There is no right or wrong number of touches that a forward should have, but having a standardised measure across all players highlights their tendency to perform a certain action when given an equal opportunity to do so. The Timbers have struggled this season to play the ball from wide positions as they have the second-lowest completion percentage (17.1 percent) on open-play crosses this season. Cristiano Ronaldo's 31 touches were his fewest in a La . This attacking performance currently places him at 15th out of 408 for Ligue 1 Players who've played at least 3 matches.This player scored a total of 12 goals so far in the season in the league, which places him at 3rd in the PSG squad's Top Scorers list. But I bet even Cristiano wishes he had Messis touch on the soccer ball. Risking a turnover to increase your chances of scoring a goal even by a small amount can be worth it. All rights reserved. With the game in stoppage time and the score tied at 0-0, Lionel Messi took the ball near the right corner of the penalty area, held it for a moment, then broke left, found his seam, took his strike and curled it in from 29 yards. 2019. 1 Alabama and No. Remainder of session based on possession game then a match. To look at Messis defensive skill, I combined successful tackles,16 interceptions and blocked shots, then adjusted for number of opponent possessions (as I did with offense above). Despite having 407 career goals in club and international play (including a record 91 in 2012 alone) and a record four Ballon dOr (World Player of the Year) awards, until this years tournament, Messi hadnt scored in a World Cup match since 2006. At least for everyone not named Lionel Messi. The highpoint of 8.6 per 90 in 2007-08 was not matched but in each of these four seasons, Messi was completing over six dribbles per 90 with 7.5 per 90 in both 2009-10 and 2010-11. AMC AML FWR FW FWL Sub. Here, wed want to use total attacking touches as the denominator.. Rosales has assisted on six of Johnsons headed goals, including four assists from open-play crosses and two from corner kicks. Moreover, Messi Cuccittini's total goal-contribution (goals + assists) is 24. Is a Saudi Arabia exhibition a sad ending for Messi vs. Ronaldo? The overall penalty conversion rate for Messi Cuccittini is 77.68%. TEN. And whats more, his passing profile is nothing like the other Barcelona forwards, who typically send 72 percent of their passes back or square. For this purpose, I created a stat called possessions used. Its a little bit analogous to usage rate in basketball, and incorporates the number of touches in which a player: In other words, its a stat meant to reflect anything that ends a teams possession, whether that outcome is positive or negative. Lets look at how Messis assisted shooting compares to other players with 100 or more shots both assisted and unassisted6: Somehow, Messi has done even better when taking it on his own than when somebody sets him up. The truth is, who doesnt want control like Messi and to know how to develop that ball tethered to the foot control that he possesses? I didnt count missed tackles as either positive or negative, because they arent nearly as bad as a successful tackle is good. Only 5 percent of his kicks are strong ones (compared to 8 percent for all players), but those kicks score 36 percent of the time, and have .251 GAA each! But what a good search. Ronaldo isn't top 3, Pele, Messi and Maradona, he is way less influential in a game, just look at their average touches per game. Lionel Messi has won 44 titles so far in their career. The only forward who takes on defenders nearly as aggressively as Messi is Luis Suarez, the Uruguayan striker for Liverpool who is perhaps too aggressive for his own good (ahem). AMKFootball has produced a chart to show the players who have the worst touches per 90 minutes. Were used to seeing him provide dazzling passes, incisive shots and glamorous dribbles, but we shouldnt be afraid to keep our eyes on him even when the ball is elsewhere, and especially if he is moving slowly. a player can only perform a defensive action (e.g. Well, the secret or short cut is hard work and love for the game. This method is valuable in showing the degree of influence a player has. It was rivalry Sunday in the soccer world. Messi scored .220 goals per shot attempt for .038 GAA per goal. Here, Anthony Modeste came out on top for Cologne, with 14 shots per 100 touches, showing his propensity to get a strike away 20 Bundesliga goals earned him a move to Borussia Dortmund this summer. Zachary Singer and Jason York contributed to this post, Messi, Ronaldo make limited touches count, Anthony Davis fills up stat sheet against Suns, Coming off 2017 and looking ahead, it's a great time to be a Georgia fan, Lou Williams has been Stephen Curry-like of late for Clippers, Wizards have a fivesome that ranks among the best in the game, It's a great time to be the Rockets' defense, Seahawks QB Russell Wilson in MVP-caliber form. Minutes played wont be a good denominator except for measuring something a player does whether attacking or defending like going up for aerials.. This is a simple example, but lets dig deeper. Messi had his best passing day against Real Madrid in the league over that time span, completing 51 of 56 pass attempts (91.1 percent). Another Iron Bowl clash between No. The 100-minute matches that became routine at the World Cup in Qatar are set to become routine in club soccer, FIFA's rule-making panel said Saturday. 