WHO ARE THE BEST DRIBBLERS IN EUROPE’S TOP 5 LEAGUES THIS SEASON?
Players like the Brazilian Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, the mercurial Zinedine Zidane, Andres Iniesta, Isco, the magical Leo Messi, David Silva, Santi Cazorla, Neymar, Luka Modric, and the list goes on and on, all have one thing in common, and that is everyone wanting them to get the ball to see what they do next. Their mesmerizing ability to caress and move the ball, gliding past and bouncing off opponents, drew all to the edge of their seats; their fans were optimistic, the opposition fans pessimistic, praying to whatever god they believed in for that run to be unsuccessful.
We have all come to love, revere, live in constant fear of, or even hate that ability but one thing is certain: despite whatever emotion we go through, one thing we do, whether we realize it or not, is respect these players.
As a young Ghanaian fan during the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Ghana, who had braved their way to the Round of 16 past Czechslovakia and the USA, came up against a star-studded Brazilian squad. 4 minutes in, Ronaldo slips behind the Ghanaian defense, one on one with the goalkeeper, feints his body to the right, does a quick step over, and suddenly changes the direction to the left, dummying the goalkeeper and then tapping the ball into the net, the score was only 1–0 then but the game was decided. Such is the value of a moment of quality from a gifted player.
We can think of so many masterclass performances by dribblers, say Isco vs. Italy or Zidane vs. Brazil. These are signature performances by some of the game’s most elusive players and fans and oppositions alike all agree that, performances like that are just so brilliant, denying them is just pure ignorance.
Dribbling is just a general term used in football for manipulating the ball and moving it to beat an opponent or produce a piece of skill, but for the focus of this article, we will look at this action from take-ons (one-v-one) and progressive carries. A take-on can happen anywhere on the field. Beating your opponent with skill, pace, or a touch is crucial for moving the ball forward. I used R to scrape data from FBREF, for all players in Europe’s top 5 leagues: La Liga, Serie A, the English Premier League, Bundesliga, and Ligue 1. To standardize our data, we only included players who have played at least 900 minutes so far this season, and all key metrics were divided by the number of minutes played by each player multiplied by 90 minutes. Why did we do this? It helps show individual quality or performance as opposed to pure quantity, leveling the playing field and highlighting the true top performers by each metric.
We will first take a look at the take-on specialists in the top 5 leagues based on two simple metrics: take-on attempts per 90 minutes vs. successful take ons per 90 minutes. The plot below shows us the result of our visualization.
So far this season, we can see that Vinicius Junior has been the most prolific dribbler when it comes to volume. In a regular-season game, he attempts almost 9 dribbles; his success rate isn’t disappointing either, as he ranks 10th for completed take-ons per 90 minutes. Newcastle’s Allan Saint-Maximin is the most dangerous player when it comes to take-ons. He averages at least 7 dribbles and completes approximately 4 of them per game. Leroy Sané, Désiré Doué, Adam Ounas Rayan Cherki, and Lionel Messi are also honorable mentions for attempting fewer take-ons per game but completing more.
It is worth noting that the Ligue 1 has produced the most take-on specialists out of Europe’s top five leagues so far, with seven players out of the top 20 take-on specialists playing in the French top division. The Bundesliga produced six players, followed by three from La Liga, and then two each from the Serie A and the Premier League.
Does this mean it is easier to complete dribbles in some leagues than others? Or do other leagues simply have more better take on specialists than the Premier League and the Serie A? I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Another metric we would like to look at is one that reveals the more dangerous dribblers in Europe’s top 5 leagues. To put this in context, this article also seeks to find out which dribblers are more direct or more aggressive with their dribbling. To find this out, we will look at ball carries into the final third per 90 and then ball carries into the penalty area per 90. We will use the same standardization procedure we used before.
Ousmane Dembélé, an already key figure in Barcelona’s setup, is highlighted here again as the best player when it comes to progressing the ball into the final third of the pitch in any given game this season. He is closely trailed by Neymar, Pereira da Costa, Rayan Cherki, Fran Gusto, and Lionel Messi.
