Analysis: Who is Brett McGavin?

Yeovil Town have signed 24 year-old, former Torquay United midfielder, Brett McGavin, on a 2-year deal, following his departure from the Devonshire outfit. The former Ipswich Town youth player becomes the Glovers’ second signing of the summer, in the clubs first season back at Step One.

In this article I will be doing an analysis on Brett McGavin. The article will include:

• Player Profile
• Previous History
• Key Strengths
• Areas To Improve
• Key Stats – 23/24
• How he suits the “Mark Cooper System”
• Conclusion

Enjoy the read. Any feedback would be massively appreciated, as I continue to analyse every signing through this season, so I will be wanting to improve my work each time. I would also be interested in hearing your opinion on the signing of Brett McGavin and how you feel the summer has gone so far.

Player Profile

Name: Brett McGavin

Position: Midfielder (8 or 6)

Age: 24 (21/12/99)

Height: 6ft (183cm)

Strong Foot: Right

Previous Club: Torquay United (2022-2024)

23/24 Season Stats: 3640 minutes – 41 Games – 8 Goals – 5 Assists

Previous History

2018 – Bury Town (Loan) 5 Games – 0 Goals

2019 – Signs his first professional contract at Ipswich Town.

2019 – Concord Rangers (Loan) 6 Games – 1 Goal

2021 – Ayr United (Loan) 1 Game – 0 Goals

2021/2022 – King’s Lynn Town (Loan) 36 Games – 3 Goals

2022 – Released by Ipswich Town after making 6 appearances, scoring no goals.

2022/2024 – Joins Torquay United, where he makes 74 appearances in 2 seasons, scoring 11 goals.

Key Strengths

Local – As I previously stated in my analysis of Harvey Greenslade, Mark Cooper has made it clear that he wants to recruit locally to give the squad a tighter feel. I personally think the bond of the group was a massive reason for our success last season.

Current Partnerships – In his senior career, Brett McGavin has played at clubs such as King’s Lynn, Ipswich and Torquay. Coming into a squad where players are already aware of each other could be vital for the ‘settling in’ period. In his time at Torquay, Brett McGavin played a handful of games with one of The Glovers’ star players, Frank Nouble.

Good Age -At 24, Brett McGavin is of a really good age where can still develop and improve his game, as well as having plenty of experience in men’s football, as well as a full season in the National League. This could be vital throughout the season. He joins a squad with an average age of 25.6.

Midfield Depth – It’s not secret that squad depth is vital in a full season, especially in the National League, where fixtures can get tight towards the end of the season. After the signing of McGavin, our midfield has been boosted massively. He comes in alongside players such as Charlie Cooper, Matt Worthington and Sonny Blu-Lo Everton to add real quality in depth to the midfield.

Range of Passing – McGavin is such a quality, technical midfielder who possesses plenty of attributes which make him a brilliant central midfielder. His passing accuracy is really impressive, he keeps the ball ticking over and dictates games. This doesn’t mean he keeps everything simple though, he isn’t afraid to go long and play creative, forward passes.

Goal Contribution Output – For a midfielder to come out of a National League South season with 13 goal contributions in 41 games is impressive. Especially in a poor Torquay side who scored just 53 goals in the league. On average, Brett McGavin earned himself a goal contribution every 4 Torquay goals last season. This is impressive numbers for a deep midfielder.

Shooting From Range – It would be easy to say that long range shooting is probably the former Ipswich player’s strongest attribute. Last season, all eight of his goals came from outside the box, as you can see from this shot map below.

Set Pieces – A couple of these goals came from set piece situations, McGavin gives us another option from free kicks and corners alongside the likes of Jordan Young, Maguire-Drew and Charlie Cooper.

Defensive Work – Despite being a deep midfielder, who is praised more for his attacking attributes, than his defensive ones, McGavin put up solid numbers in the defensive areas last season, which could be vital coming into next season knowing we aren’t always going to dominate the ball. These specific numbers can be seen in the Key Stats 23/24 section, further down this article.

Areas To Improve

Pace – One of the main things that Torquay fans pointed out when he was announced as our second signing of the window, was that he isn’t the quickest player. This could become an issue when the opposition sets away on a counter attack. If McGavin is unable to recover quickly, it could see us outnumbered. However, midfielders such as Matt Worthington and Sonny Blu are real athletes meaning a partnership alongside one of these two, or both, could cause opposition teams real problems.

