Players of the 2019-20 season

5 - TOP 5 en % de duels remportés dans les 5 grands championnats cette saison chez les défenseurs (min. 200 duels) :

Virgil van Dijk - 74.9%
James Tarkowski - 69.6%
David García - 67.0%
Gabriel - 67.0%
Hilton - 66.8%

Rocs. #AskOptaJean https://t.co/Sn45BCopKD

— OptaJean (@OptaJean) April 22, 2020

71.9% - Since joining the Premier League in September 2015, Virgil van Dijk has recorded a higher duel success percentage than any other player (min. 50 PL apps). Red.

— OptaJohan (@OptaJohan) December 27, 2017

Looks as if all the many inclusions of Tarkowski by VI since 2016-17 (seven inclusions, for a smaller club) are based on something.

 

Football players’ production index: measuring nations’ contributions



https://football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/mr/mr55/en/
https://football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/mr/mr54/en/


By and large, this matches up with the ESM team of the month distribution:
https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/missing-esm-team-of-the-month.1981639/page-4#post-38125912

 

Big surprise, the 'Liverpool fanboys' podcast of the Athletic:

 

https://football-observatory.com/-rankings-_none

Works best when comparing it with own team and league.

 

Article about the defending in the Everton vs Liverpool game of yesterday (0-0, at 0.62 vs 0.66 expected goals)

https://www.vi.nl/pro/analyse/waarom-je-virgil-van-dijk-bijna-niet-voorbij-kan-dribbelen



Why you can hardly dribble past Virgil van Dijk

Liverpool's restart against Everton is not spectacular, but the English league-leader once again proves to be very solid defensively. Analysis of the role Virgil van Dijk plays in this.

No fewer than 65 games, Virgil van Dijk has maintained not to be dribbled past. In 2018/19, the Dutch mandekker of Liverpool is the only defender in a top league that has never passed. This season Van Dijk will not succeed. Nicolas Pépé dribbled past him on 24 August. Nevertheless, Van Dijk remains a star in this area. That says something about his individual qualities, but also something about the accents that Liverpool has shifted in the way of playing.

That is revealed during an outbreak of Everton in the sixteenth minute. Richarlison pushes Jordan Henderson around the middle line and thunders in the direction of Joel Matip and Van Dijk. In doing so, he has the support of Dominic Calvert-Lewin. This is the chance for Richarlison to strengthen his bluff from before the game.

"People talk a lot about him. It is also a great defender, but I have dribbled past it before, "Richarlison told Desimpedidos. "He was chosen as the top three player in the world because he had an excellent season. But for me there are better defenders." After which he names his countrymen Thiago Silva, Marquinhos and Spanish captain Sergio Ramos.

Richarlison misses exactly the greatest quality available to Van Dijk in that analysis. The best way to not be passed by is to stand properly and snack as late as possible. Van Dijk is a master of this.



In the above situation, many defenders would tend to mainly look at the ball or try to get offside. If not Van Dijk. The Liverpool defender sees that Richarlison has the opportunity to stab deeply and therefore sprints along with Dominic Calvert-Lewin. The fast Englishman cannot beat Van Dijk on speed.



As soon as Calvert-Lewin tries to lure Van Dijk out of his position in the above situation, he hands him over to Matip and closes the pass line from position. In addition, he is in a good position to provide back cover when needed to Henderson, who is chasing Richarlison.



Embedded at the sidelines, Richarlison can ultimately do little but reverse. Like the rest of the Liverpool defense, Van Dijk is again in position on the verge of his own sixteen. As often, Van Dijk turns his body so that he can see both the movements around the ball and his fellow defenders.

We do not see this action by Van Dijk in the defensive statistics. When we dive into the numbers, this turns out to be a specialty of his.

Season Matches Tackles Dribbled past
2017/18 - 12 - 11 - 1
2018/19 - 38 - 38 - 0
2019/20 - 29 - 22 - 6

Where a lot of attention has been paid to the 0 in the table above, it is at least as remarkable that Van Dijk hardly uses tackles anyway. He does this in the Premier League on behalf of Liverpool less than once per game, and although it varies a bit by who plays with him, it is considerably less often than colleagues Joe Gomez (1.3 tackles per game), Dejan Lovren (1.9 tackles per game) and Matip (2.4 tackles per game).

Van Dijk is not the best defender of Liverpool because he intervenes. Van Dijk is the best defender of Liverpool because he does not have to intervene. The defender has been fouled more often (54) than he fouls his opponent (31).

That is exactly what Manchester City striker Sergio Agüero says about Van Dijk at El Chiringuito: 'What appeals to me the most is how cleverly he defends. He's not nervous when he has to stop you, he's just patient. That makes it difficult for attackers. I'm pretty fast and I like to dribble, so I'd rather have a defender step up to me. But he waits and then gets help from another defender. He's very good at that. ”

What Agüero describes is exactly what happens during the described outbreak in the sixteenth minute. Just before half-time, Richarlison experiences again why it is so difficult to dribble Van Dijk.



