MANCHESTER UNITED and Chelsea are locked in a battle to sign Edinson Cavani this month – despite interest from Atletico Madrid.
The Uruguayan striker, 32, has been all-but frozen-out at Paris Saint-Germain this season and is out of contract in the summer.
Atleti are said to have agreed to sign Cavani this summer on a free transfer.
But Chelsea and Man Utd have both launched late swoops in a bid to sign him this month.
Now well into the January window, we take a look at weather Frank Lampard’s Blues or Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Red Devils need him more…
On the surface, you’d argue United need Cavani the most, having scored just 32 goals this season in 21 Premier League games – four fewer than Chelsea.
But in truth, Solskjaer’s centre-forward options – Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Mason Greenwood – have fared pretty well on the whole.
Rashford is United’s leading goal-scorer in the Prem this term with 12 – but his shot conversion is the lowest of the three at 16.9 per cent.
Greenwood is being tipped as “one for the future” but has been limited to appearances off the bench in the league, scoring just three.
However, the youngster’s shot conversion rate is the highest of any United player at 21.4 per cent, ahead of Martial on 18.9 per cent.
Compared to Chelsea, Man Utd’s strikers have been red-hot – Tammy Abraham aside.
The new England international has scored 12 goals this season at one every 132 minutes – with a shot conversion rate of 19.4 per cent, behind only Greenwood in seven-strong list.
But that’s all Chelsea have to brag about in attack, with Michy Batshuayi and Olivier Giroud appalling in the league this term.
Batshuayi has scored one goal in 12 games with a shot conversion rate of just 8.3 per cent.
Meanwhile, Giroud hasn’t even scored in his five outings, with a shot conversion rate of zero per cent.
Looking at Cavani, he too has been struggling for games, but has still shown an eye for goal – finding the back of the net with 18.2 per cent of his shots.
Given that he’s a bit rusty through lack of playing time, you’d suspect that number would increase when getting regular action.
Overall, it appears Chelsea need Cavani more – purely because at some stage Lampard will need to rest Abraham or worse replace him should he get injured.
If that happened to United, any of their three options – while not setting the world alight this year – have proven they COULD still do a job.
The Blues’ back-up brigade on the other hand, have not…
