Assessment of Attacking Performance Across Europe’s Top 5 Leagues (2022/23 Season)
Introduction
Football is a dynamic game where two teams compete to put the ball in the opponent’s goal. Both teams alternate between defending and attacking to regain possession and create scoring opportunities. The sport is governed and administrated by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) who are responsible for organizing and running club and international competitions. UEFA ranks all the leagues across Europe according to a club coefficient, ranking each league based on the results of each national association’s clubs in the five previous UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League seasons. This then determines how many teams from each league can qualify for these competitions in the forthcoming year. Below is the top 5 leagues during the 2022/23 season.
As vital as defending is in determining the outcome of a game, it is ultimately attacking performance which determines whether a team wins a game or not. The fundamental attacking actions involve:
- Passing - Moving the ball between teammates to maintain possession and create scoring opportunities
- Shooting - An attempt at scoring a goal by kicking the ball at the opponent’s goal
- Dribbling - Using footwork to take the ball past the defender
- Set Pieces - any dead-ball action as a result of a foul or infringement of rules
To determine the most successful attacking players across these 5 leagues, this report will look at several key performance indicators to highlight the top performers for the four fundamental actions outlined above and also determining if this impacted some clubs success for the season.
1. Passing
When looking at passing performance indicators, top assists gives us an indication of the players that contributed most to scoring goals for their respective teams. The bar chart below displays the players with the most assists for the 2022/23 season.
We can see that Lionel Messi, Kevin De Bruyne, and Antoine Griezmann contributed to the most goals across the top 5 leagues. These three players ended the season with 16 assists for their teams. Raphael Guerreiro and Mohammed Salah also contributed 12 assists for their clubs during the season. This is significantly impressive for Guerreiro who played a lot of the season as a defender.
Following on from assists, another important indicator of passing success is the number of completed and attempted passes. This provides us with an indication of the players who were fundamentally involved in passing in their teams and in helping their teams play out from the back or counter attack.
When looking at completed passess we can see that Rodri, Marco Veratti, and Joshua Kimmich were the top players for passes completed amongst midfielders and forwards. Rodri ranked highest with a total of 2723 passes completed from a total of 2987 attempted. Veratti and Kimmich also had a total of 2383 and 2333 passes completed.
2. Shooting
| player | squad | mp_playing | gls | gls_per | xg_per |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Erling Haaland | Manchester City | 35 | 36 | 1.17 | 0.92 |
| Harry Kane | Tottenham | 38 | 30 | 0.79 | 0.57 |
| Kylian Mbappé | Paris S-G | 34 | 29 | 0.93 | 0.84 |
| Alexandre Lacazette | Lyon | 35 | 27 | 0.83 | 0.74 |
| Victor Osimhen | Napoli | 32 | 26 | 0.91 | 0.75 |
| Jonathan David | Lille | 37 | 24 | 0.68 | 0.67 |
| Robert Lewandowski | Barcelona | 34 | 23 | 0.73 | 0.77 |
| Lautaro Martínez | Inter | 38 | 21 | 0.73 | 0.63 |
| Loïs Openda | Lens | 38 | 21 | 0.75 | 0.66 |
| Folarin Balogun | Reims | 37 | 21 | 0.63 | 0.8 |
| Ivan Toney | Brentford | 33 | 20 | 0.61 | 0.57 |
| Habib Diallo | Strasbourg | 37 | 20 | 0.63 | 0.55 |
| Mohamed Salah | Liverpool | 38 | 19 | 0.52 | 0.59 |
| Wissam Ben Yedder | Monaco | 32 | 19 | 0.81 | 0.74 |
| Elye Wahi | Montpellier | 33 | 19 | 0.68 | 0.44 |
| Karim Benzema | Real Madrid | 24 | 19 | 0.84 | 0.95 |
| Callum Wilson | Newcastle Utd | 31 | 18 | 0.86 | 0.84 |
| Marcus Rashford | Manchester Utd | 35 | 17 | 0.53 | 0.48 |
| Joselu | Espanyol | 34 | 16 | 0.48 | 0.44 |
| Lionel Messi | Paris S-G | 32 | 16 | 0.51 | 0.49 |
Erling Haaland from Manchester City finished the year with the most goals scored across the top 5 leagues, with 36 goals scored in 35 games. We can also see that he ranked highest for goals scored per 90 minutes with a score of 1.17. This shows that of all the attackers across Europe, Haaland was most clinical in front of goal averaging a goal scored in every game, with Kylian Mbappe and Victor Osimhen being a close second and third with 0.93 and 0.91 respectively. Finally when looking at expected goals per 90 (xg_per) we can see that actually Karim Benzema ranked highest for this. This shows that of the shots taken by all attackers across Europe’s top 5 leagues, Benzema’s were the most accurate and most likely to be converted into a goal. Haaland as the top scorer, also ranked high for expected goals coming in second with a value of 0.92.
We can see the distribution of attackers based on expected goals per 90 and actual goals per 90, which gives us an indication of a players efficiency in front of goal. It can be seen particularly with Erling Haaland who ranks much higher then all other players when combining the two variables, showing how clinical he is converting his chances to goals.When looking at a player like Victor Osimhen we can see he ranks much higher for goals per 90 than expected goals, which highlights that he is probably outperforming what would be expected from him.
