.
12:40You've got to at least try.
12:42And try,
12:42we are reliably informed,
12:44several of them will be,
12:47right to this second
12:48as it happens.
12:48So if you are one of those,
12:50Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Real Madrid,
12:52whoever,
12:53let me know down below.
12:54Does he get into your team?
12:56Do you want him?
12:57Is it a waste of money?
12:58Whoa, whoa, whoa.
12:59How do you feel?
13:00What do you think?
13:00Let me know all down below.
13:01Ideally, like reading all of it.
13:04Or,
13:04if you're not got a dog
13:05in this fight,
13:06where would you go?
13:07Would you re-sign with Crystal Palace?
13:09Would you make
13:10a drastic career change?
13:11I keep seeing him do those adverts
13:13on YouTube at the minute
13:14with the meal prep kit.
13:15So, I don't know,
13:16maybe that's something else
13:17he'd like to do.
13:18But for other drivel,
13:19you can get me
13:20at Adam Cleary CLERY
13:22and of course subscribe to us
13:23here at the Adam Cleary Football Channel
13:24where we try and make things make sense
13:27and then also cloud the issue
13:29with bad jokes.
13:30That's the USP here.
13:32That's it.
13:33That's the video.
13:34I hope you've had a nice time.
13:35I have.
13:35Good luck, Mark Gay.
13:38Whereense ever you may go.
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