It came as no surprise that Chelsea were looking to sign a new defender this summer, given the lack of options available to Thomas Tuchel. As has been the norm in the early days of Todd Boehly, they have moved quickly to recruit. The Stamford Bridge club has wrapped up a move for Napoli stalwart Kalidou Koulibaly, with the deal worth £34million. Koulibaly comes with a stellar reputation and had been linked with other top clubs in England in the past, with Chelsea fans now wondering what he'll bring. Chelsea have signed Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly for £34m to strengthen their backline His statistics from last season show that Chelsea have landed a formidable presence both on the ground and in the air - and they may not be done there when it comes to defensive reinforcements, either. After Nathan Ake decided to stay at Manchester City, Chelsea will reportedly revive their interest in Sevilla star Jules Kounde. It has been essential for the Blues to recruit a handful of new faces at the back, given that Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen have already left on free transfers. Tuchel was left short after their exits, although his ranks will be bolstered soon enough. The centre back starred in Italy last season, and Sportsmail has taken a look at his statistics Cesar Azpilicueta, set to join Barcelona in a £7m move, has been told he cannot leave Stamford Bridge until defensive reinforcements have been signed. If he were to leave, Chelsea would enter the new season with a very different looking defence. Koulibaly, alongside the seasoned veteran Thiago Silva, will undoubtedly be at the heart of this project. He was ever present for Napoli last term when fit, and possesses much more experience than those who would look to rival his position. Firstly, we will look at how his numbers stack up against the club's current options - namely, Silva, Trevoh Chalobah and Malang Sarr. The latter two players earned less game time last year, so it is worth bearing in mind that this will affect the findings. In terms of appearances, Koulibaly made 34 across all competitions, less than Silva's 48 but more than the 30 and 21 of Chalobah and Sarr respectively. Intriguingly, he also started each of these matches, underling his importance to the Serie A side. COMPETITION AT CHELSEA All club competitions 21/22 Koulibaly Silva Chalobah Sarr Appearances 34 48 30 21 Starts 34 41 24 16 Minutes 3036 3980 2247 1519 Goals conceded 32 36 13 16 Mins per goal conceded 94.9 110.6 172.8 94.9 Clean sheets 12 18 12 6 Tackles 53 46 52 26 Tackle success (%) 56.6 69.6 71.2 57.7 Aerial duels won 58 96 58 36 Aerial success (%) 53 72 59 71 Blocks 29 38 11 9 Interceptions 33 68 39 30 Clearances 106 131 83 40 Dribbled past by opponent 17 13 12 12 Passes 2088 3702 1868 1348 Passing accuracy (%) 87 92.7 89.8 88.7 Stats provided by Opta From the games he featured in, Napoli conceded 32 goals, four less than the 36 shipped by Chelsea with Silva in their side. Again, the difference in matches played comes into play, but the fact Koulibaly let in less than a goal every game is notable. Chalobah and Sarr conceded 13 and 16, perhaps as a result of their limited minutes. For tackles, Koulibaly comes out on top with 53. Behind him are Chalobah on 52, Silva on 46 and Sarr with 26. The winner's tackle success percentage stands at a respectable 56.6, but this is dwarfed by Silva's 69.6 and Chalobah's 71.2. As shown above, the Blues' new arrival is also strong in the air, and is no stranger to throwing himself into blocks and interceptions. He has been beaten in both these areas, however, by Silva - whose numbers last season were outstanding. Another aspect vital to the style of play under Tuchel is assuredness on the ball, and sharp decision-making. This, quite simply, revolves around when a player opts for a shorter option to build up from the back, or instead decides to smash it downfield. Thiago Silva, despite his advancing age, has bettered his future team-mate in several metrics Koulibaly recorded 106 clearances last season, with Silva registering 131. For passing, the former made 2088, a figure well below the 3702 of the latter. As a disclaimer, this metric is dictated heavily by how each of the teams uses the ball. Finally, for passing accuracy, Koulibaly's percentage comes in at 87, while Silva's is 