Óscar Mingueza is a 25-year-old defender who plays for La Liga outfit Celta Vigo. He is therefore a few years older than Conor Bradley and is approaching his prime. He is also quite experienced, having played over 130 games in La Liga for Celta Vigo and Barcelona as an academy graduate. As Mingueza is currently plying his trade consistently in mid-table, it would be fair to assume that he would accept the opportunity to play for one of the biggest clubs in world football, albeit in a squad player capacity rather than as a consistent starter.

Mingueza is also quite versatile, with the Spaniard more than capable of playing in every position in the back line. In fact, according to Transfermarkt, he’s played over 85 games at centre-back, 60 games at right back, and almost 20 games at left back. Mingueza also has a contract that runs until 2026 with a reported release clause of €20 million.

As we can see from the radar chart, despite being a natural centre-back for most of his career, Mingueza is a very capable fullback going forward. He is statistically one of Europe’s finest fullbacks on the ball. He is very useful in the buildup phase, as he is above the 95th percentile in touches, passes attempted, and progressive passes.

He is also a more than capable ball carrier, as he is in the top 15% in successful take-ons, as well as the top 30% in progressive carries among all fullbacks in Europe’s top five leagues. The Spanish international is also dangerous in the attacking phase, most notably ranking in the 90th percentile for expected assists, as well as excelling in metrics such as shot-creating actions and non-penalty goals.

He does have quite a low pass completion percentage, and his high rank in terms of non-penalty goals is helped by a massive overperformance in xG. However, on the ball, there’s no denying that Mingueza has some of the same qualities that Trent Alexander-Arnold will take to Madrid.

It’s quite unusual for a player who has made most of his appearances in the centre of defence to rank so poorly when looking at defensive output, but Mingueza does indeed rank well below the 50th percentile in all defensive-oriented data points. This would obviously concern Liverpool, as they would obviously prefer not to replace one of their best players with a defensive liability. However, it’s clear looking at Mingueza’s data in seasons gone by that his metrics here are a result of his team’s tactical plan rather than an inability to perform his defensive duties.

To illustrate my point, Mingueza’s dismal 6% of dribblers tackled is unsurprisingly in the bottom 10% compared to all other fullbacks in Europe’s top five leagues. However, this metric stood at 98% only two years ago when he was deployed at centre-back more often.

In conclusion, Mingueza meets the requirements outlined previously, as well as having the additional benefit of a similar enough profile to Trent Alexander-Arnold so as to cause as little disruption to the tactical setup as possible. He will be going into the last year of his contract this summer and also has a very reasonable £17 million release clause.

His defensive metrics this season may be a slight red flag, but it is more likely to be a red herring, as his previous years’ data suggest that Mingueza is also a very capable defender. Most importantly, his status as one of the best-performing players for a mid-table team in one of Europe’s top five leagues makes him the perfect candidate to serve as an understudy to an exciting talent currently at the club in Conor Bradley