7 Passes Allowed I Love And Hate

This follows my look at the other side of the ball from yesterday. As I usually explain here: each pass is grouped using an algorithm into one of 50 Pass Types to make analysis easier here. Then we have "crosses", "long vertical balls through the middle", etc, etc in handy groups instead of having to filter everytime a new pass type pops into mind. Anyway, onto the pass types.

1 and 2. Love In Different Ways: Leipzig Shutting Down Intricate Wing Play and Atletico Making Sure It Goes Nowhere

In the StatsBomb article about Leipzig, you could see they really pressure a lot down the wings:

Now you can see how that translates into stopping the oppositions intricate passing. Looking at the 4 pass types above, here is completion% allowed this year

They are a cut above. If you try intricate wing play like this, you are going to lose the ball at rates much higher than against any other team in the leagues.

Now, look all the way on the other end there: Atletico Madrid. Wait, what? Particularly on their left side, the difference is shocking when you compare these two teams with great defensive reputations. Atletico have faced 212 of these passes down the left, they have forced 16 incompletions. Leipzig have faced 82 of these passes and forced 30 incompletions. So what is Atletico doing on a love list?

Well these passes generally don't lead to anything of note for the opposition. So if I had kids, which I don't, and I was comparing them to Attacking Short Horizontal Wing Passes (ASHWP for short, catchy naming and acronyms is really the strength of our site here at Saturdays On Couch or SOC) then I'd love the aggressive, strong, linebacker son that is the Leipzig wing defense and the patient, studious, chess-playing Atletico son almost equally, almost.

3. Hate: Chelsea's against the "Barcelona" Pass

I talked about the "Barcelona pass" here, it's this blue pass that Barcelona play massively more than anyone else. Coutinho and Messi are the top 2 purveyors of this ball.

The reason it's blue? No team has allowed their opponents to complete a higher % of these passes than Chelsea so far this season. Now Chelsea totally dominate the ball and territory, so opponents have only played 35 of them, but have misplaced just 4. It's not an Atletico situation either where these passes aren't doing damage, they concede shots off of them more than all but 8 teams. Those 8 teams include Eibar, Burnley, Fulham, Hannover, Celta Vigo, etc, not defensive powerhouses. The other teams allowing over 80% on these passes: Levante, Newcastle, Leganes, Brighton. Chelsea are at 89%.

What's interesting about comparing Chelsea to those other teams alongside them in the dregs of this category is how often those teams are allowing these passes late in possessions, often as the 5th, 6th, or 7th pass in a chain. Chelsea though allow these the 4th-earliest in their possession against, often as the 2nd or 3rd pass.

Now only 5 teams have allowed fewer of these passes (Bayern, Liverpool, Man City, Barcelona, and of course Eibar) so it's not a devastating weakness but if you get ball vs Chelsea and move it quickly into the attacking midfield, they are soft.

4. Love: Chelsea Against The "Poor Man's Midway Line Barcelona Pass"

This is the red one you might have been pondering "Why has he highlighted this pass?" and were waiting on pins and needles to find out. Well remove those pins and get ready: Chelsea allow the lowest % in the big 4 leagues on this pass. It's sort of gegenpressing to a T, coming very early in opposition possessions (only Eibar and Tottenham earlier) they force a 65% completion rate compared to a league average of 88%. Chelsea's pushed so far forward, they have the numbers to take it from you here, they don't want you to get past them here, but if you do you have green, green grass ahead of you.

5. Hate: Fulham's Right Hand Side

Not going to write too much here, as I've written so much about Fulham already, including their right-back (Fosu-Mensah especially) problem, but they deserved to be mentioned here:

And lots of shots given up (7th most often passes are turned into shots).

6. Hate: Sevilla Weakness Up The Middle

Sevilla have been a great story so far this season, employing a supercharged attack to storm to third in La Liga. However, their defense is pretty awful. They are allowing 15.1 shots per game, 3rd worst in the league. These bisecting vertical passes are not a main driver of shots allowed, but definitely show how soft and easy to attack Sevilla are. No team in any league has allowed a higher completion% against on these types of passes than Sevilla have at 49%. And it wasn't Real Madrid or Barcelona racking these passes up: each of them completed just one against Sevilla.

Real Betis were 6/10

Levante 7/10

Villarreal 5/9

Rayo Vallecano 4/7

are some of the big numbers they've allowed right through here. Sevilla are a very fun team but the defense has way too many weaknesses to be taken seriously as an elite side yet.

7. Love: Wolves Crossing Defense

Wolves entire defensive setup deserves a whole article but we will deal with crossing for now.

Wolves allow the lowest completion% on crosses in any of the top leagues at 18.5% and of course, following that is shots come rarely from these passes. They've played a back 3 and those 3 of Coady/Bennett/Boly seem to deserve a lot of credit. The entire setup is obviously working extremely well, they don't actually face a lot of crosses (fewer than Chelsea for example) and have allowed just 10.9 shots per game.