His 3,800-plus completed forward passes are nearly twice as many as any forward in our data set (Francesco Totti for FC Roma has 2,200, followed by Wayne Rooney, the English striker, with 1,800 and Ronaldo with 1,500). Like Ronaldo, he has an enormous number of goals, but also takes an enormous number of shots. For example, if the player scored .02 goals above expectation per shot attempt, and the rest of his team scored -.01 goals less than expectation, that players value-added would be +.03 goals per shot (the value above replacement for that player on that team). Scored a goal & set up 3. As of this writing, FiveThirtyEight gives Messi and his compatriots a 16 percent chance of winning the tournament second only to host nation Brazil. Its not possible to score on unassisted plays as well as the best players in the world score on assisted ones. As a comparison, Cristiano and Messi have covered 102.4 m/min and . This is what that .199 GAA looks like: In other words, if Barca-Messi and Argentina-Messi were two different people, even based solely on the stats recorded since 2010, theres a good chance theyd be the two best players in the world. That doesn't include his . Christian McCaffrey (23) As it turns out, not only does Messi pass the ball forward aggressively, he does so accurately, and the balls he delivers are successful a very high percentage of the time. The three of them, in Barcelonas devastating 4-3-3, would spread out wide across the pitch, forcing defenders to follow them. living fire begets cold, impotent ash luka doncic euroleague accolades messi average touches per game 07 jun 2022. messi average touches per gamerelationship between tiger shark and green sea turtle To generalize a bit, some of the value a shooter provides comes from taking more and better shots (e.g. Last season, the average touches for a forward player (with at least 900 minutes played) in the Premier League was 42.2 touches per 90, but that ranged from 24.6 to 70.7 per 90. Dungoyne won the game 8-1. Lionel Messi has taken 65 shots in 20 matches so far in the Ligue 1 2022/2023 season. Perhaps this year will be different. Benjamin Morris is a former sportswriter for FiveThirtyEight. According to this , Messi ran 44,027 meters in 482 minutes in 2013 which is roughly 8,211 meters per 90 minutes. In the 12 years since he became the youngest Argentine to score a World Cup goal, Lionel Messi has won more Ballon dOr trophies, awarded to the worlds best player, than anyone before him.1 He has scored more official goals in a calendar year than anyone in living memory. "@trueBianconeri @TeamCRonaldo Making more touches and more passes means you are more influential on a game. He maintains a quiet sort of confidence, a focus and always seems to play the right waymeaning theres a method to his genius, if he doesnt pull something off you still see what hes trying to do. Credit to FC Barcelona of course for the image of Messi training. Another Iron Bowl clash between No. Among Maradona's, 66.8 were touches. Meanwhile, Lionel Messi has scored 759 goals in 957 games (0.79 goals per game). First, to ensure that were celebrating the greatness of Messi and not the greatness of Barcelona, we need to make sense of Messi on Barcelona. In the FIFA World Cup season 2022, Lionel Messi played 7 matches. ), and some of it comes from putting in those shots more often. Adjusting for shot quality with the GAA model, Messi is running 12.6 goals above expectation (based on shot-by-shot expectation, not the trend line in the chart). Because Messi takes shots that are more likely to go in, his average attempt has an expectation of .182 goals, while the average Ronaldo shot has an expectation of .124 goals so we would expect Messis shooting to be more efficient based on that alone. Here are some miscellaneous shooting stats hes accrued at Barcelona: To make all those unassisted shots possible, Messi has to take on a lot of defenders one on one. Even Ronaldo's great rival Lionel Messi, who is often highlighted for his lack of defensive work and for walking around the pitch, is averaging 5.3 miles per game. Points per Play Margin. Meanwhile, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyangs style shone through during his time at Arsenal and Barcelona last season the man simply shoots frequently. Moreover, on unassisted shots he shoots nearly 10 percent and .044 GAA better than the next best player (Sergio Aguero for Manchester City) does, despite taking the fourth-most such shots of the 28 players in the group. Messi had his best passing day against Real Madrid in the league over that time span, completing 51 of 56 pass attempts (91.1 percent). How should Argentina fans feel about all this, given the disappointment theyve experienced in World Cups past and the hopes theyve pinned on Messi this year? For this purpose, I created a stat called possessions used. Its a little bit analogous to usage rate in basketball, and incorporates the number of touches in which a player: In other words, its a stat