All three teams promoted to the Premier League for the upcoming season are eye-catching in various aspects — recruitment, style of play, and age group among those.
That has not been the case for a long time.
Southampton’s transfer window has been near perfect so far, with the Saints signing exciting talent in the game, including making some loan moves from last season permanent.
One of those signings is Ronnie Edwards from Peterborough United FC.
The 21-year-old England youth international was instrumental in helping his team secure a playoff spot.
The below visualisation shows where Edwards ranks for some of the key metrics when compared with the other left-sided centre-backs from League One and similar leagues in terms of difficulty level.
Looking at the visual above, Edwards is not afraid to play an active role in possession.
Ranking above average for a number of possession metrics, Edwards is press-resistant, shows quite often the ability to find the feet of his teammates between the lines and is intelligent enough to move the ball in tight spaces — ranking in the top 1% for accurate passes and top 20% for progressive passes per 90 minutes.
His ability to dribble the ball is quite a positive for someone who plays in his position, 67th percentile for dribbles per 90 minutes.
Defensively, he possesses the physical strength to be proactive in defending 1v1 duels—ranking 54th percentile for duels won—but he is too proactive sometimes and ends up in a no-man’s land, leaving the backline in trouble—reflected in his defensive positioning percentile (58th percentile).
His aerial ability is also lacking for someone of his height and is an aspect of his game that can be improved.
Ronnie Edwards played the most minutes for the Posh last season and was, rightly, one of the highly-rated defenders not just in League One but in the entirety of EFL.
After spending four seasons at the Posh, the move to Southampton is at the right time for him, and if he continues to shine for the club in the Premier League, no one would be surprised if one of the top six teams came for his signature next summer given his versatility to play on either side of the central defence, and his flexibility to play in different systems.
