Je partage ici un article intéressant qui parle des playmaker, pas ceux qui sont forcément crédité d'un assist, d'une "key pass" ou d'un goal mais ceux qui participe à l'action qui amène un goal depuis l'arrière, le joueur qui déclenche une action.
Michael Cox: Jorginho, Dale Stephens and the Premier League’s true playmakers
By Michael Cox 3h ago 9
What constitutes a playmaker?
In official terms, it exclusively refers to players who are regular assisters. Two years ago, the Premier League introduced a ‘Playmaker of the Season’ award to honour the player with the most assists. It’s been won by two Belgians: Kevin De Bruyne and Eden Hazard, with 16 and 15 respectively.
But that only refers to a specific part of playmaking. Look at it from another perspective — literally ‘making the play’ — and it seems to refer to a different type of footballer entirely, someone who operates deeper and prompts the passing moves which eventually culminate with an assist and a goal. The term ‘deep-lying playmaker’ covers this a little more but that specifically refers to a holding midfielder with a good passing range. What if a team’s true playmaker, the man who makes the play, is actually a full-back? Or a centre-forward?
To take account of passing contributions that aren’t credited with an assist or a ‘key pass’, a worthwhile exercise is counting the ‘shot-ending sequence involvements’, to use Opta’s definition, of each player. In other words, rather than just crediting the final passer, you can go back and credit every player involved in the passing move leading up to the goal.
“The reason I like these new metrics is because they help us quantify the players ‘you can’t measure with stats’,” said Tom Worville, senior football data analyst at Opta, who calculates the statistics. “For example, I like to think of ‘shot-ending sequence involvements’ as the ‘Iniesta stat’, crediting those players who are integral to attacking moves, but not always providing the final ball.”
Sometimes, this is particularly important because the most impressive contribution to a goal comes from neither the goalscorer nor the assister.
Take, for example, Liverpool’s equaliser at the Etihad Stadium last season, in an eventual 2-1 Manchester City victory. Liverpool rely heavily on their full-backs for creativity — Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson finished last season as the side’s most prolific assisters. But Alexander-Arnold, in particular, was also crucial in building up play before more advanced players claimed the assist.
This goal was a good example. It ends with Roberto Firmino heading into an open goal. Robertson had knocked the ball across for his header but it was Alexander-Arnold’s pinpoint diagonal pass in behind the Manchester City defence which truly created the goal.
He wasn’t credited with an assist. He is, however, credited with an involvement in the sequence.
As contributions like that prove, Alexander-Arnold is so much more than a mere overlapping crosser and therefore, it’s notable that his name is prominent on the list of shot-ending sequence involvements so far this season. Here’s the list of every club’s top player in that respect. (Note that this list of shot involvements includes the most important contribution: the player who had the shot itself.)
There are various interesting aspects to this list. First, on the subject of Alexander-Arnold, it’s notable that he’s the only defender among this list of 20, underlining his status as Liverpool’s chief playmaker — in both senses of the word.
Fifteen players on this list are midfielders of some description, which leaves four who play up front. These are Burnley’s Ashley Barnes, Bournemouth’s Callum Wilson, Newcastle’s Joelinton and Wolves’ Raul Jimenez. It’s significant that these are the four Premier League sides who have averaged the least possession this season — there’s less opportunity for players in deeper positions to contribute to shots. Barnes is the most telling case study in this respect: of his 25 contributions, 21 have involved him taking the shot (in two of these, he was involved in the build-up too).
Some names are predictable. De Bruyne’s all-round brilliance means he contributes heavily in all three aspects — contributing to passing moves from deep, playing dangerous key passes, and also attempting shots. It’s no surprise he’s way out in front so far this season.
Others are more surprising. Arsenal’s Nicolas Pepe hasn’t yet shown much to suggest he’s close to justifying his club-record transfer fee, yet these statistics show that he’s been heavily involved for Arsenal this season. Further inspection of the numbers shows that he’s Arsenal’s most prolific chance creator and has attempted only four fewer shots than Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, despite playing 160 less minutes. He’s also been involved in plenty of other moves.
