Victor Lindelof: Is the Swedish defender better than Eric Bailly?

It is no longer  news that Manchester United have reached an agreement to sign Swedish international centre-back Victor Lindelof from Benfica for €35 million.

Lindelof, 22, joined Benfica from home-town club Vasteras SK in 2012 and has won three Portuguese league titles and two Portuguese Cups during his time in Lisbon.

He is in line to become the second centre-back signed by United manager Jose Mourinho following last year’s £30 million capture of Ivory Coast international Eric Bailly from Villarreal.

But what are the Europa League champions getting in return? We take a look at some aspects of Lindelof’s game and compared them with Eric Bailly’s.

Aerial duels: Victor Lindelof won 2.2 aerial duels while Bailly 1.5 (He should bring more with respect to defending crosses and challenging tall players).

Discipline: Compared with Bailly, Lindelof is a more disciplined player with just 1 league yellow card in the 2016/107 season. Eric Bailly got 4 yellow cards in the EPL.

Hardly dribbled the past per game: Called the ‘Ice Man’ by Benfica fans, Lindelof is one defender that is hardly dribbled past. While Eric Bailly manages to be dribbled 0.5 times per game, Lindelof gets dribbled past 0.2 times per game.

Interceptions and tackles: Bailly is a more willing player to make tackles. In the 2016/2017 season, the Ivorian international made 2.4 tackles and interceptions per game as against Lindelof who managed 1.7 interceptions and 0.6 tackles per game.