Is the Leeds United winger much of an upgrade on Hadi Sacko? Not going by the numbers.
Very few Leeds United lads covered themselves in glory last night as they slumped to a 2-0 defeat away to Nottingham Forest.
But this was particularly true of Helder Costa.
The Leeds winger missed a good chance to equalise in the final 10 minutes but fluffed the header, with Noel Whelan accusing him of summing up the visitors’ cowardice on the night.
It really hasn’t been a good first season for Costa, who scored three goals and set up two in 31 Championship appearances this season.
The worrying thing is, United have committed to paying £15 million for him this summer [The Daily Mail] and the stats indicate that he isn’t much of an upgrade on Hadi Sacko.
The French winger scored two and set up three in 38 Championship outings under Garry Monk during the 2016-17 campaign. Costa has scored just one more and managed one less assist than Sacko, who played 414 minutes more – the equivalent of four full games – in the league than his Portuguese counterpart so far.
According to WhoScored, Sacko averaged 0.7 key passes per game that season, while Costa averages 0.9.
The former Leeds winger was statistically a better dribbler, though, averaging 1.8 per game in comparison to the Wolverhampton Wanderers-owned player’s 1.3.
WhoScored’s average for Costa this season is 6.63 – Sacko’s was 6.60 throughout 2016-17.
The fact that they’re even comparable is a damning indictment for Costa, who is undeniably a bigger name, but is he a bigger player than Sacko? Not really.
If Leeds don’t win Premier League promotion, which looks a lot more possible now than it did in December, then questions must be asked why the club committed to paying such a huge sum for a player who hasn’t out-performed somebody who was already deemed insufficient in quality.
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