In the above situation it seems again two-on-two with Richarlison on the ball and Calvert-Lewin offering support. Just like last time, Van Dijk remains in control of the situation by not intervening. He moves at speed with the Brazilian who challenged him before the match. Van Dijk mainly prevents Richarlison from cutting to his favorite left leg by holding him in front and standing half-way turned in.



As soon as Richarlison makes an attempt to seek Van Dijk in the above situation, he demonstrates the quality Agüero has pointed out. He strides towards Richarlison with his right leg, but keeps enough distance to make a dribble difficult and gives room on the inside for help. Fabinho eagerly takes advantage of this by putting the Everton attacker off the ball. Again is the end of the song that Van Dijk successfully defended without heroic actions.

This is partly Van Dijk's insight into the game. This is partly a small change in Liverpool's tactical plan.

Season Shots against Goals against
2015/16 10.5 1.3
2016/17 8.2 1.1
2017/18 7.4 1.0
2018/19 8.1 0.6
2019/20 9.4 0.7

The table above shows that the decline in Liverpool's goals against in the past two seasons - and the second half of 2017-18 - is related to a slight increase in the number of shots. Liverpool allow more goal attempts than before, but the quality of this is lower. Where Liverpool has been a team under Jürgen Klopp in previous years that chases opponents all over the field and therefore allows few opportunities, The Reds now give breathing space to the opponent more often in situations as described above. When the game is played out under the first pressure, Liverpool falls back to be able to reorganize.

In the Merseyside Derby, this tactic of first full pressure and later retraction contributes to a duel with few chances. Until the eightieth minute, Everton recorded only four attempts. After that it almost goes wrong.



In the above situation, substitute Dejan Lovren does keep Richarlison to himself, but he fails to get the low cross out. Van Dijk reduces the chance for Calvert-Lewin by positioning himself between him and the goal. Alisson Becker reverses the Everton striker's backheel attempt, after which Tom Davies shoots the rebound against the post.

"We did what we had to do defensively," Klopp analyzed despite this opportunity afterwards. "The moment we needed Alisson, he was there. That says a lot about him. He is world class. "

That is exactly the difference between the early years Liverpool under Klopp and the current team. Where Liverpool often lost games like this against Everton with a counter, a few accents in the playing style, Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker ensure that the zero is kept this time. That provides the defensive security needed to become a champion.

---------------------

At the chance of the last screenshot, van dijk almost lost that striker due to a smart preliminary movement. Then you also see his pitfall that he still sometimes does not actively anticipate low balls from the side. Just a little too comfortable. But otherwise fine match played though the match was a horrible spectacle to see ...

Yep, that also went wrong with that goal of France against the Netherlands, for example.

The other side is, you don't always have to do everything right neither do we.

>>> His 1256 minutes clean sheet record for Celtic in a pinball-flipper-second-ball league was ended by a red card for a last-man challenge wasn't it?

https://tomkinstimes.com/2020/02/why-dont-liverpool-fc-concede-from-great-chances/
https://medium.com/@sutirthamukhopa...-of-an-intriguing-twitter-thread-b748e717dd41

 

The Guardian and Daily Mail have published some peculiar seasonal ratings for Liverpool ('peculiar' compared to the 'The Athletic' twitter feed and the odds/favorites for the 'PFA player of the year' sort of stuff):

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...ns-member-Liverpools-title-winning-squad.html

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...n-player-ratings-for-liverpools-title-winners

This are the only two that I saw passing by and can find.

 

I think it's peculiar because before the lockdown (although I see the odds have now moved, with Mane rightly on top) Henderson was with/behind De Bruyne the favorite for PFA player of the year and the favorite for FWA player of the year. The Athletic twitter feed also reflects this today and recently. Perhaps not unanimous (see links below) but if say Henderson had received a 10/10 by Daily Mail and the other players not then it falls more so in line with the narrative of the season (I think).

One reason why VvD might have been less noticeable is because he's giving less visible organizing/correcting instructions as he did directly from the start (encouraged by the coaching staff) and most of the 2018-19 season (offensive set pieces included). And for Mane people maybe only see "oh well 15 league goals and 2 in the Champions League" (and 8 assists in total), what might sound underwhelming if you don't know when those goals came and in what kind of games. He'll likely end up with fewer goals and assists as the previous season, but as the WhoScored ratings indicate, the overall game is probably not worse.

https://www.skysports.com/football/...er-jurgen-klopp-into-premier-league-champions

https://www.skysports.com/football/...st-valuable-premier-league-player-this-season

 

Another one I have seen since:

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport...-win-ranking-best-players-squad-a9579581.html

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...-premier-league-title-winners-player-ratings/

 

Amidst all the overflow of articles and some woefully hyperbolic headlines, this is a genuine good podcast episode, notably the input by the person named Tom Worville (and not because of who he names as his "favorite of the three in midfield" at 20:30 ).

https://player.fm/series/zonal-mark...tics/liverpools-underappreciated-passing-game

One thing I hadn't really realized myself at all is that apparently a few of those late winners/point winners originated directly with Van Dijk (09:30).