meant to reflect anything that ends a teams possession, whether that outcome is positive or negative. Messi can shoot it just about any which way. Throughout his career, Messi has been criticized for walking. He scores a goal for every 3.25 shots he takes and takes 2.23 shots per 90 minutes on the pitch. It stems from a formula that takes into account 2-point field goals, 3-point field goals and free throws. Can you juggle the ball while youre walking or jogging? When it comes to scoring, these two arent just on top of the pile, theyre hang-gliding somewhere way above it. To Argentina devotees, it probably doesnt help that during Messis tenure at FC Barcelona the club team has won two FIFA Club World Cups to go with six La Liga and three UEFA (All-European) championships. Hes the best soccer player in the world. Throughout his career, Messi has been criticized for walking. Lionel Messi's teammates at the club level, Lionel Messi's teammates at the international level. In the match against Manchester United, whod come into the Camp Nou as maybe the best team in the world, playing the best soccer in the world, Messi shined. The 33-year-old has a lifelong sponsorship deal with Adidas. Messi may get the ball more than most, but he, like all players, still spends the majority of his time without it making runs, hiding in space, creating space for his teammates. Messi is far more likely to try to advance the ball toward the goal, and far more likely to succeed: Messi makes more passes than the other forwards, with a higher percentage of those passes trying to advance the ball toward the goal, and a higher percentage of those passes finding their targets (typical Messi!). But Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid which, like Barcelona, doesnt press particularly stringently in its opponents half averaged four-fifths of a mile more than Messi. Messi is the only footballer on the list and he stands head and shoulders above everyone in every aspect. Messi milestone tracker: PSG star nears 800 career goals, plus ALL his records, Alaba racially abused over Messi FIFA Best vote, Messi beats Mbappe to Best FIFA Men's award, Arsenal grind out win, Bayern back on track, Messi milestone: Weekend Review, Xavi reacts to chance of Barca return for Messi, Messi's last-gasp free kick seals 4-3 win for PSG, Messi unlikely to make Barca return, father says. Its not possible to lead the worlds forwards both in taking on defenders and in dishing the ball to others. To answer that, youd probably have to ask the man himself.. The pressure doesnt get to him. But it's also his drive and desire to win and love for the game that makes him so great. (Ill get more into how we can account for loss of possession in the touch-by-touch analysis later.). Yet when they did have it, they were incredibly efficient. In a busy summer transfer window, your teams recruitment staff are looking for a clinical striker who is quick to get a shot away and will score something out of nothing. The fiel, Soccer Training Info - Theme by Grace Themes, 10 reasons to attend summer soccer camps by Coerver Coaching, 6 reasons to attend a Coerver Residential Camp, The SenseBall: Improve Your Soccer Skills, Mental Training Focus for Soccer Players, New Live Virtual Coerver Coaching Training Course, Klinsmann named head coach of South Korea, Man City with a convincing win following a crazy week, Chelsea signs Enzo Fernandez for $131 million. Cristiano Ronaldo (7). About 8 percent of his shots are weak kicks (compared to 6 percent for all players in the data set), but he makes 27 percent of them, and does so more often than wed expect. But thats just what happens once the shots are lined up. Barcelona (17) He has made 101 tackles this season - for reference, Leeds' Tyler Adams in second has 84 - wins nearly eight duels per game and has a tidy passing average of 81.5 per cent. Lionel Messi has scored 12 goals in 20 matches so far in the Ligue 1 2022/2023 season. There are far more complex metrics, models and algorithms within this space, but at the simplest level of analysis, should this be the new normal in how we interpret football data? The average Infogol Player Rating for Lionel Messi in the UEFA Champions League 2022/23 season is 7.99. While Ronaldo currently has more goals overall, Messi has the edge in the scoring department, with a higher season average (37.9 to 35), having hit a high of 73 goals in 2011-12, though his. We are not responsible for your outcomes. One measure of the quality of a group of passes is how many are completed successfully, but it also matters what happens when those passes get where theyre going. But there are a couple of other important things to notice in this graph: Despite not taking as many shots, Messi uses more possessions per game than Ronaldo does. Since both are the primary PK-takers for both their club and national teams, this difference if it held up in the long run would be worth about three-quarters of a goal per year. For its data, AMK has picked