Pack Kings

Packing was developed in Germany and if you engage Impect and give them money they will provide you with loads of meaningful and insightful data.

But if you don’t have loads of money you are stuck with me.

Packing covers a multitude of on-ball and off-ball actions and is therefore very useful.

Let’s see who is leading in the various packing disciplines across the squad.

As we are partway through the season, I’ve included anyone with over 450 minutes.

Pack Passing

Simply: a forward pass that takes at least one opponent out of the game. Packing scores depend on the number of players bypassed and their positions. Defenders score three points, midfielders two, and strikers only one. Self-evidently, having fewer opponents between the ball and their goal is a “good thing”.

Last season Alistair Johnston recorded a pack passing score average of 82.23 which is a record since recording began.

He is not near that mark this season and it is Liam Scales who leads the way with an average of 74.96.

Defenders generally complete more passes and have more opponents in front of them therefore greater potential to rack up packing scores.

Maik Nawrocki does not have enough minutes yet but very early into his career his pack pass score just eclipses Johnston’s record.

Cameron Carter-Vicker's numbers are well down on his first season and in line with last season.

Of the midfielders, Reo Hatate has few minutes, but it is encouraging he is averaging over 40.

Luis Palma has the best numbers from the wide players whilst Daizen Maeda profiles more like a striker than a winger. This isn’t a surprise because he is a striker.

A clear outlier is Paolo Bernardo who has a very low score for a creative midfielder. This needs to improve as the season progresses.

Pack Receiving

On the other end of a pack pass is a receiver. This is a useful proxy for finding space, movement off the ball, body shape, touch, and control. Wingers and attacking midfielders should score highest here.

Last season the highest score was Liel Abada on 94.65 and Palma is challenging that with 97.02. Jota’s score last term was 77.22.

Both Palma and Yang Hyun-jun have no issues getting on the ball. It is what then happens that is of greater concern, especially for the young South Korean.

An outlier in this category is Oh Hyeon-gyu as his pack received score eclipses Kyogo Furuhashi’s by some distance. That would also have been true last season had he played sufficient minutes (average 46.06). But this season’s score, again off limited minutes, is indicative of promising signs as regards his movement off the ball.

Paolo Bernardo has thus far not compensated for his lack of pack passing with a high receiving score. There is no doubt he has blossomed in the last four matches so hopefully this will continue to rise.

Pack Recovery

A recovery in this context is either winning the ball back or picking up a loose ball the opposition has lost such that opponents are now out of the game.

It is a proxy for anticipation, positional sense off the ball, pressing skills, and tackling skills.

Some of Celtic’s more forward-orientated players score highest here, perhaps indicative of Celtic’s even more aggressive pressing strategy under Brendan Rodgers than under Ange Postecoglou.

This metric is a “super skill” of Matt O’Riley who has topped this metric in his time at the Champions. Luis Palma, although not great at recovering back, has very strong pressing skills compared to Jota, as does Yang.

Greg Taylor is often the more forward of the defenders and has a much higher rate of pack recoveries than his defensive colleagues.

Again, Bernardo lags behind Hatate in packing though both have low volumes. It may indicate that as the season progresses the Japanese international will revert to first choice.

Throughout these metrics, you will see James Forrest lags relative to the other winger’s indicative of his squad status at this time late in his career.

Pack Turnover

The contrary to recoveries is turnovers. A pack turnover gets you a negative score as it means by losing the ball you have left your teammates wrong side of the ball relative to your goal.

It is a proxy for poor decision-making, control, passing execution, and body strength.

Thankfully goalkeeper Joe Hart has the lowest turnover pack score, followed by the strikers who have considerably less possession.

The centre-backs should be next as indeed is Carter-Vickers. Maeda has a very low turnover rate which is perhaps not a positive as he is probably too safe in his passing from wide areas.

The other outlier is Hatate who is usually bottom of this metric by some distance. This is the risk side of his game, and where he needs to rebalance is by increasing the reward aspect with a higher pack passing and chance creation rate.

Palma and Yang have also been very wasteful in the final third whilst Taylor is the most risky/careless amongst the back line.

Defenders Packed

Packing is a rich and insightful data set but the closest to a “magic bullet” is perhaps the number of defenders packed. Defenders score three packing score points as if you are taking the last line out of the game you are likely severely disrupting the opposition's defence.

If we report simply the average number of defenders taken out the game per 90 minutes:

Hart, Gustaf Lagerbielke and Carter-Vickers all have negative scores meaning they have turned over the ball taking their own defenders out of the game to a greater extent than the opposition defenders.

Palma has overtaken Sead Haksabanovic as the leader by this metric. Last season Haksabanovic averaged 6.68 defenders packed per 90m.

Johnston also did well by this measure last season and leads the defenders this. Of the wide players Forrest scores second to Palma.

Summary

The various packing data points cover insight into a wide range of football attributes.

It was a feature under Postecoglou, who seemed to innately understand these concepts even if he never spoke of them, that overall packing volumes increased.

This season team packing score averages 397 compared to 419 last season. This may simply be a coherence and time to settle issue.

Different players have different strengths by these metrics and perhaps the outstanding takeaway is that on limited data for both players, Hatate is far more effective than Bernardo by most metrics outside a very high turnover rate.

Palma is also a standout and if he can add consistency to delivery once the ball is received will be a huge asset. The same problem plagues Maeda and Yang but to a much greater degree.

Watch out for Nawrocki in the passing stats as the season progresses