Ronaldo isn't top 3, Pele, Messi and Maradona, he is way less influential in a game, just look at their average touches per game. So a useful metric (made possible by play-by-play data) is the percentage of a players passes that lead to successful plays on the other end meaning the receiving player manages to get off a shot, or passes the ball to someone else, and so on. Team Finders: Season Finder, Game Finder, Streak Finder, Span Finder, Split Finder. Looking into his passing aspect of the game, Messi Cuccittini passes the ball roughly 59.25 times during a game with a pass completion rate of 83.45%. He has scored on 22.1 percent of his regular (non-set, non-penalty, non-shootout) shots for Barca himself. Among Maradona's, 66.8 were touches. There was also subtle progression in the percentage of dribbles he completed. To generalize a bit, some of the value a shooter provides comes from taking more and better shots (e.g. Liverpool's Firmino tops the list with 57 touches per match (averaging only two unsuccessful touches per match), while Lacazette occupies second place with 46 (19 successful) and Giroud is in third place with 41 (21 successful). Best Goal per Game Ratio in the 21st Century 1 Lionel Messi - 0.87 goals per game (630 goals in 726 games) Top 5 leagues - all competitions 50/50 50 Michael Owen - 0.44 goals per game (167 goals in 379 games) 1/50 Altogether 28 players managed to break through the 0.5 goals per game ratio. From the 2004-05 season to the 2018-19 campaign, Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi has continued to produce magical moments on the pitch. As a fully fledged member of the no-touch All-Stars, one name near the top of the list aligns with Altmans example perfectly. Extra Points Made per Game. But take a look at some of his early feats. Rather than skewing towards the high-possession sides, we see some interesting output in players responsibility. Yet he and the players he assists score about 60 percent of Barcas goals. Adjusting players shots per 100 touches shuffles the pack neatly. Argentina (25) Online Grocery Shopping within Lagos with same day delivery. Touches are differentiated from passes, shots and other ball events in that the player controls the ball and looks to retain individual possession. Points per Play Margin. This sounds like a great strategy, but theres a reason it isnt employed universally: To make it work, a team has to be stocked with amazing passers, and it has to have strikers capable of creating chances against set defenses.10. Well, the secret or short cut is hard work and love for the game. Prior to this year, I used full season stats which can be . For comparison, in the 2010-11 UEFA Champions League (the highest level of competition for European club soccer), Barcelona scored 30 goals in 13 games. I think this criticism is fair and I found it intriguing enough to look into the matter myself. Yoane Wissa (Brentford) - 27.6 touches per 90 9. Manchester United. Thats not to say one approach is better than the other, but note that it means that the observed shooting gap between them is at least somewhat exaggerated. The only forward who takes on defenders nearly as aggressively as Messi is Luis Suarez, the Uruguayan striker for Liverpool who is perhaps too aggressive for his own good (ahem). The Timbers have struggled this season to play the ball from wide positions as they have the second-lowest completion percentage (17.1 percent) on open-play crosses this season. That World Cup team scored fewer goals per game than this years: only eight goals in seven games in 2010, while this years group-stage dropouts scored four goals in three. Answer (1 of 2): Most of Messi's performances are outstanding. That said, quality shot opportunities in soccer are still a limited resource, so making the most of them is important. 2 . Born in 1987, Lionel Messi is regarded as one of the greatest players of the modern era. Lionel Messi has taken 29 shots in 7 matches so far in the Ligue 1 2022/2023 season. The 21st of those outside-the-penalty-area goals was Messis extra-time winner against Iran, which came from 29 yards out (33 yards to where it went in). 12:00 PM. Were used to seeing him provide dazzling passes, incisive shots and glamorous dribbles, but we shouldnt be afraid to keep our eyes on him even when the ball is elsewhere, and especially if he is moving slowly. Only 5 percent of his kicks are strong ones (compared to 8 percent for all players), but those kicks score 36 percent of the time, and have .251 GAA each! Counties Leagues Combined Counties Premier North, Counties Leagues Combined Counties Premier South, Counties Leagues North West Counties League, Counties Leagues Southern Combination League Premier, Counties Leagues United Counties League Premier North, Counties Leagues United Counties League Premier South, Liga Nacional de Futbol Profesional de Honduras, Womens WC Qualification Intercontinental Playoffs, WC Qualification Intercontinental Playoffs, Segunda Division RFEF Relegation Playoffs, Register and become a Premium subscriber to favourite leagues. European Golden Shoe 2021/22: Lewandowski wins again as Mbappe grabs second, European Assists King 2021/22: Mbappe and Muller share award as Messi makes podium, Premier League top scorers 2021/22: Salah and Son share Golden Boot, Ronaldo 3rd, Premier League Table: Manchester City beat Liverpool to title. Events that simply prolong the possession (taking on a defender and succeeding, or passing the ball to another teammate who does not take a shot) arent factored in. Midfielders such as Iker Muniain (Athletic Bilbao), Amadou Haidara (RB Leipzig) and John McGinn (Aston Villa) rise through the ranks, highlighting their greater tendency to play the ball forward when given equal opportunity. Or you might assume that if Messi is so good at shooting, hed focus on it to the exclusion of other skills. Moreover, Messi Cuccittini's total goal-contribution (goals + assists) is 24. Messi's record right now is far superior. A goalscorer can't be compared to complete players. This may help explain how Messi gets so many better shots, and why his unassisted shots are so good. And among Messi's 843 touches . Two Point Conversion Attempts per Game. Of 8,335 players in our dataset who have taken at least one shot from outside the box, only 1,835 have scored from that distance at any point. Of the 29 shots, 18 shots were on target and the other 11 shots were off target. Since assist-related stats tend to be dependent on a teams offensive system, for this chart Ive grouped shots by team, so it only includes Messis shots for Barcelona and Ronaldos for Real Madrid. Instead, they took the novel approach of extracting the value of space based on the behavior of the defending team. Messi 8.24 Average Match Rating* Ronaldo 6.99 Average Match Rating* League + UCL only * Match ratings and MOTM based on WhoScored ratings. Messi makes him look foolish, as he does most defenders in the game. Messi 0.76 Goals Per Game. If we take Messi's reported salary of $300,000 per week and divide that by the number of games he plays for Barcelona a season, it works out at around $350,000 per game. . All rights reserved. Bornn and Fernandez found that Messi and Suarez had a special connection, generating considerable amounts of space for each other. Messi is the only footballer on the list and he stands head and shoulders above everyone in every aspect. Imagine how good Peyton Manning would be if whomever he played for could spend three times as much as 90 percent of NFL teams. Finally, Messis defense is consistent with that of a high-volume striker.15 That hes practically munchkin-sized (hes only 1.69 met ahem, excuse me 5 7 tall) seems not to matter. The England captain has the worst touches for any forward on the list. Theres a stat for that, and in my view its one of the most revealing, reflecting both Messis skill and style, and the relationship between the two. And even though Messis version of the Maradona run and Hand of God wasnt on the World Cup stage, they were both dumbfounding and amazing on a number of levels nonetheless. The impact of these "denominators" e.g. Super Bowl Winners. Of late, I was thinking all anybody wanted to know was how to get a soccer body or legs like Cristiano Ronaldo, seems theres an. 6 Auburn, Kirk Cousins thriving even when Redskins are not, Lonzo Ball, De'Aaron Fox meet for first time in NBA as Lakers visit Kings. The average Infogol Player Rating for Lionel Messi in the UEFA Champions League 2022/23 season is 7.99. Therefore, around 130 NFL players will earn more base salary per game than Messi in 2021. These passes are where most assists come from, and indeed, Messi has the most assists per game from these kinds of passes of any forward, by a large margin. In fact, the 25-year-old Belgian international came fifth on the list. One measure of the quality of a group of passes is how many are completed successfully, but it also matters what happens when those passes get where theyre going. Elsewhere, you can tease out the responsibilities held by players for their respective team, with Manchester Uniteds Bruno Fernandes (24 per cent), Newcastles Allan Saint-Maximin (20 per cent), Manchester Citys Kevin De Bruyne (20 per cent) and Liverpools Trent Alexander-Arnold (19 per cent) all among the expected candidates for their teams share of creative responsibility to advance the ball into dangerous areas. Robert Lewandowski led the way for a dominant Bayern Munich with an average of 4.8 shots within a game. Will Mbappe and Messi be fit to face Bayern Munich? Adjust per 100 touches and Verratti and Kroos fall out of the top 20. messi average touches per game. 2020. While Messi appears to shoot much more efficiently, thats partly because he loses the ball more during failed take-on attempts, while Ronaldo loses it more because of missed shots. a player can only perform a defensive action (e.g. Messi has an average of 80 touches per game while having similar goals to Ronaldo" Why Valentina Shevchenko Is A Huge Favorite And Jon Jones Isnt At UFC 285, Illustration by Linda Tran Tutovan / Getty images, Jun. ESPN Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. 5 of the 12 goals were scored at home while he scored 7 goals at away games. Yes, the 25-year-old Spurs striker only averages 38 touches per match, with him only getting 12 successful touches for every unsuccessful one. Messi is one of only three players in La Liga in the last three years to score a goal against Real Madrid from a free kick (Santi Cazorla and Marcos Senna are the others). Ronaldo takes more than twice as many shots from this distance, but still has fewer goals overall. I arrived at a conclusion that I wasnt really expecting or prepared for: Lionel Messi is impossible. About 44 percent of Messis open (non-set piece) shots are individual plays, taken without an assist.5 This is lower than the 46 percent of unassisted shots for players overall, but Messi scores on these shots more than 23 percent of the time, compared to all players 5 percent. Kylian Mbappe-Lottin averages 34 passes per match with a pass completion rate of 83%, and has 2 assists. Let's.