2 . But Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid which, like Barcelona, doesnt press particularly stringently in its opponents half averaged four-fifths of a mile more than Messi. Before signing the deal, he was believed to earn round 336,000-per-week. Since assist-related stats tend to be dependent on a teams offensive system, for this chart Ive grouped shots by team, so it only includes Messis shots for Barcelona and Ronaldos for Real Madrid. A rudimentary measure would simply be distance to goal, but after discussions with experts at Barcelona, Fernandez and Bornn realized that the value of space in soccer changes dynamically based on the positions of the players and the ball. But it's also his drive and desire to win and love for the game that makes him so great. Over the past two years, 70% of the candidates increased their touches per game, and a total average of 2.2 increased touches per game. Gabriel Jesus, who Haaland has effectively replaced, had 73. Instead, they took the novel approach of extracting the value of space based on the behavior of the defending team. And this isnt just some run of the mill defender, this is Evra, one of the great defenders in the game. Manchester City claimed the Premier League title on the final day of the season, edging Liverpool into second. Yoane Wissa (Brentford) - 27.6 touches per 90 9. Christian McCaffrey (23) per 90 minutes, per 100 touches, or per minute in possession cannot be underestimated as Dan Altman, creator of smarterscout, highlights. Hes a player who was in tears when he had to come off the pitch because of a reoccurring thigh problem that may be the result of a hormone deficiency when he was a child. Of the 866 players who qualified for that plot by playing in 50-plus games and averaging at least one shot attempt per game Messi is the ninth-most efficient shooter overall (Ronaldo is. Of late, I was thinking all anybody wanted to know was how to get a soccer body or legs like Cristiano Ronaldo, seems theres an. Despite this, Messi is still a trend-breaker:4. Dungoyne won the game 8-1. And among Messi's 843 touches . Sead Kolasinac ( Arsenal) - 27.0 7. Shots (SH) We are not responsible for your outcomes. And then theres the bread and butter of aggressive passing: moving it toward the goal on the opponents side of the field. The average number of touches for the starting XI that day was 95. Lionel Messi has scored 12 goals in 20 matches so far in the Ligue 1 2022/2023 season. Points per Play Margin. If we take Messi's reported salary of $300,000 per week and divide that by the number of games he plays for Barcelona a season, it works out at around $350,000 per game. This is how Leo Messi trains. "@trueBianconeri @TeamCRonaldo Making more touches and more passes means you are more influential on a game. Hes the one. Touches per match: 863.4: 1: . ESPN Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. They were adept at long passes when the short passing game wasn't getting it done, . Can Rudy Gobert-less Jazz keep pesky Nuggets off the glass? Barcelonas players are infamous for their tiki-taka style of play, which relies on an enormous amount of short, high percentage passing. If that partly due to the . Lets clarify what that would mean with an example. The outcomes are there for all to see, but the process is obfuscated we observe and quantify what Messi does on the ball, and are blind when he is off it. All players have scored on 11 percent of their strong kick shots and have an average .051 GAA per shot. This is most true when looking at his movement. Heres a comparison of the top 20 shot-takers overall (regular shots in all games since the 2010 World Cup): In this group, Messi both takes the best shots and does the most with those attempts. And its certainly not possible to do most of these things by insanely wide margins. Lionel Messi is a Forward who has appeared in 20 matches this season in Ligue 1, playing a total of 1762 minutes. However, his passing had little impact. Its an integral part of his game that we know almost nothing about. Benjamin Morris is a former sportswriter for FiveThirtyEight. I noticed that someone typed in how to control like Messi and then another typed in how to play like Messi in the search engines (What am I saying search engines plural theres only, as in its all Google now) and arrived at our soccer training website. I arrived at a conclusion that I wasnt really expecting or prepared for: Lionel Messi is impossible. Given that, its no surprise that Messi excels at the through-ball, the delicate and gorgeous play that requires perfect circumstances and perfect timing to be successful. Yeah, its like a Dr. Seuss story, where instead of green eggs and ham its all about juggling the soccer ball while under pressure. In 47 UEFA matches since 2010, Barcelona has scored 104 goals, or 1.08 goals per game more than a Spanish team comprised of a similar offensive core and using the same tiki-taka playing style, minus Lionel Messi. He scores a goal for every 5.42 shots he takes and takes 3.32 shots per 90 minutes on the pitch. This is an average metric based on the player's combination of assists and the number of games they have played. The genie is well and truly out of the bottle when it comes to data in football, but there is still plenty of scope to maximise its utility. Here are some stats to watch: The Sounders' Eddie Johnson has used his head when it comes to his goal-scoring efforts in 2012. He also has better defensive stats for Argentina, so even if there are persistent differences, its quite possible it has to do with style and Messis role on each team rather than the quality of his play. Whether Messi consciously decides to go against the run of play with his movement is difficult to ascertain. Last season his average was 0.28 goals per game, he scored 12 goals in 43 club matches. Messi, who incredibly duplicated both Maradonas maze run and his Hand of God, will do things in the coming years to further astound the soccer world. He still scored 41 goals, but that total was less than the 60 he scored the year before, and fewer than the 51 that rival Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid scored en route to capturing the Ballon dOr. He thought this proved that possession football was inefficient, but many have disagreed with his logic, and subsequent studies have shown mixed results. Finally, Messis defense is consistent with that of a high-volume striker.15 That hes practically munchkin-sized (hes only 1.69 met ahem, excuse me 5 7 tall) seems not to matter. Messi loves his left foot, shooting with it 78 percent of the time, and scoring 23 percent. Cristiano Ronaldo (7). Messi is the only footballer on the list and he stands head and shoulders above everyone in every aspect. G90 xG90 Sh90 A90 xA90 KP90 xGChain90 xGBuildup90. But there are a couple of other important things to notice in this graph: Despite not taking as many shots, Messi uses more possessions per game than Ronaldo does. Plus, hes rarely if ever ruffled despite the increased focus and punishment hes taken at times. I should note that the data on this has a little gray area. How should Argentina fans feel about all this, given the disappointment theyve experienced in World Cups past and the hopes theyve pinned on Messi this year? Touchdowns per Game. Even though national teams are patchwork and only play together for a handful of games each year, how Messi plays with Argentina relates to what is ultimately a fair criticism of his success: Most of it has come for FC Barcelona, a free-spending virtual all-star squad, packed with many of the worlds best players.1. His Non-Penalty xG per 90 minutes is 0.51. Lionel Messi's contract drama ended with the Barcelona star sealing the deal as soccer's second $1 billion earner, but Kylian Mbappe, a 21-year-old Frenchman, is poised to steal the show. That goal was quintessential Messi: He got the ball on the right side of the field, held it for a few seconds, broke to the middle and in heavy traffic swerved it in on off his left foot. . But thats just what happens once the shots are lined up. He shoots slightly below average on (a limited number of) headers (10 percent vs. 13 percent). Lionel Messi is 35-years-old, born on 24 June 1987, and is a left-footed professional football player from Argentina. This season in the Champions League (the only competition to release this basic running data), Messi ran comfortably less than any other elite attackers, averaging just less than 5 miles per 90 minutes. In the 12 years since he became the youngest Argentine to score a World Cup goal, Lionel Messi has won more Ballon dOr trophies, awarded to the worlds best player, than anyone before him.1 He has scored more official goals in a calendar year than anyone in living memory. For that, we turn back to the goals above average model, which compares each shot or chance outcome with its expectation. The three of them, in Barcelonas devastating 4-3-3, would spread out wide across the pitch, forcing defenders to follow them. when the player does something possession-ending.14 Looking at players who use more than 15 possessions per game, we can plot possessions used against scoring and assists like so: Cutting out all the passing that doesnt end in a shot, Messi generates the most points per touch of any player with a similar usage rate. Of all forwards in our data set whove played 100-plus games, he takes