1273969228970893312 is not a valid tweet id

https://www.espn.com/soccer/english...4-15and-why-chelseaman-united-have-lost-money

 

"Other, more holistic player valuations agree. Per the player-contribution ratings from consultancy 21st Club, Liverpool have five of the 15 best players in the world: Van Dijk (no. 5), Robertson (9), Alisson(10), Salah (11) and Mane (12). No midfielders! Compared to players at the same position, only one of LFC's midfielders -- Giorginio Wijnaldum, tied for fourth -- ranks in the global top 10."
https://www.espn.com/soccer/english...key-to-their-remarkable-premier-league-season

 

He is also 8th of his team in the CIES rankings (behind Van Dijk, Salah, Gomez, Allison, Wijnaldum, Mane and Robertson). '21st club' is used by FT and The Economist as well.

One explanation for this might be Alexander-Arnold doesn't contribute much defensively (relative to his team-mates, not relative to a Ronaldo) and offensively isn't under pressure a great amount of the time (his team-mates create that space for him). Bigger teams as Atletico (though it were both goalkeepers who won it for them) and City might close him down but then of course it frees space for the midfielders to step up, as we've seen.

TAA has for example only a 75% pass accuracy and if we look at his main attribute, or most praised attribute by his advocates, then he shows 2.4 accurate crosses per 90 minutes and 8.6 crosses that are deemed inaccurate. TAA has 0.0 through-balls per match. Add to this whether a player is under pressure or not (part of both algorithms) and you might get this sort of outcome and idea on how replaceable a player is.

If you ask me I think he's a very good player of course, and one of the better right-backs around, but certainly all the talk about his crossing at Beckham his level is quite over the top. That sort of claims are bias and the megaphone machinery at their finest. Ribery (and Robben) in his prime had a markedly higher crossing accuracy (around and over 30%), and at a higher pressure.

Visualised and combining both it looks something like this:




Just using 'common sense' from when you've played football yourself goes a long way. I'm sure you can remember a goalscorer who benefited from the space creation by others.

Someone like Van Dijk obviously wins points by how few (clear cut) mistakes he makes. Both defensively and with the ball at a high passing volume (while also creating a modest amount).

"For example: Who has the best first touch in the Premier League? You could try to create a proxy that measures something similar, such as the proportion of passes received that are miscontrolled. Using data from fbref, I calculated Aston Villa defender Bjorn Engels (0% of his pass receptions were miscontrolled) as having the best first touch, slightly ahead of Liverpool counterpart Virgil van Dijk (0.1% of his receptions were miscontrolled). Not a metric that passes the eye test, you’ll likely agree."
https://theathletic.com/1763286/2020/04/23/bad-stats-but-good-player-analysis/

Also interesting are these two articles:

"Another aspect of home-field advantage that has been exposed in Germany is the impact a crowd can have on a referee. A considerable body of academic research, in fact, has long suggested that “all or part of home advantage” is down to “refereeing decisions being subconsciously in favor of the home team,” Gleave pointed out.

That idea now can step out off the page and into real life. In the 83 matches Gracenote analyzed, home teams were penalized more for fouls in empty stadiums than they generally were when the stands were full. They also had seen, perhaps not surprisingly, an increase in the number of yellow cards they were awarded.

Both teams committed more fouls in empty stadiums than they had in full ones — perhaps a sign that referees, without a crowd to consider, have felt empowered to enforce the rules more rigidly. But there has been a significant shift in culpability: After the restart, hosts committed more fouls than their guests.

“The increase in yellow cards and fouls by the home team in matches behind closed doors appears to confirm the hypothesis,” Gleave said.

Indeed, in empty stadiums, visiting players no longer need to feel they are playing against 12 opponents. The corollary of that, of course, is perhaps more significant: In normal times, perhaps the field was not quite as even as it should have been."
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/01/sports/soccer/soccer-without-fans-germany-data.html


And oh, also:

"Despite missing out on the last two major international tournaments, the Netherlands have been on an upward trajectory and are now rated as the best European side according to our models.
[...]
Finally, the postponement to 2021 increases the burden on Belgium’s ageing golden generation, especially at the back. They’ve used the oldest defence over the last 18 months at 30.2-years-old, and their most prominent centre backs Alderweireld and Vertonghen will be 32 & 34 respectively. Under-21 players played a total of 680 mins for Belgium over the last 12 months, of which 78% were made by one player, Youri Tielemans."
https://www.21stclub.com/2020/03/26/one-year-later/
(we now know Memphis etc. would have been fit on time for the euros had it been held in 2020...)

 

National team performance:

https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro-2020/performancezone/#/