Over the course of the past year, Philippe Coutinho has been linked with a transfer to virtually every Premier League club under the sun.
Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham, Newcastle United and most prominently at present, Chelsea.
Frank Lampard hasn't yet truly had the opportunity to add to his squad since being appointed at Stamford Bridge, with just one player signed who won't be joining until next season.
However, the man that the Blues have already invested in, Hakim Ziyech, shares similarities with Coutinho, with one specific trait that captures why owning both may essentially be overkill and should perhaps be avoided.
Simply put, the duo are far too inclined to shoot from virtually anywhere on the pitch.
Shots tend to equal goals, but the rise of analytics and specifically Expected Goals (xG) in recent times has allowed football to effectively become smarter.
A 30-yard strike from the likes of Lampard, Steven Gerrard or Paul Scholes was welcomed around a decade ago, but in the modern day, people in the game are aware that better decisions are often available.
An effort from such range is likely to find the net roughly 2% of the time according to historical data. From 100 shots, a player will be expected to score two or three times.
A shot from inside the box, by contrast, is much more likely to be scored, with a penalty-kick usually valued as 0.76 xG as a consequence of 76% of penalties tending to result in a goal.
Coutinho and Ziyech are two figures that are renowned for going against the contemporary grain, with the latter's shots from open-play pictured below based on his performances in the Dutch Eredivisie this season.
Evidently, the 27 year-old likes to attempt to score from distance. That can be a useful tool for a team to add when squad building, but once adding another player from the same mould, things can become problematic.
The Brazilian's shots from open-play while contracted to Bayern Munich are shown below, based on the minutes he's amassed in the Bundesliga this season.
Coutinho has a reputation from scoring from far out, with his ability to strike the ball cleanly being a notable asset of his, but those goals also derive from plenty of efforts.
46.2% of the shots taken by the former Liverpool man have originated from outside the box in Germany's top-flight this season, compared to a whopping 66.3% of Ziyech's.
There isn't much to suggest that Coutinho and Ziyech couldn't play together, but from the perspective of Lampard and Chelsea, deploying the pair could make the team inefficient and volatile in the final third.
Ultimately, with the Ajax playmaker on the verge of joining up with his new teammates in London, perhaps the Blues should target more suitable talents that are likely to complement Ziyech's traits rather than mirroring them.
