Looking at individual attacking performance, #Giroud and #Mbappe stand out from the pack. Jamal #Musiala confirms his status as one of the most exciting young talents, while Julian #Alvarez also impressed despite not having started all games
In terms of chance creation, #Griezmann is the only outlier, almost doubling 2nd placed #Shaqiri for xA P90. Theo #Hernandez has also been instrumental to #France's success after coming on as a substitute for his brother Lucas in the first match
Line-breaking passes are key to every team's ball progression. If we consider passes breaking the opponent forward line, i.e. the first line of pressure, #ManchesterCity trio #Laporte, #Stones and #Rodri stand out in a top 10 dominated by central defenders
When it comes to breaking through the midfield line with incisive passing, #Pedri's vision is unrivalled. Behind #Spain's young star, Enzo #Fernandez stands out, having been one of the keys of #Argentina's change in fortunes in their group stage
šØ A new metric is coming to the Soccerment Analytics platform: one-twos!
This is a well-known football concept, focusing on associative ball progression and chance creation. How can we extract if from event data, and what insights can it provide as a metric? šš§µ
The starting point is simple: any open-play completed pass (opening) followed by another completed pass received by the same player who made the first one (closing). In order to isolate one-twos as the football concept we know, we then need to apply some spatio-temporal filters:
1) The whole one-two brings the team closer to either the goal line or goal center by at least 25% 2) No more than 4 seconds elapse between the first and second pass 3) The player closing the one-two carries the ball no longer than 5 meters in between the passes
Last weekend featured several high-profile matches ā½ļø here is our take on some of them, using our Match Reports š š§µ
ā½ #MUNMCI 2-1 #ManchesterCity struggled to create chances (0.73 xG) despite their territorial dominance (70.6% Field Tilt). #ManchesterUnited were more direct (17.4% vs 4.9% long pass %) and more dangerous (1.69 xG), turning the derby around within four minutes
ā½ #NapoliJuventus 5-1
As usual this season, #Napoli dominated territory (56.5% Field Tilt), attacking production (2.38 vs 0.83 xG) and shooting quality (4 xGoT, new seasonal max), extending their lead in #SerieA to +9. #Juventus offered little resistance, especially in 2nd half