The magnifying glass of smart data today he frames two great protagonists of the blue European Championship: the Roma winger Leonardo Spinazzola and the talent of Juventus Federico Chiesa. Let’s break down some of its distinguishing features through Virtual Coach.
For Spinazzola, the continental review is the consecration of his already excellent season of Serie A 2020/21. Thanks to his strong athletic and technical skills, the number 4 winger in the Italian national team manages to appear very often in the opponent’s trocar in possession of the ball. In fact, the first graph shows the heatmap of his ball conduct. It is evident how Spinazzola concentrates the ball management phase mainly in the last offensive third of the field, where in fact he often manages to wedge himself between the opponent’s shirts, making himself dangerous through a thick offensive contribution, seasoned by 2 goals and 5 assists.
The Giallorossi full-back confirms himself as one of the best riders in the championship that has just ended: the second graph shows in fact Spinazzola’s ability to maintain a high distance covered in sprints (speed above 25 km / h) for the entire duration of the championship. Furthermore, comparing the value for 90 ‘of the winger with that of the other sides, the great athletic contribution offered by the left winger of the national team is evident. The comparison with the standard of the other exteriors (457 meters) highlights Spinazzola’s consistency of above-average performance, which makes it an excellence in this characteristic.
Let’s now move on to another great protagonist of the national team, Federico Chiesa who, with his goal against Austria, unlocked a game that had become very complicated. The Juventus attacking winger combines athletic skills with great technical skills, characteristics that have made him one of the symbolic men of both the last season of Serie A and the national team. So let’s analyze the ability of the Juventus attacker to resist the opposing pressure, managing to play vertically unmarked for his teammates. To do this, we jointly examine two indicators of Math&Sport: the pressure received in possession of the ball and the level of verticality associated with the player’s passes, explained by the average number of opposing players overcome with the pass.
As can be seen from the graph, which compares the data of the 22 Juventus with those of 30 other offensive wielders in our league, Chiesa is one of the attacking sides who suffers the most pressure from opposing defenders when in possession of the ball. Thanks to his physical and technical skills, however, he manages to withstand a high level of pressure, overcoming one or more lines of pressing through vertical passes for his team-mates, making him the most skilled among the outside forwards of the league in this characteristic.
We deepen the knowledge of Juventus’ talent through analysis data driven of the coach e match analyst Adriano Bacconi. “The data of the Virtual Coach on the Juventus winger are very interesting and shed light on two different types of attackers. There are those who try to detach themselves from the marking and dictate the ball in the free space (meeting the ball carrier or on the depth) and those who instead love physical contact and duel with the opponent. Berardi of Sassuolo and Saelemaekers of Milan belong to the first category, they are those players who play well in teams that have very automated playing times and a mainly vertical action development ” .
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“Chiesa instead belongs, as his ability to play under pressure shows, to the category of wings who love dribbling in tight spaces. He wants the ball on him. He knows how to twist left or right, hiding his intentions from the opponent until the end. he has the instinctive perception of where to go, once the man has jumped, to free his teammates (or himself) to shoot, hence his high degree of verticality of the passes “.
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