Kaine Kesler-Hayden - Signing #2
New Signing: 22 year old full-back joins on a 4 year deal from Aston Villa
For a fee of approximately £3.5milion + add ons, the Sky Blues have signed Kaine Kesler-Hayden on a 4 year deal from Aston Villa. The full-back who’s been capped at England U-19 & U-20 level, has spent the last 4 seasons out on loan, having had spells in the Championship at Huddersfield, Plymouth and most recently Preston North End, where he collected a clean sweep at their end of season awards.
Milan van Ewijk has had two impressive seasons at the CBS, and has plenty of suitors, if he does move-on, Coventry have signed a ready made replacement who’s already accumulated over 6,000 minutes of playing time in the Championship (see the article below for some potential targets if he does go). If he doesn't, the Sky Blues start the season with two of the best right-backs in the league, and KKH having showing plenty of versatility in his career so far, 22 of his 82 appearances a this level have come from the left.
They are not too dissimilar in profile, both are exceptionally quick and like to get forward. They’re pretty much the same height and you’ll notice in the two videos below that KKH has filled out considerably and is powerfully built.
Something that really stands out in the video above, is how comfortable the Solihullian is in tight spaces and how often he beats a man. In the early part of the video, his assist against Manchester City Academy really showcases this, with the dribbling technique that a more attacking player would be proud of. This high technical level could really suit Lampard’s style of play. As good as MVE is with space to maraud into, when faced with taking a man on in a tight area, the Dutchman usually takes the save option making a short pass to Sakamoto or inside into the CB/CM. The chart below highlights KKH’s ball-carrying / dribbling prowess, and you should factor in his data is from a side that has finished 20th playing a fairly conservative brand of football.
There’s not a huge amount in it defensively. There’s two particular defensive stats that I’m big on when assessing fullbacks. The first is the amount of recoveries per 90, and both are very strong here, utilising their pace to get back (KKH 5.6 & MVE 4.5), the second is how often they’re dribbled past, for KKH that 0.44 times per 90 and MVE is much higher at 0.7. We’ve seen MVE struggle previously against really technical wingers (think Saito at QPR) when he can be flat footed and too much on his heels from a standard start. (as a point of comparison Bidwell completes just 1.8 recoveries and is dribbled past 0.35 times per 90 (backs off), Dasilva gets through 4.5 recoveries but is skinned once per game).
MVE is much more involved in the play than KKH has been at PNE, albeit likely down to playing styles, and has a lot more touches and therefore passes per 90, but their completion stats are fairly similar. What’s interesting is that although MVE has many more touches and therefore passes, their numbers for progressive passes are very similar, which reinforces the point that MVE can be very safe in possession. The Dutchman also completes less carries into and has less touches in the oppositions area.
Whilst the Englishman is ticking many boxes, his end product is something that will need working on (again factor that that he’s spent 3 season in the Championship in sides battling relegation, that massively effects data, look what Rudoni has just done). He’s only completed 0.15 crosses per 90 at an accuracy of 12.5%, and has created 0.59 chances per 90. For Milan that’s 0.65 at 22% and 1.2 chances per 90 (worth factoring in that Coventry have put in a big volume of crosses this season compared to PNE). Again interestingly, despite all this, their assist and xA numbers are pretty similar, so KKH is creating less chances but higher quality ones.
Below is a heat map comparison of the two, MVE on the left and KKH on the right. Worth factoring in the the Sky Blues preferred 4-2-3-1 with PNE favouring a back 3 system. Its shows an inclination for KKH to head to the box instead of the corner, and probably more of a desire to work more centrally.
This is clearly a signing i’m very excited about, and appears to me to be excellent value. I’m surprised that a parachute team, or a team that’s just gone up hasn’t come fishing. Milan was signed for 3.4million and his earnings across the two seasons are approximately 850K, if you can get £10million for him that’s more than 5million in profit. That £5million pays for KKH and 2 years of his salary. The model is working. The Sky Blues could have another big asset on their hands, that they’ll be selling on again for 10million in 2/3 years time.
#PUSB
