I like to look at creativity in certain ways, at least initially. How well does a player pass the ball, how well does he shoot the ball, and how well does he dribble the ball. Obviously there’s a lot of context involved, but at the basics, the three items above make for a good first filter.
Below is a chart, showing the Top 50 players in the Top 5 leagues in Europe, based on a combination of the following metrics:
- Shots On Target per 90
- Open Play Key Passes per 90
- Successful Dribbles per 90
That middle one, I get by taking all of the key passes and subtracting the corner and free kick ones. That tends to be biased towards whoever has that role for their team, so it’s not really a good indicator in my opinion.
You might need to pop this open in a separate window to give it a good look, or simply follow the link to my Tableau Public profile page for it:
https://public.tableau.com/profile/simongabriel#!/vizhome/Creativity-Top5Leagues/Sheet1
Not surprisingly most of those names at the top look like they should be there, although Allan Saint-Maximin sneaking in there is amusing. Dribbler extraordinaire!
