The man rumored to replace Kim Min-Jae: Who is Napoli target Robin Le Normand?

Serie A title holders Napoli are reportedly looking to sign Real Sociedad defender Robin Le Normand as a replacement for Kim Min-Jae, who is set to join Bayern Munich.

In the advent of their first Scudetto winning season in 33 years, a history making Napoli side has become the target of other elite European clubs as they use the summer transfer window to shop for reinforcements. Napoli and South Korea center back Kim Min-Jae has all but sealed a move to Bayern Munich as part of a not so inconspicuous center back merry-go-round that started after Lucas Hernandez announced his intention to leave the Bavarian giants for PSG.

Hernandez’s departure has had serious reverberations throughout Europe’s five leagues, with the consequences being that Napoli have been forced to find a successor for one of their star players. Identifying targets to replace pivotal pieces in a club’s starting 11 is never easy, but Napoli have shown the ability to do great business in the last few transfer windows, with this one set to be no different.

To replace Kim Min-Jae, the club have allegedly lined up a very interesting candidate in the form of Real Sociedad’s Robin Le Normand. The Frenchman, who started his career with Brest in his native homeland, was picked up by Sociedad’s academy back in 2016. He spent two years with the B team until he made the jump to the senior side in 2018, and since then has amassed more than 100 appearances for the club. An interesting thing to note about the player is that despite being born in France, he has opted to represent Spain at international level.

Le Normand, based on the numbers, mainly excels in terms of aerial duels won, with the player winning 3.48 per 90 minutes over the course of the past year, putting him firmly in the 96th percentile per this metric. He also has a quite high number of progressive carries for a center back, with 0.94 per 90 putting him in the 80th percentile.

The numbers alone don’t reflect what Le Normand brings to his team, however. Le Normand is a player that is lauded for his physicality and ability to make a tackle, attributes that allow him to break up play quite efficiently. This physicality is reminiscent of a bygone era of center backs where their strength and tenacity on the pitch was far more important than their precision on the ball. Despite this, Le Normand is still capable with the ball at his feet and has been known to launch a sweeping pass up field for his teammates to connect with.

Compared to the outgoing Kim Min-Jae however, there are some notable differences between what the players offer. The South Korean international has superior numbers in terms of passes attempted (80.35), progressive passes (4.81) and progressive carries (1.20) per 90 minutes played. Kim Min-Jae’s game revolves far more around playing with the ball at his feet than Le Normand, and is renowned for his ability to distribute the ball up the pitch to his teammates. The player is also rather fast on his feet and able to catch opposition players to shut down threats on the counter.

Kim Min-Jae also has a very adept level of positional awareness, placing himself between the opposition and his own goal in a way that limits their ability to get around him easily. In instances where he has to engage players directly, he’s very much able to come out on top in these duels, and has shown an aerial prowess as well, winning 62.8% of his duels against other players in this respect.

While there are some similarities with regards to their style of play, the main focus how each player operates on the pitch is quite different, making it clear that should Le Normand join, he would not be a like-for-like replacement for Kim Min-Jae. This wouldn’t necessarily be a problem depending on how new head coach Rudi Garcia will look to set his side up for the coming season.

If partnered with Albanian international Amir Rrahmani, the impetus may simply fall on Rrahmani to be the more creative of the two players, as he has already shown a propensity to be able to play a more progressive role from the center back position. The focus of how the team recycles possession may also change under Garcia, so there may be less of a focus, or need, for Le Normand to be critical in build-up play, etc. Time will tell as to whether this will be the case, and whether Napoli do indeed make him the successor to one of the players that spearheaded their title charge last season.