Might as well start this off with something I put together last night, as I was perusing some metrics, and discussing the promises and perils of center backs that can pass the ball well. Here’s a table of 39 center backs I selected that I thought were either good passers, or played for top teams, or both. It’s sorted by the number of accurate long ball passes made. All data is solely from league play. I stand by my belief that the better a team’s long ball passing numbers, the more likely they are to be successful. I’ve put together some Tableau dashboards to suggest as much, which I’ll probably link over here at some point. My assumption stems from the fact that accurate long balls either to fullbacks out wide, or to wide players pushing forward are the best way to advance the ball against an aggressive press, and they are also the best way to swing the ball to the other side, and get defenders moving and open quick passing lanes. And I like to believe it simply shows good talent, to be able to make that long ball pass consistently accurate. The top teams have good footballers first, then good defenders, midfielders, and attackers. And it shows with their ball handling and their passing. Anyway, here’s the table. Enjoy!
