Brentford are a side that operate under Matthew Benham’s said ‘Moneyball approach’ to signings, an approach where analytical statistics plays a part in looking for players of value.
The Bees, coming off of a last game 2-1 victory over Norwich, are said to be interested in bringing in powerful French centreback William Remy from Ligue 1 side Montpellier according to reports from Sport Witness and French media site MadeinFOOT.
Sport Witness, quoting French publication L’Equipe on Press Reader, say that the powerful defender is on the radar of Brenford, the English club named in the above article as being just one of ‘interested’ parties in his signature.
MadeinFOOT add a little more colour to the potential deal stating that his club president has said that the 26-year-old defender, “may leave for England” and that according to their information it is Brentford who hold sway over his transfer “to make it come across the Channel.”
They go on to add that a capture of Remy is likely to be one without a fee – the Frenchman in the last six months of his contract and out of the club’s plans going forward.
With a potential transfer in the pipeline between Brentford and Remy, here’s five things for Brentford fans to get their teeth into.
William Remy – five things for Brentford fans
1. Only played in French football: Rémy has only ever turned out in the French leagues. He started at Racing Club Lens moving from the B side to the first team set-up in mid-October 2009. The powerful Guadeloupean then moved to US Creteil on a season long loan from July 2010 to June 2011. He returned to Lens for a year before a free transfer to Dijon in mid-August 2012, where he stayed until July 2015 and another free transfer to current side Montpellier.
2. He has experience in top two leagues in France: The Montepellier centre-back, who can also fill in at both right-back and as a defensive midfielder, has 117 games of experience in the top two French leagues across his career. Of these 117 games, 74 (six goals and two assists) have been in Ligue 2 for RC Lens and Dijon, whilst 43 games have been in France’s top-tier with current side Montpellier.
3. Fledgling international experience: Rémy does have experience of turning out for France at youth level with 25 caps to his name. Aside from one Under-19 cap, the Montpellier centre-back has 11 caps for France’s Under-18s as well as 13 caps for the Under-17s – for whom he scored one goal.
4. Powerful performances and powerful outputs: Below is William Remy’s statistical output from the 2016/17 Ligue 1 campaign. Remy has only featured in one Coupe de France appearance for Montpellier this season, the powerful defender not being seen as part of the club’s plans going forward.
What this player radar shows is that on a per 90 minutes typical game, Rémy could easily do a job for the Whites. Defensively he is strong, making a total of 10.6 defensive actions per typical game period. He makes around two tackles (1.9) per 90, and around the same (1.8) interceptions. He also makes over five (5.32) clearances per typical 90 minutes, as well as coming up with 1.6 defensive blocks.
He is powerful in the air winning nearly 74% of his headed duels against opponents – with 3.4 headed balls one per game period. Rémy is also accurate with his passing, something that would be useful for Leeds United and their ‘play-out-from-the-back’ philosophy. His overall passing accuracy is a very decent 80.5% – with a long ball accuracy of 62% from 3.6 completed long passes (over 15 metres) per 90 minutes
5. FIFA 18 stats: The Frenchman is listed as a centre back on FIFA18, and comes with an overall rating of a 71 silver.
Highlight stats from these for the powerful centre-back come from the ‘physical’ range. He has an overall physical rating of 83, with a 91 jumping rating and 88 strength. Away from this area of his game, he has 74 pace, with 73 acceleration as well as a 69 rating for standing tackles.
