Once upon a time, I just watched football and if there were no goals for more than 30 minutes, I was already bored and turned off tv. It happened to me somehow to see one of these Premier League matches where the team is “locked up” by another team in their own penalty box by powerful pressure. After watching the matches of Atletico, I realized that a fierce struggle can be exciting. After one of the zero draws in Serie A, I realized that goals are no longer in the first place for me, and even tactical confrontation can bring pleasure.
So I came to the statistics. Watching the game of Neymar, one cannot help but hear about the number of successful dribles and of course the number of “successful” fouls on it. However, the pioneer for me became Eden Hazard, who in the “pre-burger” era was the first guy in the “village of dribblers”. The number of successful dribles of Azar, spread throughout the media and caused honor and respect for the entire football Europe, including Florentino Perez.
But not everything is simple with dribblers. Actually dribbling, in my gross opinion, may be in order to bring oneself to the shot position or to give an assist (as an option, give a pass in the development of the attack). What would then be the measure of the “consciousness” of the dribbler? The number of goals, shots on target, the number of assists, the percentage of successful dribbles, the percentage of failed ones, the percentage of ball losses, the number of titles of the “best player of the match”.
After the transfer of Azar to burgers in Real Madrid, the interest in dribbling somehow lowered, nothing was heard from Azar, and I didn’t see anything interesting in Nemar’s exploits in PSG entertainments. But Blaugrana played against Inter in the second round of the Champions League and all the media flew around the news about Messi:
10 out of 11 successful dribles. Moreover, two of them accounted for a breakthrough that led to a winning goal. Salah in the Champions League 2017/2018 in the decisive match, defeating the formidable Neapolitan Coulibaly, brought Liverpool to the playoffs. But the defenders are champions: Van Dijk , who did not allow any take-ons on him for 65 matches. Virgil "impassable" - became a cult protector.
It became curious who is now in the top 5 championships, the leader in the number of successful dribles per match. If it was not surprising to see Neymar there, then Wilfried Zaha from Crystal Palace (4.8 dribles per match *) and Yousef Attal from Nice (3.9 dribles per match *) took second and third place. Transfer rumors about these players allow you to make a curious observation - whether they will put team interests above all else or will work to please their statistics for the sake of a winter transfer!
From master Eden I want to get an answer to the question: will he pave the way to the goal or to the burger’s door? The decided matches for Real are already near. I hope despite the injure, Neymar will be able to demonstrate his skills in Europe, finally entering the field, after his disqualification. The duel in the fifth round of Azar against Neymar is likely to be crucial for Eden and Real. Neymar will be driven by the desire to prove that he is still top 3. Big dribbling is coming!
* data from whoscored.com
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