The players who benefit most from using this measure, however, are deep central midfielders. Chelsea’s Jorginho has attempted just six shots and played nine key passes but he’s played a part in another 36 passing moves, evidence of his metronomic passing style, which doesn’t translate into assists but contributes heavily to Chelsea’s passing style. He was involved in the build-up to Mason Mount’s goal against Southampton last time out, playing a good ball into Willian, who in turn provided the assist for Mount.
Brighton’s Dale Stephens is another example. In eight matches so far, Stephens has attempted eight shots, and only played three key passes. But he’s been involved in 28 other passing moves that have resulted in shots, which summarises Graham Potter’s emphasis on methodical build-up play, and emphasises the contribution of Stephens – something of an unheralded midfielder.
Here’s a good example from Brighton’s most recent game, the 3-0 victory over Tottenham. Stephens’ threaded pass between the lines into Pascal Gross gets Brighton on their way, in the lead-up to Neal Maupay’s opener.
Data from the last couple of seasons suggests this list produces the type of players you’d expect — and a couple of surprises. From 2017-18, the top ten features, in order: De Bruyne, Christian Eriksen, Mohamed Salah, Hazard, Granit Xhaka, Harry Kane, Cesc Fabregas, David Silva, Alexis Sanchez and Roberto Firmino. Xhaka is the surprise name among others widely considered good creators.
Last season, the top ten featured Raheem Sterling, Sadio Mane, Sergio Aguero, Hazard, Silva, Salah, Alexandre Lacazette, Leroy Sane, Bernardo Silva and Aubemeyang.
But this list is arguably too dominated by attacking players, especially if we want to find those who start moves from deep. So the list of build-up contributions alone — ignoring shots and key passes — shows Jorginho and Stephens at the top of the list. Harry Winks, who is a classic ‘safe’ passing midfielder, with no assists this season, is also prominent, while it’s notable that Chelsea’s Cesar Azpilicueta is the only non-midfielder on the list.
Azpilicueta has also been in the top ten of this for the previous two seasons. In 2017-18, he featured alongside fellow right-backs Hector Bellerin and Kyle Walker. Xhaka was the leader in this respect, followed by Fernandinho, De Bruyne, N’Golo Kante and Nicolas Otamendi, who helped City build passing moves from the back.
Last season, Jorginho was also top of this list. While criticised for not recording a single assist all year, Jorginho was involved in no fewer than 145 moves which ended in a shot. Aymeric Laporte was second on the list, effectively replacing Otamendi from the previous campaign. Kante, David Luiz and Antonio Rudiger all figured highly, reflecting Chelsea’s extensive build-up play under Maurizio Sarri.
It’s also worthwhile looking at the players who actually start the sequences that end in goals. Alexander-Arnold and De Bruyne are yet again prominent this season but Jorginho is way out in front here, showing the value of a player like him in that deep midfield role, capable of receiving the ball in tight situations and playing intelligent, measured passes to team-mates.
Jorginho was also top of this list last season, ahead of a surprise entry in second place — Crystal Palace’s Andros Townsend.
Otherwise, the data here from the past couple of seasons effectively shows the type of players who start moves from deep — by and large, central midfielders. Two seasons ago, the top ten was Fabregas, Eriksen, De Bruyne, N’Golo Kante, Salah, Xhaka, Fernandinho, Luka Milovojevic, Dele Alli and Abdoulaye Doucoure. Last year, behind the aforementioned top two, it includes Kante, Bernardo Silva, Eriksen, David Silva, Hazard, Doucoure again, Wilfried Ndidi and Joao Moutinho.
There are some limitations to these numbers — of course, they rely upon players in advanced positions making the most of the passes they receive. Players at the bigger clubs are inevitably at an advantage.
But it serves as an interesting way to measure the contribution of players like Stephens and Jorginho; we know they don’t contribute heavily in terms of assists, and pass completion rates feel somewhat irrelevant in measuring their significance. By measuring how often they contribute to — or even start — attacks that end in a goal, we can further understand their importance.
An unfashionable player like Stephens probably won’t collect many fantasy team points this season but go beyond the basic numbers and his importance becomes clear.