Physical Dominance – One thing we have been missing from our midfield in recent seasons is a real physical powerhouse in midfield. We are crying out for a player a defensive midfielder who can dominate the opposition, winning lots of duels and 50/50s. Although McGavin wins a good amount of his duels, he is fairly weak and more of a technical player.

Struggled in the National League – Last time McGavin played in the National League,  he was relegated with Torquay in the 22/23 season, alongside his new club, Yeovil Town. There are certainly question marks whether the 24 year-old is good enough to keep up with play in Step 1 but after a good year in the second tier of non league, I feel he is now ready for the step up. In his only National League season, he played 33 time for The Gulls’, scoring three times.

Aerial Dominance – Similarly, to a previous weakness, McGavin isn’t known for his aerial prowess. This could cause issues if the opposition have a big target from goal kicks. He may get bullied off the ball because of this.

Too Many Touches – I spoke to a Torquay fan, after McGavin’s move to Somerset, to find out a weakness or two about the midfielder. One thing that concerned OffTheLineBlog was that McGavin may take too many touches when on the ball. I think this will be trained out of him while under the current management anyway because Cooper likes his players moving the ball quickly.

Key Stats – 23/24

Stats produced by FevsFootball:

Goals/Assists/Shots:

• Goals Per 90 – 0.2
• xG Per 90 – 0.06
• Shots Per 90 – 1.31
• Assists Per 90 -0.12

Creative Passing:

• Smart Passes Per 90 – 0.47
• Key Passes Per 90 – 0.22
• Passes into Penalty Area Per 90 – 1.63
• Through Passes Per 90 – 0.62

General Passing:

• Passes Per 90 – 44.3
• Long Passes Per 90 – 4.4
• Progressive Passes Per 90 – 7.2

On The Ball:

• Dribbles Per 90 – 1.8
• Progressive Runs Per 90 – 1.0
• Passes Received Per 90 – 25.0
• Fouls Per 90 – 0.9

Duels:

• Offensive Duels Per 90 – 5.9
• Offensive Duels Won – 38%
• Defensive Duels Per 90 – 7.0
• Defensive Duels Won – 66
• Ariel Duels Per 90 – 3.0
• Ariel Duels Won – 54
• Loose Ball Duels Per 90 – 3.3
• Loose Ball Duels Won – 47

Defending:

• Shots Blocked Per 90 – 0.3
• Interceptions Per 90 – 5.0
• Sliding Tackles Per 90 – 0.9

How will he fit in?

There is a lot of quality in our midfield and McGavin is fairly unproven at National League level, meaning he isn’t a guaranteed starter. When talking about how he will fit in, I will go on the basis that he is starting.

I think a midfield partnership of Matty Worthington and Brett McGavin could cause trouble for opposition teams next season, Worthington has all the athleticism to track back and get forward whereas, McGavin has all the technical ability, someone who will get on the end of loose balls and dictate the game for us.

As shown in the screenshot above, McGavin and Worthington would play in a double pivot, just behind an attacking midfielder, which could be Frank Nouble or potentially Sonny Blu-Lo Everton.

However, Sonny could play slightly deeper, in the Worthington position, alongside McGavin and give us similar levels of athleticism but we would have two players with brilliant technical abilities.

I think it will be very rare that we see a midfield two of Charlie Cooper and Brett McGavin because they are fairly similar players. We would get overran in the midfield because of it being fairly slow and static. It is vital to have an athletic player in the midfield pivot to allow ourselves to prevent a counter attack.

For this reason, my preferred midfield two would be Matt Worthington and Brett McGavin. Sonny Blu would either play in the attacking midfield position or be a great rotation option for Worthington. Cooper adds real depth to our midfield and gives us a brilliant option off the bench.

Conclusion

I am a big fan of this signing, I don’t think it’s a big statement signing’ but it’s one that adds quality to our side and probably completes our midfield pivot with some good depth. McGavin could become a match winner next season, with his quality from range, he could score a massive goal from nowhere.

He is a midfielder who suits the way Mark Cooper wants to play, he gets the ball down and dictates play brilliantly. He reads the game really well and is understands what he has to do because of being well-rounded.

He comes into the side at a really good age, familiar with the local surroundings, after spending the previous two seasons in Devon, with Torquay.

What are your thoughts on the signing?

As I previously stated, any feedback or comments are massively appreciated and taken on board! I hope you enjoyed the read, thankyou.