Stats Analysis: Passing Differences - Attacking Intent

Much is often made of wasteful play or a lack of ambition in central midfield. The likes of Michael Carrick and Gareth Barry amongst others are habitually criticised for a deficiency in the attacking threat they provide, and thus their worth in the teams they play for. WhoScored.com has therefore decided to take a look at just how much justification there is in such criticism, by analysing the Premier League’s attacking central midfielders, central midfielders and defensive midfielders in terms of exactly where they direct their passes. We have looked at the central midfielders to have played the most passes forwards, sideways and backwards, in the hope of finding who are the more adventurous and progressive central midfielders, and who, meanwhile, prefers to merely play it safe.

Forward Passes

In terms of passes that go forwards, we looked at those centre-mids who have made a minimum of 200 forward passes in games they have started in the Premier League this season. Though he has only started 7 games in central midfield, at the grand old age of 38, Ryan Giggs is as much of a threat as ever for Manchester United, making an impressive 63% of his passes forwards, the highest percentage in the league, at a rate of 37 per game.

What is notable in the nature of Giggs’ play is the fact that the next 5 players in the list for percentage of passes forwards are defensive midfielders. Almost without fail, a defensive midfielder in the Premier League will have two central midfielders lining up ahead of him, and this does much to explain why they make so many forward passes. Giggs, meanwhile, lines up in a more advanced position, and in spite his age, he has adapted his game to continue to provide an attacking threat, focusing his game on passing rather than dribbling.

Alex Song comes next in the list, making 61% of his passes towards the opponents’ goal, and this has paid dividends, given that he has got 4 assists in the Premier League whilst playing in defensive midfield this season (possibly more impressive is that he got another from centre back). Song has been a key member of Arsenal’s team this season and his tally of 5 assists is the joint most in their ranks alongside forwards Robin van Persie and Gervinho. Song has made nearly twice as many forward passes (692) as he has sideways passes (356) whilst playing in central midfield this season.

Sideways Passes

Central midfielders passing it sideways are a pet hate for many. The frustration at seeing an opportunity for a progressive pass that could spark an attack overlooked in favour of a simple square ball to the full back is something many of us suffer on a far too regular a basis.

Of course, central midfielders often exchange passes with each other and switch the play with sideways passes as they look to find space and build attacks. It is therefore not merely the quantity of sideways passes we are interested in, but instead, the significant statistic is the percentage of passes made across the pitch. For example, on average, Mikel Arteta makes 26 sideways passes per game, the fourth most in the Premier League, but as a percentage of his overall attempted passes, this is 34%, the 24th most in the league. Arteta averages the most passes per game in the Premier League, making 78.3, yet he does not stand out in terms of percentages. He plays 53% of his passes forwards and 13% backwards – the 18th and 26th highest percentages in the English top flight.

Yaya Toure, meanwhile, plays 40.4% of his passes sideways, the third highest percentage of Premier League central midfielders. Slightly ahead is Tottenham’s Scott Parker, who has played 473 of his 1158 passes square (40.8%). A comparison between these two players reveals a surprising similarity in the way the two play. Both do plenty of work in breaking up play and driving forward with the ball, but Toure provides much more of a goal threat, having scored 3 and assisted 4 goals this season, while Parker has got no goals and just the one assist. Yaya Toure’s total of 20 successful dribbles compared to Scott Parker’s 9 shows the difference in their styles.

Top of the list for sideways passes is Swansea’s Leon Britton, who makes 42.5% of his passes to his left or right. Britton has the highest pass success rate in the Premier League, completing 93.4% of his passes, which has sparked (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) comparisons with Barcelona’s pass master Xavi. The Spaniard in fact makes more passes than anyone else in Europe’s top 5 leagues, but he makes just 37% of his passes sideways.  This, coupled with the amount of sideways passes Britton makes, may well explain his extremely high pass success rate.

Backwards Passes

Finally, when it come to passes directed backwards, it is unsurprising to see attacking midfielders dominate, as they will receive ball under pressure and with their back to goal.

Sergio Aguero leads the way, making 30% of his passes back towards his own goal, though to consider him as an attacking midfielder, let alone central midfielder rather than a striker, is somewhat inaccurate. Wes Hoolahan is second in the list, directing 26% of his passes backwards. It is true that he is a more advanced attacking midfielder, but he has made 13 of his 17 starts this season in central midfield and could possibly do more to increase his attacking intent.

The most surprising inclusion in the top 10 for percentage of passes backwards is arguably Stilian Petrov. Aston Villa’s captain makes 18% of his passes towards his own goal – the highest of all defensive midfielders in the Premier League. Whether this says more about the movement of players and options he has further up the pitch or the lack of ambition in his play is anyone’s guess. It could well be argued, however, that Petrov should have the time and space in front of his back four to be able to avoid sending passes back to the defence.