For those coming to this article to discover who is the “best” Premier LeagueIf you’re looking for centre-back statistics, you will be disappointed.
The truth is, evaluating any defender based on the data will rarely show one is better than another, but will instead give you an indication of a player’s — or team’s — style.
It would be possible to compare high-pressing players with low-pressing; it could also be possible to contrast ball-playing defenders against those who are more straightforward; You could even use cat- or dog-like behavior to identify centre-back partnership by cat- or dog-like behavior.
This is the occasion to ask: What do the data say about active and passive center-backs in this league?
Before we start, a quick refresher.
Reporting a player’s Volume of defensive actions per 90 minutes (eg blocks, tackles, interceptions).It is almost pointless to use this method to evaluate their off-ball performance.
Why? Well, by definition a player can only perform a defensive action when their team don’t have the ball. A team with less possession naturally gives their players more chances to defend.
To assess a player’s tendency to make a certain action, we can adjust defensive statistics by counting the number of times they perform it for every 1,000 opponent touches. It is not a perfect measurement, however. The topic has attracted a lot of discussion and great debate.The football analytics sphere.
