Rising from the depths of Greek Football, the nephew of a legendary centre-back Stelios Manolas had big shoes to fill. Having established himself at Olympiacos, Kostas Manolas was beginning the show promise and a whopping 15 million deal saw him switch to another historic city, Rome.
A beaming Kostas made it clear that he had declined big fishes including Juventus just to come to Rome and winning a Scudetto was his ambition which he shared with his team-mates. Sadly, the domination of the Old Lady in Serie A has not seen Kostas fulfil his ambition yet but his defending has reached levels of complete elegance and accuracy.
The performances of the Greek defender haven’t gone unnoticed and all over Europe, the interest in him is well known. The giants of the English soil have made their presence known as well and while Arsenal football club battle rivals Manchester United, the Red Devils have emerged as the front-runners to wrap up a deal with Kostas. After all, with performances such as those in Rome, who wouldn’t be interested?
Since the transfer in 2014, Manolas has made 84 appearances for Roma and he touched his peak with 37 appearances in a single season last year. His average duels accuracy has not dropped below 55-60% overall and this season itself, it’s at a staggering 57%. He has won 43 out of 57 headed duels according to Squawka, making him an absolute beast at the back. He had a 56% tackle success rate last year, winning nearly 50 of the 80 chances he got to put in tackles.
His passing accuracy has been sharp as well and he has maintained an 87% pass accuracy completing over 700 passes. Having said all this and given a statistical point of view, the only question is should United move for Manolas and is he good enough for Jose?
Jose Mourinho doesn’t have a philosophy for centre-backs except that he likes them to be solid and good aerially. Kostas Manolas fits this plan perfectly. The Greek is extremely courageous and brave in defending. He isn’t shy of making hard tackles at all and aerially, he is superb and the statistics mentioned above back the claims. John Terry at Chelsea, Samuels at Inter, Pepe and Ramos at Real Madrid show us that. United will push for Champions League this season and a well-equipped squad is a must to challenge across all fronts and it is typical of Jose to do that in the second season.
However, United have four centre-backs already in Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, Eric Bailly and Marcos Rojo along with youngsters like Fosu Mensah and Taunzebe who can fit in there as well. There is heavy competition and Rojo, as well as Jones, have already established themselves as a dominant pair. United have no need of Kostas as the team looks solid and with Bailly’s return from African Cup of Nations, it will make the bench even more stable. However, if Jose plans to ship out either Smalling or Blind in the future, United may opt for a centre-back.
Verdict: Kostas Manolas fits the criteria to be a centre-back Jose Mourinho would love to have but at the moment, Manchester United don’t need a player in that position.
