The top ten accurate passers in last season’s Premier League…
We take a look at the most accurate passers in the 2012/13 Premier League season, provided the player appeared in at least 20 matches.
The top ten provides an interesting insight into the philosophy of certain players and their clubs, and also debunks some Premier League myths!
The top ten accurate passers in the Premier League 2012/13:
1) Ki Sung-Yeung – Swansea – 93%
2) Jamie Carragher – Liverpool – 92%
3) Mikel Arteta – Arsenal – 91%
4) Leon Britton – Swansea – 91%
5) Samir Nasri – Manchester CIty – 91%
6) Per Mertesacker – Arsenal – 91%
7) Moussa Dembele – Tottenham – 91%
8) Giorgos Karagounis – Fulham – 91%
9) Rio Ferdinand – Manchester United – 90%
10) Joleon Lescott – Manchester City – 90%
Analysis:
-Two Swansea midfielders make the list, which emphasises the short passing philosophy Michael Laudrup encourages his side to play.
-Half of the top 10 is made up with Arsenal, Swansea and Liverpool players, and these three sides actually played more passes than any other team in the top league last year, too.
-Jamie Carragher coming in second place here reflects how Brendan Rodgers has made his side play it out from the back. In previous years, Carragher would have played more long balls and been nowhere near the top 10, but Liverpool now encourage their centre-backs to play short passes instead.
– United and City centre-halves Ferdinand and Lescott also make the list, showing us that the country’s top two sides also encourage their defenders to play a shorter passing game.
-Lescott’s inclusion here interestingly could be the same reason he lost his space in the City side to Matija Nastasic. Lescott was criticised last season for taking the easy option and passing repeatedly back to the goalkeeper when in possession, and this could ave contributed to his high pass accuracy percentage.
-The only player on the list who consistently plays from a wide position is Samir Nasri. This is perhaps because wide players cross the ball more regularly than central players, which would reduce pass accuracy statistics.
-Rio Ferdinand’s inclusion is particularly impressive when you realise that his average length of pass was 23m, six metres further than Moussa Dembele whose average pass length was just 16m.
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