on defenders the most, and hes the most successful at it. Yet when they did have it, they were incredibly efficient. He runs an average of 8'727 kilometres each game. He writes about soccer through an analytical lens, with a particular interest in team tactics. Ive excluded other set-piece attempts because theyre very dependent on each players role on his team. And that gap was never really as big as it appeared. Ronaldo, with more than twice as many shots, ran just 5.5 goals above expectation, and no one but Messi is higher than 7.5 goals. Messi is finally having the kind of World Cup expected of him. Scored a goal & set up 3. The average Infogol Player Rating for Kylian Mbappe-Lottin in the French Ligue 1 2022/23 season is 8.33. Lionel Messi scores an average of 0.61 goals for every 90 minutes that the player is on the pitch. This is generally because Messi is much more likely to take on defenders, and thus is much more likely to lose possession of the ball or turn it over entirely. Of the 866 players who qualified for that plot by playing in 50-plus games and averaging at least one shot attempt per game Messi is the ninth-most efficient shooter overall (Ronaldo is 173rd), and hes by far the most efficient of anyone with a similar shot volume. Will Democrats Rally Behind President Biden In 2024? If were trying to gauge a players style on the ball, then wed want to know what share of the players attacking touches were passes, dribbles, or shots. Theres a stat for that, and in my view its one of the most revealing, reflecting both Messis skill and style, and the relationship between the two. I can picture Cristiano Ronaldo at his computer typing in get touch like Messi. Other Finders: Touchdown Finder, Field Goal Finder, Game Play Finder, Drive Finder. Despite the fact that Messi and Argentina beat France in the World Cup final, PSG fans were clearly happy to see their main man back in the squad.When his na. If we want to compare Messi to all players with a remotely similar volume of production, were left with Ronaldo. 2014 World Cup (59) By this point, it should be evident that Messi has at least a little bit of skill. This stat puts him above 99 percent of the players in the Ligue 1. That doesn't include his . The ball is never too far away from Messi, very rarely if ever. The Bayern striker has claimed glory in the award for a second straight year and some big name rivals were also prominent in the European golden boot race. 2023 ABC News Internet Ventures. As it turns out, not only does Messi pass the ball forward aggressively, he does so accurately, and the balls he delivers are successful a very high percentage of the time. In fact, the more involved Messi is in a shot attempt, the more likely his team is to score. The average Infogol Player Rating for Lionel Messi in the UEFA Champions League 2022/23 season is 7.99. For example, lets look at Messis long ball forward passes from the midfield area. Garber: MLS would be flexible for Messi move, Messi receives threat in Rosario store attack. To be clear, you could probably choose any skills for your axes and produce a similar graph. Apart from sophisticated positional play, you can only attack when youre in possession; you can only defend when youre out of possession, Altman says. FootyStats - Built with Love for The Beautiful Game. This doesnt mean they are not proficient progressive passers, but simply that such actions are not attempted as frequently as the per 90 comparison suggests. And among those events, it resulted in nearly 20 more touches per match. Passes the ball to a player who takes a shot. Yes, thats precisely what our research shows. Bornn said. But in soccer, unlike in basketball, shooting efficiency isnt the single most important stat. With his background in research and analytics, he will look to provide data-driven insight across the football world. The young Messi is a pure genius on the soccer field, and so humble to boot. In a busy summer transfer window, your teams recruitment staff are looking for a clinical striker who is quick to get a shot away and will score something out of nothing. . (And in the seven games Messi missed, they went 6-1.) Liverpool's Firmino tops the list with 57 touches per match (averaging only two unsuccessful touches per match), while Lacazette occupies second place with 46 (19 successful) and Giroud is in third place with 41 (21 successful). There are a few lines where Messis stats are considerably worse than his peers (meaning Ronaldos): He doesnt get a lot of clearances although this is partly style, as Messi is more willing to pass out of defensive territory (or even take on defenders). Subscribe to The Athletic for in-depth coverage of your favorite players, teams, leagues and clubs. And then in a snap, the ball is on his thigh and back at his feet nearly immediately. The phrase high-value locations refers to another part of their research that quantified how much areas of the pitch are worth to either team.