When it comes to players who are experts at moving the ball into the penalty box, Vinicius Júnior comfortably tops this metric. He has carried the ball into the penalty area a whopping 107 times this season, the next 5 players who follow Vini Jr in this metric are Mbappé, Saka, Kvaratskhelia, Martinelli, and Rodrygo with 69, 63, 59, 59, and 54 carries, respectively. Standardizing their minutes played brings to the forefront more efficient carriers into the penalty area like Dembélé, Mbappé and Rayan Cherki.
Olympique Lyon’s Cherki, who has been enjoying a fantastic season so far, has proven alongside Vinicius Júnior, Kylian Mbappé, and Dembélé to be take-on and ball progression specialists.
These metrics should not be taken as the be all and end all of what makes a better dribbler, but here, we are putting everything in the context of progressive carrying. For example, we can see Barcelona’s midfield prodigy, Pedri, ranks among the top players in terms of ball carries into the final third but considerably lower for ball carries into the penalty area. Another anomaly would be Leverkusen’s Jeremie Frimpong, Cancelo, and Spinazzola ranking high among top ball carries into the penalty area, but they are defensive players.
These anomalies highlight the different tactical roles required of the different players in different teams. For example, while Pedri may be more involved in Barcelona’s build-up play, linking up with their deeper players and trying to dribble his way into the final third and laying passes or crosses off for the likes of Raphinha and Dembélé to attack the penalty box, players like Frimpong and Cancelo have more license to make a higher volume of penalty box entries as fullbacks who are allowed to stay higher up the field because of the different tactical systems they play in, hence the rather higher positions they rank in terms of these metrics.
How then can we measure the value of a player’s dribbling ability? I hear you ask. Well, we will return to the data produced by our dear friends at FBREF to find that out, and we will measure this value in terms of shot-creating actions and then the percentage of those actions that came from a take-on.
Once again, Rodrygo is the most efficient dribbler so far in terms of creating shots from take-ons. Lyon’s Rayan Cherki comes in second, while Villareal’s Chukwueze ranks third in this metric. Other honorable mentions include Jeremie Frimpong, Rutter, AC Milan’s Rafa Leão, Kvaratskhelia, Kolo Muani, Saint-Maximin, Ezzalzouli, and Gabriel Jesus.
All these players highlighted above are very valuable to their teams for their ability to beat a man and create a shot either for themselves or their teammates.
When it comes to goals, though, Brahim Diaz has made the most take-ons leading to goals. Our usual suspects are Jeremie Frimpong, Chukwueze, and Rodrygo. Since goal creation is more reliant on the player at the end of the take-on scoring or the player who completed that take-on himself scoring, shot-creating take-ons seem the more reliable metric to judge dribbling efficiency by.
Dribbling is an invaluable part of the beautiful game. A through-ball, shot from distance, or feisty tackle will always have a wow factor, but nothing is more mesmerizing than a player weaving his way through the opposition to lay off a chance for his teammate or finish that run by taking a shot, or better yet, scoring.
This season, players like Vinicius Júnior, Rayan Cherki, Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé, Rodrygo, Saint-Maximin, Bukayo Saka, Kvaratskhelia, Rafa Leão, and Jack Grealish, among others, have been very consistent in beating their man and creating chances for themselves or their teammates.
A standout performer is Real Madrid’s Vinicius Júnior, Kylian Mbappé, Rayan Cherki, and Rodrygo, who have been top performers in terms of take ons, ball-carrying ability, and shot-creating actions via take-ons.
A little observation about PSG’s Neymar is his rather low rank for key metrics, especially for ball carries into the penalty area. Does this perhaps highlight a shift in his game from being more direct than usual, or perhaps the injuries have made him a bit more conservative with his dribbling? I'd love to hear opinions on this too!
As always, thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this article and you want to reach out, you can find me on Twitter here: @jeffrstats. I am a data analyst who loves football and share articles, opinions and some data vizzes every week. Do reach out if you love football! Bye for now.