the following 11 forwards from the league: While the Manchester United striker is often targeted for his poor touch, he's not the worst person on the chart. Yeah, its like a Dr. Seuss story, where instead of green eggs and ham its all about juggling the soccer ball while under pressure. Follow Mark on Twitter @MarkCarey93, genie is well and truly out of the bottle when it comes to data in football. At the aggregate level, defenders will look to cut off the areas that are most dangerous relative to where the ball is. Cristiano Ronaldo's 31 touches were his fewest in a La . The chart shows attempted through-balls and through-ball assists, not attempted and successful assists. After an El Clasico match between Barcelona and Real Madrid in December 2017, there was widespread coverage of the fact that Messi walked 83 percent of the roughly 5 miles he covered that game. Ive created a scatter comparing each players completion percentage for these passes to the percentage of them that are successful, and Ive shown the volume of long pass attempts for each player as bubble sizes: Messi is among the most accurate passers for both metrics, and no one with as many attempts is more accurate.11 There are players who complete a higher percentage of these passes and/or are more successful with them, but theyre typically being more selective in their attempts. He once again tops the field, impervious to the burden. But dont sleep on his right foot: When he uses it, he scores 23 percent of the time. Barcelona (17). He had 230 goals, and 59 assists in that time, for 289 combined goals and assists. Derrick Henry (26) 397. The two players have met on seven occasions (six times at club level and once on the international stage) and Messi has been on the winning side five times, whereas Ronaldo just once, back in April 2008 with Manchester Utd. This is most true when looking at his movement. Ill discuss those separately. Kyrsten Sinema's Odds Of Reelection Don't Look Great. In the same match, Messi was one of Barcelonas top three players in terms of gaining space, along with Luis Suarez and Neymar. Passes completed Lionel Messi is 83 percent . Having moved from Rosario in Argentina to . Yes, yes, this is all happ, Rodrigo Bentancur dribbling run is impressive. Dungoyne vs. Carniny, League Game (30 minutes each way) Played in midfield for duration of game on wing. Messi 116.0 Minutes Per Goal. Despite dishing a large number of assists (more on that to come), Messi sometimes gets called selfish. But maybe he isnt selfish enough. And again, despite making twice as many attempts as most people, he beats expectations. Even while strolling, he is helping his team by holding ground in valuable areas, waiting for the ball to come to him. Born in Rosario, Santa Fe, Lionel Messi has also played in Supercopa de Espaa for Barcelona. Messi has scored on 86 percent of his penalty kicks, versus an average of 77 percent for all players. The only forward who takes on defenders nearly as aggressively as Messi is Luis Suarez, the Uruguayan striker for Liverpool who is perhaps too aggressive for his own good (ahem). And this isnt just some run of the mill defender, this is Evra, one of the great defenders in the game. The overall penalty conversion rate for Messi Cuccittini is 77.68%. Of 8,335 players in our dataset who have taken at least one shot from outside the box, only 1,835 have scored from that distance at any point. Sure its great if you can juggle the ball fifty times, but can you vary the height of the juggles, alternate juggles with both feet, juggle the ball out to the side and then back in front, can you manipulate the juggles rather than dance under the ball like youre a balancing act with an array of dishes destined to fall. Events that simply prolong the possession (taking on a defender and succeeding, or passing the ball to another teammate who does not take a shot) arent factored in. inordinate number of people searching for info on how to look like Cristiano Ronaldo rather than play like him, based on some of the search terms in our log files. Imagine how good Peyton Manning would be if whomever he played for could spend three times as much as 90 percent of NFL teams. After an El Clasico match between Barcelona and Real Madrid in December 2017, there was widespread coverage of the fact that Messi. If we want to explore a players efficiency, we have to look into his touches more deeply. Barcelonas players are infamous for their tiki-taka style of play, which relies on an enormous amount of short, high percentage passing. Ronaldo scored .139 goals per attempt, so he had .015 GAA per goal. 137 touches. Messi is averaging 63.8 passes per 90 minutes (his highest rate since 2011 . European Golden Shoe 2021/22: Lewandowski wins again as Mbappe grabs second, European Assists King 2021/22: Mbappe and Muller share award as Messi makes podium, Premier League top scorers 2021/22: Salah and Son share Golden Boot, Ronaldo 3rd, Premier League Table: Manchester City beat Liverpool to title.