Raphael Varane’s disciplinary record is remarkable

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Manchester United are signing one of Europe’s best and most decorated defenders in Raphael Varane.

Varane is expected to be unveiled in the next few days and Manchester United fans are rightly ecstatic to have landed the Real Madrid stalwart for an initial fee of just £34.2 million.

When it comes to centre-backs there are two distinct type of styles. There is the bruising uncompromising style of Nemanja Matic, or the man Varane replaced at Real Madrid, Pepe.

And then there is the more graceful, speedy players like Rio Ferdinand, who rely on their reading of the game combined with strength and aerial ability, to dominate strikers. Raphael Varane belongs into the Ferdinand category.

Varane’s remarkable disciplinary record

Varane does not score many goals, just 17 for Real Madrid in total. And yet a goal for Varane is almost as rare as a booking.

In 360 matches for Real Madrid, Varane received only 24 bookings. This averaged out at 2.4 per season.

Compare this to the aforementioned Pepe, who received 79 yellow cards in 334 matches.

Among Varane’s yellow cards, eight came in 83 Champions League games. Again this was a very impressive record.

Pepe somehow only received four red cards for Real Madrid. Varane received two in his career.

Varane’s first red came in 2016, as a result of a super-rare double booking in the same game, a 4-2 victory over Athletic Bilbao.

The French defender was not happy. He told Real Madrid TV via FotMob: “I always want to play clean. I do not play to hurt people. Neither of those two actions deserved yellow card.

“I respect the referees, but it was not fair. I jumped to get the ball ahead of my opponent, I did not try to hit him with my elbows.”

Varane’s second red card was a straight one in 2019, for a last man tackle in a 4-1 win over Espanyol.

At international level for France, Varane has received only three yellow cards in 79 matches. Again, quite remarkable.

The one red card blemish on Varane’s international record came in a 2017 friendly against England, in which he was judged to have fouled Dele Alli. This came after a VAR review and it was the first ever match the technology had been trialled in an England fixture.

Varane did receive an above average four yellow cards last season, two in La Liga and two in Europe. Of these, all of them came in the second half of the campaign, a spell in which Sergio Ramos was out injured and Varane lacked the consistent partner he usually enjoyed playing alongside.

This came after a very impressive record set by the Frenchman. Marca reported in December that Varane had completed a 38 game stretch for Real Madrid without a single card. This was the equivalent to an entire Premier League season.

Manchester United are quite clearly signing an accomplished defender who uses his brain to defend and not just his brawn.

How does this compare?

The only place to start is with Rio Ferdinand, a player who also prided his defending on rarely receiving bookings.

Ferdinand received 34 bookings in 455 games for Manchester United. This worked out at a yellow card every 13.3 matches. Varane by comparison averaged a booking every 15 games, a slightly superior record.

Harry Maguire has 24 yellow cards for Manchester United in two seasons an average of a booking every 4.4 games. That is the same number Varane accrued in a decade for Real Madrid.

That is no slight on Maguire either. They play with different styles and should actually complement one another in the same way Ferdinand and Vidic did. The Serbian defender received 58 bookings in 300 games for United, and eight red cards.

Victor Lindelof has a style somewhat similar to Varane in that he has just 14 yellow cards for United to date in 161 games. That is a yellow every 11.5 games, still an inferior record to Varane in this regard.

Eric Bailly averages a yellow card every 6.2 games, with 17 bookings in 106 games.

Axel Tuanzebe could learn from watching Varane, although he appears to be heading out on loan. He has eight yellow cards in 37 games, an average of a booking every 4.6 matches, a similar record to Maguire.

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