Rangers link with a move for Tim Iroegbunam is one that makes a lot of sense.
At 19-years old, he has a lot of potential, plus Michael Beale has worked with him before.
Twice.
Tim Iroegbunam, a reported target for Rangers, was signed by the gaffer when he was at QPR, on loan, from the club he had just left, Aston Villa.
This fits nicely with Michael Beale’s comments about being able to see where the connections are when targeting players this summer.
So, you would like to think that Beale knows the player well and that he is everything that we need to re-energise our midfield?
There is, however, one small issue.
In the age of statistics and data analysis, it isn’t hard to find out, on paper, what a player is like.
Iroegbunam has had a good season and been a regular starter for QPR, however, a recent game against Burnley is about as bad as a midfielder could have, as revealed by Sofascore.
Zero success full passes.
One ground duel won out of six.
No successful dribbles.
No aerial battles won.
And, dribbled past three times.
In 68 minutes.
A real Regi Blinker of a display.
Imagine if John Lundstram, Glen Kamara or Ryan Jack turned in that sort of performance.
That he only touched the ball seven times, once every 10 minutes is also alarming.
Any player can have a bad game but for a midfielder to touch the ball so rarely and to not even have a simple bounce pass with a defender come off is not a good sign.
There will always need to be project players or youngsters who can be developed and sold on at a profit but they need to have the right mentality and I’m getting major red flags with Iroegbunam.
It’s going to be a busy summer and one that we won’t fully be able to judge on until the first game of the season and when we see how many failures have been moved on and what shape the squad is in.
I’d like to think that we will sign midfielders who can, at least, make one successful pass in a game though.
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