Finding Atletico Madrid a replacement for Thomas Partey in Spain – data analysis

On the last day of the summer transfer market, Atlético Madrid lost Thomas Partey when Arsenal paid his €50 million release clause. For teams in most countries, this would be a major blow as they would be left with no time to replace one of their star players, but luckily for Atlético, rules in La Liga are different. If a player leaves because a club paid his release clause, Spanish clubs have the chance to sign a player in the next 30 days even if the transfer window is closed. But it has to be a player who’s registered in a Spanish club, leaving fewer possibilities for clubs to act.

27-year-old Partey was a pivotal part of Atlético’s tactics  he played the first three games of La Liga despite being surrounded by transfer rumours  and will surely be an instant hit in the Premier League. The right-footed central midfielder, apart from being a physical monster able to cover a lot of pitch and win the ball back, was key in Atlético’s ball progression. The Ghanian international has a fantastic passing range, can progress with powerful runs but also has the ability to escape pressure in tight spaces. He’s not a goal threat, but still takes lots of shots from distance and helps his team finish the attacks.

As we can see in Partey’s profile, he’s below the median central midfielder in La Liga in only three of the 22 statistics we considered. As we have said, he excels at winning duels both on the ground and in the air, he makes lots of forward passes with excellent accuracy and can get the ball into the penalty box or shoot from distance. In short, Partey does lots of things and all of them well. 

Simeone has some alternatives in the squad who could fulfil Partey’s role. In fact, Héctor Herrera and Koke emerged as similar players in our analysis. However, Atlético still need to cover the position and strengthen their midfield with a player capable of defending and progressing from the back.