Transfer News:
Stoke City’s relegation last season means that a host of their quality players would be keen to secure a move away in order to continue with their Premier League endeavours. Not many players remain loyal enough to help their clubs undergo the rigours of the Championship. Especially, not when you are as talented as a certain Xherdan Shaqiri.
Shaqiri had a decent enough previous season, in which he tried to salvage Stoke’s pride on some occasions. However, now he is linked with a move away from the club. Manchester United will most probably be in search of a right-winger and Xherdan is said to be in their transfer list. The Swiss international is on World Cup duty currently but there are severe chances of him staying in the Premier League by securing a move away from the Potters before the next season begins.
Shaqiri: Player Profile
Xherdan has previously played for the likes of Bayern Munich and Inter Milan before having impressed in the Premier League with Stoke. He is a technically adept player, capable of making darting runs from the wings and has nifty footwork to complement his pace and abilities on the ball. He can stretch the backline to send some testing deliveries and uses his vision to slide in some delightful through-balls too. He is an exceptional reader of the game, able to pick out passes from cramped situations and his dribbling allows him to accelerate past his marker with extreme ease.
In 36 appearances for Stoke in the league, Shaqiri scored eight goals and assisted seven times. His numbers could have been much better had he been surrounded with equally prolific players but that was not the case. He delivered 2.1 key passes in each game and even took 1.9 shots on target on an average. Shaqiri completed 1.8 dribbles and recorded a passing accuracy of 79.5%. He played 1.6 crosses into the box, and modestly put up one tackle in each game.
Should Manchester United sign him?
It seems to be a really tricky situation currently. United have three excellent wingers in Anthony Martial, Alexis Sanchez, and Marcus Rashford. However, all three of them prefer playing through the left wing. Accordingly, the squad is missing a right-winger(with Mata not really featuring in the big picture) and Shaqiri could solve that issue. However, there might be some doubts over his temperament and the mentality to represent a big club.
We have seen that a lot of players make a switch from a low-ranked club to a top-six side and then end up fluttering their chances in the end. Alexis might switch to the right wing after the preseason and in that case, he could be used with Shaqiri for rotation purposes. However, there are fewer chances of this move materializing, in my opinion.