Rounding out the top 3 dribblers is perhaps a surprise entry in Ademola Lookman one of Fulham’s summer signings. Fulham is fighting a relegation battle but this hasn’t stopped Lookman from standing out in his own right with 3.7 PDP at a success rate of 62.9%. Lookman is blessed with very quick feet and a low centre of gravity meaning he can move the ball around quite quickly making it difficult to judge where he’s going to go next, he has a good burst of speed but is blessed with more agility than pace IMO. Lookman, however, hasn’t produced a lot in terms of creation with only 0.12 xA & 1.5 KP per90, he has still produced 3 goals & 3 assists and is more than justifying his worth in a struggling Fulham side.
The above covers the top 3 dribblers and now let’s talk about the actual creation. There is a clear leader in this field sitting both 1st for Key Passes & Expected Assists and that is none other than the human form of Marmite(Love him or hate him) it’s Jack Grealish.
Jack has had a superb start to the season with 7 assists & 5 goals thus far, he created his assists from an xA of 0.43 & Key Passes of 3.7 per90. Jack usually does a lot of the hard work himself to make the assists easier for himself, he will beat his man and lay off simple passes/crosses or work with his teammates to get one-two passes off which then lead to a goal. He is one of the best in the league at progressing the ball via passing & dribbling.
Following Grealish is Man City’s own Algerian magician Riyad Mahrez, he stands out with 0.34 xA p90 & 2.5 KP per90 and so far this season has 4 assists & 1 goal. Riyad hasn’t had a successful season so far when it comes to dribbling, only going by 1.8 players p90 and having a concerning 37% dribble completion, however, his passing hasn’t suffered greatly and has put out impressive numbers for creation.
Third in this category is Everton’s James “Bond of Banfield” Rodriguez, however to me he’s more Harry Potter than James Bond, James is a real wizard with the ball producing 0.33 xA & 2.8 KP per90. Not only is he high on the creation, he is also producing a good amount of dribbles with 2.2 players dribbled past with a dribble success of 73%. The above has led to 3 goals & 3 assists. James is enjoying his start to Premier League life and I’m sure the blue side of Liverpool are enjoying his antics.
Below I have left a snapshot of the top dribblers & creators.
As we can see there is a lot of variance between these two charts. But there is only one player who is in both categories and that is none other than Jack Grealish again. I’ve waxed lyrical about him previously but just to show just how ahead of the pack Jack is please look below.
The above graphic gives Grealish his ranking in the league by his percentile and also compares it to the median numbers for wide players in the league thus far. Jack is well into the 90th percentile for most of these metrics and it’s clear Aston Villa rely on their homegrown lad a lot.