January 31 – Possession is nine-tenths of the law, and for Manchester City it is the route to winning titles. The club top a European table of clubs across 31 leagues ranked by the most accurate passes per domestic league game since the start of the season.
The ranking by the CIES Football Observatory looks at the percentage of accurate passes and the average number of passes completed per minute of possession.
The researchers point out that: “All teams qualified for the last 16 round of the UEFA Champions League are in the top 100 positions of the rankings. However, the gaps are quite marked. At one end, Manchester City (1st) achieved 685 passes per match (17.2 per minute of possession). At the other end, FC Basel (94th) only completed 426 passes per domestic league game (14.4 per minute of possession). This is the highest gap between last 16 round adversaries.”
European giants PSG, Bayern Munich and Barcelona are all ranked in the top 10, while Real Madrid are 13th.
“The highest cumulated number of accurate passes per game for Champions League opponents was recorded for Paris St-Germain (622) and Real Madrid (540). At the opposite end is the Manchester United (459) and Sevilla (456) fixture,” finds the analysis.
The authors also make a prediction: “The most probable quarter finalists with respect to pass statistics are Manchester City, Paris St-Germain, Bayern Munich, Shaktar Donetsk, Barcelona, Juventus, Liverpool and Manchester United.”
The table also shows some perhaps unexpected results. Celtic rank fifth (perhaps a reflection of their dominance in Scotland), while English Championship club Fulham are at equal 26th.
See the full report at http://www.football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/b5wp/2017/212/en/
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