Power of Recovery

A new statistic I am capturing this season is Recoveries. These are defined by Opta as “…. where a player recovers the ball in a situation where neither team has possession or where the ball has been played directly to him by an opponent, thus securing possession for their team.”.

Team Recoveries

There are many recoveries in a match. On average 94 by Celtic and 89 by their opponents. The more chaotic the game is – more pressing, more long ball, more challenges (think Cluj) - the more recoveries.

The lowest number of recoveries by Celtic in a match so far is 69 at home to Heart of Midlothian. This was a game Celtic dominated and the opponent sat in. The highest is 124 against The Rangers. Celtic deliberately went long and pressed high when they could, making the game as dissimilar from a Rodgers’ possession-based game as possible.

Player Recoveries

It is early days, but here are the recoveries per 90m for each player who has played at least 500 minutes:

I have included general playing position as I suspect that has a significant impact on recovery rates.

In the main, central defenders have the best recovery rates. The exception is Brown who has the highest overall recovery rate from central midfield with 11.52 per 90m. He is the only player over 11.

This reflects the fact that part of Browns jobs is to “mop up” in front of the defence, but also highlights once more his unique role in the team (squad?).

A benefit of having Bitton, a defensive midfielder like Brown, at centre back is that he reads the game well and is second in the recovery list.

Simunovic is the highest rated specialist central defender. This is not surprising as he is usually the sweeper or second defender. This means that Ajer or Jullien will be the main challenger for the high ball with Simunovic expected to cover the second ball.

Only Bolingoli has enough minutes as a full back so I cannot yet compare his. (So far Elhamed’s rate is 11.09, second in the squad, but with only very limited data).

The attacking players are near the bottom with the main striker with the lowest rate as one would expect.

Morgan has the highest rate of the attacking players. His undoubted work rate and energy are reasons Lennon likes him.

Summary

The recovery data will, I believe, over a large data sample, indicate relative abilities around attributes like anticipation, speed of thought and movement, game reading and positional sense.

It is another useful metrics by which to appreciate Brown.

I’ll keep you posted as the season progresses.