To be perfectly honest there isnt much to choose between Yacob and Cheick Tiote; they are both excellent defensive midfielders, and very good options for Moyes to consider. Newcastle Uniteds strong season so far has a lot to do with their strong midfield and Ivory Coast international Tiote plays a big part in that. In common with the other players in this list; he has decent passing ability with a success ratio this season of 87.9%. However again, its his tackling ability that really makes him standout with 3.9 of them per match. In terms of the Premier League, only the aforementioned Yacob and Liverpools Lucas Leiva can claim a better record on that stat. Tiote can though claim a better average rating than Yacob of 7.05, but I would say that likely has something to do with playing for a club that is enjoying a much better season. Other key stats on Tiote this season includes 2.1 interceptions and 1.9 clearances per match. One cautionary note though is the player can be a bit reckless with his challenging at times, and has picked up four yellow cards this season. This isnt something that should prevent Moyes from making an offer for the 27-year-old but it does mean he should expect him to be suspended once in a while if he is successful in signing him. That being said, Tiote quality is well established after playing in Belgium, Holland and making 41 appearances for his country.
James Kent is a freelance writer published on Yahoo! Sports, Bleacher Report, FTBpro, Bloomberg Sports and many others. He has also been featured in the Daily Telegraph, Zoo Magazine, MSN Sport and the Manchester Evening News.
His role on What Culture is currently to produce compelling football articles that nearly always use of combination of stats and strong opinion. Feel free to connect with James via Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus.