92.7. Chalobah and Sarr's totals are 89.8 and and 88.7, demonstrating clearly that the defender poised to pull on the club's famous jersey will have to remain composed. In summary for the first table, the results show that Koulibaly is primed to equip himself well to the rigours of the Premier League, even if Silva does often trump him. Handily, for further context, Sportsmail has also compared Koulibaly to the best of the rest; the standout defenders from the other Big Six clubs in the top-flight. Ruben Dias is one of the Premier League's best defenders, and will go toe-to-toe with Koulibaly For this, we have picked out Virgil van Dijk and Joel Matip of Liverpool, Ruben Dias and Aymeric Laporte of Manchester City, Arsenal's Gabriel Magalhaes, Tottenham's Cristian Romero and Manchester United's Harry Maguire and Raphael Varane. Again, the amount of minutes played by each of the names above must be taken into consideration, with Van Dijk in particular ever present for his club last season. This also skews the minutes per goal conceded metric, but there are still plenty of notable findings. Koulibaly, as explained above, averages 94.9 minutes between goals, an average of over one whole match, and ranks highly in the below table. He is better by Van Dijk's 140 minutes, while Laporte (113), Matip (123.5) and Dias (99.7) also top his efforts. Manchester City and Liverpool tend to attack more than they defend, though, while Napoli typically came under more pressure last year. KOULIBALY VS THE BEST OF THE BIG SIX All club competitions 21/22 Koulibaly Van Dijk Laporte Matip Dias Magalhaes Maguire Romero Varane Appearances 34 51 44 43 40 38 37 30 29 Starts 34 51 43 42 37 37 35 29 26 Minutes 3036 4620 3757 3706 3291 3265 3168 2552 2362 Goals conceded 32 33 33 30 33 39 50 33 29 Mins per goal conceded 94.9 140 113.8 123.5 99.7 83.7 63.4 77.3 81.4 Clean sheets 12 28 17 19 13 13 7 7 6 Tackles 53 24 48 59 38 52 44 81 33 Tackle success (%) 56.6 58.3 52.1 72.9 57.9 61.5 63.6 59.3 63.6 Aerial duels won 58 185 69 140 61 57 94 61 74 Aerial success (%) 53 78 63 71 56 58 72 63 76 Blocks 29 17 12 17 20 27 31 24 13 Interceptions 33 49 31 51 31 15 42 54 28 Clearances 106 161 86 115 86 117 114 90 98 Dribbled past by opponent 17 5 8 13 10 11 12 14 13 Passes 2088 4024 3743 3095 2959 2124 2028 1847 1538 Passing accuracy (%) 87 89.6 94.5 88.8 93 89.2 86.6 88 88.2 Stats provided by Opta In the clean sheet column, Koulibaly's 12 is again middle of the road. Van Dijk has 28, while Matip on 19, Laporte on 17 and Dias on 13 put them ahead of him. Chelsea's new man does comfortably beat the remaining four contenders, however. Koulibaly's 53 tackles last season is the second highest in the table, behind the 59 made by the combative Matip. Again, this could be affected by the way that Napoli set out their stall, but this is an achievement that will certainly please Tuchel. It is worth pointing out, though, that Koulibaly's tackle success rate, 56.6 per cent, is the second lowest - with everyone bar Laporte bettering his figure last year. For aerial duels won, while Koulibaly's tally is not one for his new manager to turn his nose up at, his number is beaten by several of his top-flight rivals. Van Dijk won 185 in the air and Matip finished with 140, with both of these numbers bettering 58. Virgil van Dijk boasts the best numbers from last year, but Koulibaly's statistics are impressive A scan down the blocks and interceptions columns shows that, in both areas, Koulibaly has plenty to bring to his new team. He ranks second for the first category, and fourth for the second - again indicating he has an all-round game in his arsenal. One area needing improvement is being dribbled past by an opponent. That happened to Koulibaly 17 times last season, roughly once every two games, and, while that doesn't sound poor, others in the Premier League have stood firmer. By way of comparison, Van Dijk was dribbled past just five times, with the second highest amount, behind that of Koulibaly, coming from Romero's 13. Maguire, who was much maligned by United supporters for his mobility, was deceived 12 times. Finally, there are no major concerns in the passing department. As explained above, Koulibaly has demonstrated that he is adept in possession, as is necessary in the modern era of the top-flight, and his numbers sit nicely alongside his peers.
