Carlos Corberan continues to build his land of the giants. Uroš Račić is Albion’s 8th signing this window and the 7th that is over 6 foot. The big Serbian midfielder joins on-loan from Sassuolo following their relegation from Serie A last season.
Chris and I have spoken many times now of how Corberan is trying to build a squad that can dominate teams physically, as well as tactically and technically. Bringing in tall and strong players is a key part of that, there’s similarities to the kind of squad that Tony Pulis used to build, but generally players with more technical ability – perhaps better likened to the squads of Guardiola and Arteta.
The 2023/24 season was a tough one for Sassuolo and equally for Račić – he played just 9.1 x 90s and didn’t have a particularly successful time when he was on the pitch, likely why Sassuolo are looking to move him on after just one season.
A lack of minutes is one reason it’s hard to pin Račić down from his data last season. His defensive positioning looks decent on the face of things, but his general defensive metrics and duel success rate is low. His aerial ability doesn’t look as strong as you’d expect for someone over 6’3” – the optimist in me puts this down to a tough season in a poor team for Račić, where time on the pitch was hard to come by.
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