Everton have been linked with a potential transfer move for Anthony Caci of Mainz
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Anthony Caci of Mainz
Anthony Caci of Mainz(Image: Ulrik Pedersen/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
When is a right-back not a right-back, when it’s Anthony Caci, the latest name to be linked with a potential transfer move to Everton this summer. TEAMtalk reports that Everton have joined Fulham in the race to sign the versatile Mainz star who is available for a bargain fee as they understand he could be available for less than €10million (approximately £8.5m).
That seems like something of a steal in relative terms for Premier League teams, especially when in a window in which the Blues are facing a major rebuild, Caci is able to operate in no fewer than six separate positions. This could be particularly useful for manager David Moyes given that, when (including four of their loan men), 10 senior players have left the Blues already this summer and – depending on how contract negotiations go with the other squad members whose current deals expire at the end of this month – another four could potentially be heading out.
Although Nathan Patterson was signed by Rafael Benitez – 12 days before he was sacked – for £11million in January 2022, with the intention of him becoming Seamus Coleman’s long-term successor at right-back, a combination of injuries and team-mates being picked out of position ahead of him has blighted the Scotland international’s time at Goodison Park.
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Ben Godfrey was often deployed there by Sean Dyche in the second half of the 2023/24 season but following the former Norwich City player’s sale last summer, veteran Ashley Young – who played in the same Watford side as Dyche as a teenager – was first choice for most of the first half of 2024/25.
Following Dyche’s sacking, Moyes thought out of the box to incorporate a way of getting Jake O’Brien – Everton’s biggest buy of 2024 at £16.43million – into the side after the Republic of Ireland international failed to start at Premier League game under the former long-serving Burnley boss. O’Brien subsequently took up the right-back mantle for 14 consecutive matches but with the 24-year-old a square peg in a round hole who the manager still believes can have a future in the heart of defence going forward – and with first choice centre-backs James Tarkowski and Jarrad Branthwaite both currently sidelined with hamstring injuries – he could be continuing in his preferred role that he occupied for four of the last five games.
Although, Caci, born in Forbach, a French town on the border with Germany, just a 15-minute drive from Saarbrucken city centre, on July 1, 1997, is described as a right-back on Transfermarkt, incredibly the statistical breakdown of his career on their website states that he has only actually played there seven times in his career. The position they calculate him as occupying most is left-back (65 times), where he has scored twice and provided nine assists.
After that it’s right midfield (45 times) which has brought one goal and nine assists; followed by centre-back (44 times), one assist; left midfield (37 time), bringing three goals and three assists; and finally a solitary outing as a defensive-minded central midfielder. Apart from when he operated on the right hand side of a back three in the 2-0 home defeat to Heidenheim on September 28 though – an afternoon in which he was withdrawn in a tactical substitution just after the hour mark – Caci was deployed exclusively as a right wing-back in the 3-4-2-1 formation deployed by Mainz’s Danish coach Bo Henrikson.
Having made his senior debut for Strasbourg as a late substitute in their 2-1 Ligue 2 win over Auxerre on October 21, 2016, Caci didn’t feature again for them until a couple of seasons later, but would total 118 appearances for the Alsatian outfit, scoring twice, before joining Mainz on a free transfer in 2022. Since moving to Germany, he has played 101 times, netting on five occasions.
When it came to players operating in the Premier League in 2024/25, Crystal Palace’s Colombian international right-back Daniel Munoz was deemed to be the closest match to Caci in Comparisonator’s Similarity calculator with a score of 94%. He is followed by another attack-minded right-back Andres Garcia of Aston Villa on 77% and then Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold, who has just signed for Real Madrid, on 50%.
Comparisonator’s Artificial Intelligence Team Finder reckons that Caci would actually be a better fit at right-back than the incumbent options at three quarters of the teams in the Premier League, and with an A.I. Suitability Weight of 243.67, he scores higher than Everton pair O’Brien (190.13) and Young (204.3). When it comes to using Comparisonator’s Virtual Transfer tool to correlate Caci’s statistics from 2024/25 against his Premier League peers, his 0.22 assists per 90 minutes is higher than English top flight leader Pedro Porro of Tottenham Hotspur on 0.18 while only the aforementioned Munoz (0.38) can better his 0.31 shots on target.
Anthony Caci's assists for 2024/25 compared to Premier League players in his position
Anthony Caci's assists for 2024/25 compared to Premier League players in his position
His average of 1.97 dribbles in the final third of the pitch per 90 minutes is topped only by Kyle Walker-Peters of Southampton (2.17). When it comes to defensive actions, Caci’s average of 0.97 interceptions in the opposition half would place him fourth in the Premier League behind leader Noussair Mazraouni of Manchester United (1.09) while he’d rank fifth for picking-ups (of loose possession) on 2.75, where Lewis Cook of Bournemouth leads the way on 3.24.
With even more potential positions than the now released Young, Everton’s oldest-ever outfield player and goalscorer, Caci could prove to be an inspired option to assist Moyes with his major rebuild. Also, unlike the former England international, he only turns 28 as opposed to 40 next month.
*Comparisonator is a football data comparison tool from 271 professional leagues around the world which compares players and clubs by utilising over 100 different parameters. Click here for more details.