Successful Low-Touch Passes
I defined "low-touch passes" to mean passes where a successful pass was completed within 1 second of receiving the previous pass. One touch was a better name but I didn't feel confident enough to name it that, felt it could be a bit misleading. Let's look at the numbers, first by teams
The top 2 teams are not surprises at all, but Fulham at #3 are surprising. I mean I knew they were trying to play like the big boys, and in a lot of ways they kind of are (and in more important ways they are failing miserably. They are well ahead of Liverpool, Leicester, Man Utd, Tottenham, etc. Interesting to see Arsenal so low as they were kind of the prototype for this before. Cardiff being dead last by a mile makes total sense.
A little lower overall % of passes are low-touch completions in Germany, which fits the stereotype of up and down crashing football quite well. Schalke's ugly and ineffective vertical game is sad to see that low. Hertha playing some smooth soccer this year, joining the big guns at the top in the quick passing game.
It's kind of surprising to me to see Atleti so close to Barca and Real Madrid in Spain.
Let's look at lists of players:
Unsurprisingly, Messi comes out looking good here. Interestingly Benzema plays the highest % of these, I'm not shocked that forwards will wind up high here, they are almost forced to sometimes I'd think.
Look at Kovacic! Jorginho is lapping the field, but Kovacic's % is pretty high. Franck Zambo for Fulham I need to watch to see, that number is higher than anyone in La Liga. Interesting players who have a very low%: Jonjo Shelvey, Antonio Valencia (though fullbacks generally have the lowest rate), Davinson Sanchez, and Felipe Anderson.
It's Witsel's World and we are all just living in it. He's proven pretty perfect as a midfield facilitator for Favre's Dortmund and is well ahead of the rest of the Bundesliga in low touch completions. Standouts include James and Arne Maier, Hertha's 19 year old midfielder who has helped them rise near the top of this category after years of some pretty rough to watch soccer. At the bottom, unsurprisingly are Naldo and Daniel Caligiuri.
Ah yes, Italy, we forgot them. Albin Ekdal and Karol Linetty quite interesting for a Sampdoria team that plays highest % of low touch passes in the league.
