All data needs context. One of the most interesting and fair ways to contextualize a record is responsibility. By responsibility we mean the weight a player carries within the global context of his team.
A player who averages 5 shots per game in a team that takes 20 per match and one who takes the same 5 shots in a team averaging 10 per game will never represent the same thing. Even if both average the same raw numbers. The first one accounts for 20% of his team’s shots, while the second, on the other hand, is responsible for 50%.
Today we’re going to focus on players’ responsibility — the weight they have within their respective teams.
We’ll start with the defensive actions metric, which Driblab defines as the sum of tackles, interceptions, blocks, fouls committed, and individual duels.
Ridle Baku averages 9.55 defensive actions per game and is responsible for 12.08% of RB Leipzig’s defensive actions. The German-Congolese full-back, who joined the Red Bull side last year from Wolfsburg, records the 13th highest figure for successful tackles per game across the big five leagues. His performance in both metrics (volume of defensive actions and percentage share) is above the 90th percentile.
In the chart we can see that full-backs are the position most commonly found in the top-right quadrant (that is, players who rank in the top 10% in both metrics — those above the 90th percentile in both). This shouldn’t surprise us; both in attack and defense, full-backs tend to be very active players.
Jacques Ekomie is another standout full-back. He differs from Baku in that he is younger (22 years old) and left-footed. He has already played more minutes in Ligue 1 than he did last season (828 vs 424). Ekomie averages 5.74 successful tackles per game, the 6th highest in the big five leagues, and does so with a 94.4% success rate. The Angers left-back averages 11 defensive actions per game and is responsible for 10.7% of his team’s total.
If we look at the total number of clearances made by each Lens player in Ligue 1 so far, it becomes clear why Jonathan Gradit accounts for 28.34% of his team’s total. The French centre-back has made 16 clearances, while the next closest Lens player, Samson Baidoo, has 7.
With the exception of a couple, all of Gradit’s clearances have come from within his own penalty area. Gradit ranks above the 90th percentile in both metrics, and only seven players average more than his 3.12 clearances per game.
One of those who surpasses him in volume, but not in relative weight within the team, is Gerard Martín. The Spanish full-back for FC Barcelona has made 16 clearances. In his team, only Eric García has more, with 17. However, García has played nearly twice as many minutes as Martín, which makes the latter’s numbers even more striking. He is responsible for 24.43% of Barcelona’s clearances — the team that makes the most clearances per game (15.64) among the big five leagues. This is closely tied to their bold defensive approach, which often invites passes into depth that must be cleared away.
In the top-left quadrant — players above the 90th percentile in terms of responsibility within their team — we find three of Everton’s four defenders: Mykolenko, Tarkowski, and Jake O’Brien, responsible for 16.95%, 17.8%, and 19.35% respectively.
At Driblab we already mentioned him when we wrote about five players to watch in the Jupiler Pro League. In fact, we had to include a side note because he was simply too young. Now, finally, we can talk openly about Luka Vuskovic. He has debuted in the Bundesliga with Hamburg.
The Croatian centre-back wins 7.7 of every 10 aerial duels he contests. Nobody in the big five leagues wins more aerial duels per game than Vuskovic. In terms of responsibility, he also sits in the top 10%. He accounts for 17% of Hamburg’s aerial duels won.
Last weekend he broke a Driblab record. Since Driblab started collecting Bundesliga data (2013), no player had ever won more aerial duels in a single game. On top of that, Vuskovic also completed 81 passes.
So far, we’ve talked about a defender, but Ludovic Ajorque is a striker — and he registers 22.48% of Brest’s aerial duels won. The French forward wins 60% of his aerial duels, averages 12.6 in our aerial efficiency metric, and takes one headed shot per game, the 10th highest among the 155 strikers with over 450 minutes in the big five leagues this season.
If we turn to offensive metrics, we start with passes into the final third or originating from within that zone.
Far ahead of the rest in terms of volume are Pedri and Vitinha, who play for the two teams that attempt the most passes into the final third.
However, in this metric it is more interesting to highlight the players who manage to move the ball into the final third despite playing for teams that have fewer opportunities to do so.
Adrián Bernabé, from Parma, averages 14.1 passes into the final third and accounts for 15.47% of his team’s total. The Spaniard is a promising player who delivers well above-average performances when it comes to ball progression: among the 295 central midfielders with more than 450 minutes in the big five leagues, Bernabé ranks 17th for ball progressions by pass and 4th for progressions by carry. Moreover, 35.9% of his passes are forward.
The player who stands out the most in this graph in terms of responsibility is Moi Gómez. He handles 17.71% of Osasuna’s passes into the final third. He completes 93.2% of his passes and averages the 8th highest figure for completed long passes (5.77). In addition, he is responsible for 27.3% of Osasuna’s completed passes into the opposition box per game.
Since he also appears in this section, let me ask you to take note of Jack Grealish. You’ll see him again in the next two visualizations.
But first things first: personally, I wasn’t expecting Matteo Politano — who just renewed with Napoli — to be the player who completes the most dribbles per game in the big five leagues. He averages 7.88 per game with a 69% success rate. Now we can move on.
Let’s highlight Haissem Hassan, who in his debut season in La Liga is responsible for 38% of Real Oviedo’s completed dribbles. He completes 5.5 out of 10, which is quite solid.
Another young player performing well is Bazoumana Touré, in his second Bundesliga season after signing in January last year from Hammarby to Hoffenheim. Beyond his dribbling ability, Hoffenheim are exploiting the fantastic physical profile of the 19-year-old Ivorian.
In his first European season, Touré recorded the 5th highest average top speed reached by a winger in the Allsvenskan. Moreover, of his 9.13 kilometers per game, 5.5% was covered at sprint speed. It’s perfectly natural that he is standing out in the Bundesliga.
I hope you’re still paying attention to what I said about Jack Grealish. Look carefully, look closely.
Finally, let’s talk about entries into the opposition penalty area — defined as the sum of carries into the box and passes received inside the box.
For those who don’t know him, Emanuele Valeri is a left-back born in 1998 who plays for Parma. With 515 minutes played, he is the full-back in the big five leagues who attempts the most crosses (12.4), and he ranks in the top 7% of full-backs for crossing success rate (36.6%). If we add to that the fact that his dribbling success (1.57 completed per game) is well above the average for full-backs, we can see that Valeri has many tools to get the ball into the box.
Alright, now let’s talk about Jack Grealish. The new Jack Grealish of Everton, who is responsible for 13% of his team’s passes into the final third, who accounts for 28.5% of their completed dribbles, and who is also the second-most responsible player in the big five leagues for getting the ball into the penalty area. Fully 31% of Everton’s entries into the opposition box come through Jack Grealish.
Among Premier League wingers with more than 450 minutes played this season, Grealish ranks 2nd in completed dribbles, 2nd in touches in the opposition box, 2nd in expected assists (xA), and 1st in open-play key passes.
Let’s close on a high note: Jack Grealish is back.
