The Sharp End

Not sure I should be talking about “packing” on Valentine's Day (was a euphemism for being dumped back in the day).

However, I cover the concept of packing a lot on here and The Huddle Breakdown as I believe, even more than expected goals, the whole concept does as good a job as any set of metrics can explain the game.

When you boil it all down it is about removing the opponents from the game by getting the wrong side of the ball relative to their own goal.

And if we distil that further, if you take opposition defenders out of the game it is likely to be facing a disorganised, scattered, and scrambling defence.

Packing results in 34 data points per player per game.

If I focus on one killer stat it would be the number of defenders taken out of the game. As packing covers turnovers, this can be a negative score as when you take YOUR players out of the game, that results in a negative packing score.

Without further fanfare and fannying around, here are the defenders packed per 90m per player from this season (more than 450 minutes):

It is not necessarily a disaster to have the defenders on negative scores given how rarely they will take opposition defenders out of the game with their passing. Same with Joe Hart – him being about zero is ok.

Less concerned with Kyogo Furuhashi and Oh Hyeon-gyu given they are expected to be on the end of those passes.

Concerns are Daizen Maeda being so low given his role in the team as a wide forward.

Also, Paolo Bernardo, as the most advanced of the midfield three would be expected to have more aggressive passing numbers.

More positively, Luis Palma, whilst erratic, does spot a pass further highlighting why I’d like to see him more central.

In previous seasons Matt O’Riley has led this stat and shows up well again. This data also supports the notion Reo Hatate will bring increased creativity to the team when he returns.

Alistair Johnston is the pack pass master from the defenders and is another sore injury miss.

In terms of top-end creativity fit and healthy Liel Abada and Reo Hatate would improve the side over Bernardo and Maeda.