3. Dribbling
When looking at the attacking metrics for forwards across Europe, we can see that for touches in the attacking penalty area (att_pen_touches) Kylian Mbappe and Mohammed Salah rank significantly higher than the other attacking players with 302 and 301 touches in the penalty area. For Take-ons attempted (att_take) we can see that Vinicius Junior is ranked much higher than the other players with a total of 306 take-ons. If we then look at how successful the players are with these take-ons (succ_take), we can see that Vinicius Junior and Lionel Messi rank highest with 112 and 102 successful take-ons. This is particularly impressive for Lionel Messi when you look at the number of successful take-ons achieved based on the number attempted (184-102). Vinicius Junior also ranks highest for carries into penalty area (cpa_carries) with a total of 140 carries. Mohammed Salah ranks second best with a total of 87 carries into the penalty area. Similarly, if we look at carries into the final third of the pitch closest to goal (final_third_carries), we can see that Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe both have a total of 126 carries into the final thrid.
When looking at the attacking metrics for midfielders across Europe, we can see that for touches in the attacking penalty area (att_pen_touches) Yannick Carrasco ranks significantly higher than the other midfield players with 160 touches in the penalty area. For Take-ons attempted (att_take) we can see that Jeremie Frimpong is ranked highest with a total of 165 take-ons. If we then look at how successful the players are with these take-ons (succ_take), we can see that Jude Bellingham and Jeremie Frimpong rank highest with 86 and 85 successful take-ons. Yannick Carrasco also ranks highest for carries into penalty area (cpa_carries) with a total of 71 carries. Similarly, if we look at carries into the final third of the pitch closest to goal (final_third_carries), we can see that Jeremie Frimpong has the highest value with 103 carries with Seko Fofana and Sergi Darder both having a total of 95 carries into the final thrid. Jeremie Frimpong and Yannick Carrasco rank higher than the other players for dribbling metrics in the penalty area due to both of them playing as wide midfielders on the right an left respectively, which provides them with greater flexibility to attack when compared with the other central midfielders who need to hold their position.
4. Set Pieces
We can see that Jonathan David has the most goals from penalty kicks with a total of 10 goals. Vincenzo Grifo, Karim Benzema, Erling Haaland, and Domenico Berardi all rank second with a total of 7 goals converted from the penalty spot. If we compare this with the players non_penalty expected goals we can see that Erling Haaland and Folarin Balogun rank highest with 23 and 21 goals. However when looking at the players at the bottom of the graph, Teji Savanier, Vincenzo Grifo, and Domenico Berardi we can see that their goals scored from penalties is higher than their non-penalty expected goals. This may be due to these players being set piece takers for their clubs and also the positions they play as all three play in midfield compared with Haaland and Balogun who play as attackers.
The bar chart above shows the number of dead-ball passes that lead to a goal (pass_dead_gca) and the number of dead-ball passes that lead to a shot attempt (pass_dead_sca). We can see that Lorenzo Pelligrini ranks highest for dead-ball passes leading to a shot attempt with a total of 49 passes. Andreas Pereira ranks second with a total of 44 passes. If we then look at the the number of these passes that led to a goal being scored, we see that Christopher Trimmel and Vincenzo Grifo rank highest with 7 passes. This provides a clear overview of the best passing players from set-pieces.
| Player | Team | FK Shots | Shot Dist | G/Sh | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lionel Messi | Paris S-G | 20 | 18.3 | 0.12 | 16 |
| Téji Savanier | Montpellier | 19 | 27.0 | 0.10 | 12 |
| Florian Lejeune | Rayo Vallecano | 18 | 28.0 | 0.10 | 4 |
| James Ward-Prowse | Southampton | 17 | 27.1 | 0.18 | 9 |
| Enes Ünal | Getafe | 16 | 18.8 | 0.11 | 14 |
| Branco van den Boomen | Toulouse | 16 | 25.1 | 0.02 | 5 |
| Cristiano Biraghi | Fiorentina | 15 | 27.4 | 0.08 | 2 |
| Vincenzo Grifo | Freiburg | 15 | 22.6 | 0.14 | 15 |
| Eberechi Eze | Crystal Palace | 14 | 21.9 | 0.13 | 10 |
| Marvin Ducksch | Werder Bremen | 14 | 19.1 | 0.13 | 12 |
The table above displays the players with the most shots from free kicks. We can see that Lionel Messi, Teji Savanier, and Florian Lejuene rank highest for shots from free kicks with 20, 19, 18 shots respectively. We can also see the average distance the players take their shots from.Lionel Messi ranks closest to goal with an average of 18.3m for his shots, whereas Florian Lejuene ranks highest with an average of 28m for his shots. If we look at the goal to shots ratio for these players, James Ward-Prowse ranks highest with 0.18 goals/shot. The final column shows the number of goals these players scored during the season with Messi, Grifo, and Unal having 16, 15, and 14 goals during the season.
Conclusion
It is clear that the top 5 leagues in Europe contain majority of the world’s best footballers. The 2022/23 was no exception to this with some incredible performances, for example Erling Haaland breaking the record for most goals in a Premier League season with 36 goals. Some other top performers for the season included Victor Osimhen and Karim Benzema who showed great efficiency in front of goal. Jeremie Frimping and Yannick Carrasco were amongst the top players in midfield in terms of attacking output for the season. Consistent performers Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior showed significant ability across all variables.