Loanee in Estevao’s shadow has amazing shooting stats and could have sleeper hit year

Chelsea’s Kendry Paez has gone off the radar a little – Estevao has really eclipsed him as the South American wonderkid we’re all most excited about.

But let’s not forget that Paez was almost as highly rated as the Brazilian not long ago. The wait for a step up to European football has taken a while, but it looks like a strong start for him.

Paez making solid start to life in Europe

Kendery Paez’s very strong shooting stats after 276 minutes played.

He’s just won Ligue 1’s young player of the month for September on loan at Strasbourg. He hasn’t played a huge amount – his starts in the league have been limited to 3 but he’s come on in the other 4, so he’s starting to accumulate minutes. He grabbed his first goal on the 21st against Paris FC. and is getting action for Ecuador too.

This could be a really good season of steady progress for him both for club and country, outside the spotlight in an exciting Liam Rosenior team. Stats wise it’s hard to draw too many conclusions, but he’s getting a lot of shots off and rates well in expected assists per 90 too.

At 26.7% duels won, it’s obvious where he can improve too. There’s a lot of gym work to be done, but playing in France and European competition can hopefully help him adapt to the new physical level.

Strasbourg have the third highest xG in the league, and can certainly be a super platform for him.

In other news…

Chelsea are looking closely at Eric Garcia, who used to be in the Man City youth teams. There does seem to be a major push to sign a centre back.

There have also been questions from Pat Nevin about last summer’s transfer business, which saw Noni Madueke leave Chelsea for Arsenal.