Jake Clarke-Salter spent the 2021-22 season on loan at Coventry City from Chelsea. However, the West London-based outfit have decided not to renew his contract, which expires this month. So, Clarke-Salter has been left looking for a team. Fortunately for him, there are a number of teams in the EFL Championship that are vying for a centre-back. One among them is Sheffield United. In this article, we will take a look at Jake Clarke-Salter’s season at Coventry City to see if the 24-year-old would be a good fit at Bramall Lane.
Seen above is the heat map of Clarke-Salter in the 2021-22 EFL Championship. He made 29 appearances for Coventry City, of which 27 were starts. He played a total of 2,291 minutes or 55% of the available minutes. Clarke-Salter did not score or assist even once in the league, showing his ‘defend first’ mindset. As a left-sided centre-back, he was predominantly involved in the defensive third and on the left centre as well as on the left flank of the football pitch.
Given above are the locations of the duels won by Clarke-Salter. The majority of his successful duels were ground duels and aerial duels. He did not have much luck with the 50/50s. Clarke-Salter won aerial duels in both the boxes but most of it came on the left-hand side in his third. As far as the ground duels are concerned, Clarke-Salter won most of them.
Displayed in the above visual are Clarke-Salter’s pass sonar, xT map and xT timeline in the 2021-22 EFL Championship. He created some threat from the defensive third and from midfield. Most of this came from progressive passes, passes into the final third and completed long balls. Occasionally, Clarke-Salter managed to generate an xT value of 0.5 or more, even touching 1.0. Most of the threats produced by Clarke-Salter came in the form of simple forward passes.
With Sheffield United having been beaten in the play-offs by eventual winners, Nottingham Forest, in the semi-finals, the Blades will be looking to reinforce their squad ahead of the upcoming season. One such area is in the heart of the defence, and Jake Clarke-Salter is available on a free transfer. So, if Sheffield United want a centre-back, they must seize this opportunity to sign the Englishman.
