The Benkovic Bind
Having nearly completed 900 minutes, it’s time to evaluate Benkovic. In the 11 games he has made appearances, only Hibernian (2) and Leipzig (1) have scored. His partnership with Boyata looks solid.
As well as a huge physical presence, Benkovic exudes calmness that belies his tender years. In possession he is secure and averages 71.14 completed passes per 90m which is very similar to the other centre backs. Where he has an edge is that he only gives away the ball through his passes 2.83 time per 90m. This is the lowest lost pass rate in the whole squad (in truth Bain’s is lower but let’s compare to outfield players).
Remarkable, he completes the 4th most pack passes (forward passes that take out at least one opponent) in the squad. Everyone is well behind Ntcham (9.54) but Benkovic manages 6.60 per 90m. His passing out from the back compliments the style Rodgers wants to play. He manages 7.12 packs per 90m meaning he is involved in more forward passing / dribbling event per 90m than any of the central defenders.
I measure Possession Effectiveness – whether on field actions result in possession being maintained or lost. Benkovic leads the squad with Brown in maintaining possession 93% of the time as a result of all his on field actions.
He has scored 1 goal for Celtic and is a consistent threat in the opposition box. His rate of 1.15 shots per 90m is higher than every other defender, even Tierney.
But we care mainly about his prowess as a defender. And here he is peerless in the squad with a Defensive Action Success Rate of 81%. The magic number here is getting over 80% which has only been achieved consistently by Van Dijk. The Dutchman is arguably one of the world’s premier defenders and thus a useful bench mark. As such this is a really instructive metric.
Benkovic wins 5.76 possessions back per 90m which is the best in the squad. He is a player of calm and controlled decision making. He does not commit to challenges unless he thinks the chances of success are high. Consequently, he has the lowest tackle and aerial challenge loss rates of 0.42 each per 90m within the squad.
His calmness does not mean he is not alert. His intercept rate of 3.56 per 90m is the highest in the squad. This all points to excellent decision making, especially for a young player.
Decision making is also key to not making errors. His defensive error rate of 0.21 per 90m is the lowest of the defenders apart from Tierney who doesn’t really defend much, at least domestically.
Unusually he also has the highest cross block rate of 0.63 per 90m of all players – even higher than the full backs.
All this points to a potentially serious defensive talent, but it is still a small sample. And those fretting that he is only on loan and will inevitably return to Leicester City (and be a success in my view), remember we have our own talent out injured who posts very similar numbers – Ajer.