Former England striker Kevin Phillips is right to hail Director of Football Victor Orta for successfully landing SC Freiburg defender Robin Koch after failing to agree a permanent deal with Brighton and Hove Albion for Ben White.
Phillips has lauded Orta’s successful negotiations with Freiburg to bring Koch to Elland Road ahead of our return to the Premier League, as he believes the club were wise not to have gone all-out in an attempt to keep White in West Yorkshire when Brighton had little intention of cashing in.
The Seagulls reportedly value White in the astronomical region of £50m after rejecting a £35m bid from United, knowing that both Manchester sides, plus Chelsea, Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur are all also interested.
Orta eventually paid Freiburg less than half what we offered the Amex stadium outfit in order to land Koch, with the German international instead moving to join Marcelo Bielsa’s ranks in a deal worth close to £13m.
The figure represents great value for money as it adds a centre-half with 82 Bundesliga games to the first-team in West Yorkshire, where Liam Cooper – who has played just 125 minutes in the Premier League a decade ago – would be the only other senior option.
But not going all-out for an option in White that was never realistically on the table is what impressed Phillips the most.
“It was hugely important that they signed a centre-back,” Phillips told Football Insider. “The spine of the team is where newly-promoted teams always look to strengthen.
“Not being able to secure Ben White would have been a massive blow but they didn’t put all of their eggs in that basket. You should always have a backup plan and they had something bubbling in the background.
“They could not have gone into the Liverpool [match] with just one experienced centre-half in Cooper. It was hugely important that they brought one in and I would say they need another to help them through the season.”
Will Orta regret not pushing to sign White?
Yes
No
Phillips is absolutely right to praise Orta for the way he and his team have operated in the transfer market to improve Bielsa’s defence ahead of our return to the Premier League, but the former England hitman should also have offered more support to the way Koch is now going to be able to improve – or at least maintain – the way we played last term.
Koch is someone who was hailed during his time with Freiburg for earning a maiden call-up to the Germany side, that arose comparisons with Bayern Munich’s long-term star Javi Martinez for being a ‘battering ram’ that ‘boasts a tremendous willingness to get stuck in’ yet can bring possession out of the backline.
Across the 2019/20 Bundesliga season, Koch registered the sixth-most accurate long balls by any defender (136 of 1,261 passes), won the most aerial duels (114) and made the 15th-most interceptions (45) along with 61 ground duels won, per SofaScore data.
His 1,261 accurate passes came from a 91% rating, too, while also averaging a more-than-comfortable 57.9 touches, 0.4 key balls and 0.9 shots a game, which led to creating two big chances and having seven big chances to score.