Goals, assists and Defensive Action Success Rate allows identification of key performance at the sharp ends of the pitch. Assessing the performance of those who predominantly play in the middle is not as straightforward. But Secondary Assists and Packing concepts may help here.
Packing
I introduced the measurement of Packing last season. Please read this primer – Concerning Packing.
Using the Packing concept we can assess which players are getting the team up the pitch by completing vertical and forward passes that take opponents out the game. The value (Pass Impect) is a total score assigned on the basis that bypassing a defender gets you 3 points, a midfielder 2 points and a forward 1 point. Getting passed defenders is rewarded highly as this implies you are getting towards a less well defended goal.
Secondary Assists
This season I have started to record Secondary Assists (also known as Establishing Passes). Essentially this is recognising the pass before the pass that creates the shot at goal. It rewards the players who are heavily involved in chance creation who previously did not get credit. You could go back further but one hop back from the assister “feels” right.
The concept is expressed as both a count of Secondary Assists and then the Expected Goal value of the final chance created. So, if the chance resulted in a shot worth an xG value of 0.208 then the assister AND the secondary assister get this value as their Expected Assist (xA) score.
If we combine to two we get a view of which players are most adept at moving the ball forward progressively –i.e. past opponents and into areas where chances may flow.
Celtic 18/19
Last season Ntcham was Celtic’s top Pack Passer with a Pass Impect per 90m of 45.5. With 46.99 he is improving slightly on that average. He also has the highest Secondary Assist rate creating 1.17 per 90m.
Armstrong was not far behind him last season but this season no one is within 10 points on Pass Impect.
Rogic only managed 8 assists last season but is second both in Pass Impect and Secondary Assists this season.
I often mention Lustig’s passing from the back as being a useful weapon in Celtic’s passing armoury. He takes on higher risk longer passes but is rewarded with the third best Pass Impect score.
It is worth highlighting Brown in the middle of the graph. I see many comments regarding his perceived tendency to play many horizontal passes and on his general lack of creativity. However, he is about average in the squad on both Pass Impect and Secondary Assists and is performing as well as Forrest on both counts.
Tierney’s numbers are lower than I expected.
The strikers being at the bottom of the graph is no surprise as they play passes past relatively few opponents and are usually the assister or the shooter when chances are created.
The main take away from this analysis is that the more unsung members of the squad have some of their value represented well by these measure. These players, Lustig, Ntcham, Brown and even Boyata are the glue around which the more creative players flourish. The Enablers.