It is clear that Spain has been underperforming these years. With their failures at both the 2018 World Cup and last year’s UEFA Nations League, the country is expecting better results. Luis Enrique is starting a revolution in the team, giving younger players more responsibility. It is dubbed to be the next generation.
In this generation, we have the young star Ansu Fati from Barcelona, Ferrán Torres from Manchester City, and other promising players. There are high hopes for this team for the present and the future.
This data analysis will focus on finding the players best suited to what is probably Spain’s most important positions in the team, the double pivot. Spain’s usual formation is a 4-2-3-1 so the double pivot is now one of the most recognisable traits of their team. They are key as they are those who effectively carry out the build-up, which is one of Spain’s strengths.
Therefore, the players starting in this position have to be the best suited possible to carry out Spain’s game plan. To find these players, we will select specific data and statistics to search for the double pivots that match what Spain need. Obviously, this report only serves as a starting point and further detailed analysis of the players is required to make a definite selection.
Selection criteria
Since Spain are one of the best and most competitive teams, they primarily only select players from the big five leagues: La Liga, EPL, Serie A, Ligue 1, and Bundesliga. Therefore, we will only look at players from these leagues. Additionally, we have not set an age limit as Spain have shown that they do not mind the age of a player when choosing them. For example, the 34-year-old Jesús Navas is still their starting right-back.
Also, every player in this analysis has played at least 1500 minutes in 2020. This criterion is important to create a fair comparison among the midfielders since a player who has played a significantly fewer number of minutes than another player could have inflated statistics, but it does not necessarily make him a better player.
The final criterion was to choose players that have served their teams as either centre-midfielders or defensive midfielders. Obviously, it is impossible to find players that have only played in one position throughout a whole season and thus, this report will have players that have not deviated too much from their position.
Defensive duels
Defensive duels is not one of the main determinants to check who would play in Spain’s double pivot. Even though for a pivot it is always good to have defensive statistics, in the Spanish team it is not so important, but it is a great additional strength to have.
Therefore, the main reason to analyse this metric is to see whether any names from players who do well in their defense also excel in their passing, which we will see next. For this analysis, we will check their defensive duels per game and their success rate in these.
The player with the best combined statistics is Rubén Alcaraz from Valladolid, making 9.24 defensive duels per game and has a success rate of 58.98%. Next up is Oier Sanjurjo from Osasuna who makes 7.68 duels per game, winning 64.62% of these.
Another player with good stats is Thiago Alcántara from Liverpool. He has the second-highest success percentage (67.36%) and makes 6.9 defensive duels per game.
The next metric will serve us better to decide who should start in Spain’s formation. This is because Spain’s game relies heavily on collective passing and so many accurate passes are needed to make this gameplay effective.
Therefore, we will analyse their passes per game and their success rate.
Passes
Rodri Hernández from Manchester City has the best statistics. He makes 86.64 passes per game with a success rate of 94.18%, which is incredible. Close to him is Thiago Alcántara who makes 85.91 passes per game and has a success rate of 91.43%.
Moving on, near to the first two is Sergio Busquets, the Barcelona player. With a success rate of 91.36%, he makes 81.22 passes. It is clear that the game plan at Barcelona suits what is needed in the Spanish team.
Also worth mentioning is Fabián Ruiz from Napoli who makes 70.01 passes per game with a success rate of 90.86%.
Seeing the information about the passes in general is helpful, but it is also crucial to delve deeper into what passes they are making. If they are always doing lateral or back passes, then they create no value to the team and it’s easy to have a good success rate. A forward pass is a pass made at a 45 degree angle looking to the opponent’s goal.
Thus, we need to check how many forward passes they make and how well they do them. Forward passes are key as in Spain’s build-up and general play, they want passes that can break through lines and cause danger. They do not want to simply keep possession, they want to have a purpose in their possession.
Forward passes
The player that stands out is Thiago Alcántara, making 23.23 forward passes per game with a success rate of 84.54%. Next up is Sergio Busquets who makes 22.45 forward passes and has a success rate of 82.19%.
Moreover, the player with the highest accuracy is Rodri Hernández who creates 21.02 forward passes with a success rate of 88.75%.
Worth noting are Fabián Ruiz from Napoli and Dani Parejo from Villareal. Fabián Ruiz makes 19.26 forward passes and has a success rate of 86.75% while Dani Parejo makes 20.91 forward passes, having a success rate of 81.88%.
Closely aligned with forward passes is the following metric, progressive passes. According to Wyscout, these are forward passes that attempt to advance a team significantly closer to the opponent’s goal. These passes are specifically made to help the team win spaces or create danger to the opponent.
Progressive passes
Once again, Thiago Alcántara is the best in this metric. He makes 13.69 of these passes with a success rate of 88.96%. Following him is Dani Parejo who makes 11.58 progressive passes per game and has a success rate of 83.05%.
Rodri Hernández appears again, having the highest success rate (89.53%) and making 10.76 progressive passes per game. A new name appears, and this is Luis Alberto from Lazio. He makes 11.15 progressive passes per game while having an 87.44% success rate.
Final decision
After this data analysis, we have found two midfielders who present the best statistics to be able to be in Spain’s starting formation as double pivots.
Thiago Alcántara
After winning the Champions League last year, he moved to Liverpool in the summer transfer window. He is an excellent, all rounded player who is a regular in the Spanish call-ups.
For passing in general, he is the second-best, with 85.91 passes per game and a success rate of 91.43%. Then, he is the best in the following two passing metrics, forward passes and progressive passes. For forward passes, he makes 23.23 of these with a success rate of 84.54%. Additionally, he makes 13.69 progressive passes with a success rate of 88.96%.
In addition to these impressive stats, he is the only player that has performed well in his passing and in his defensive duels. He makes 6.9 defensive duels per game and has a success rate of 67.36%.
Rodri Hernández
Like Thiago, Rodri also is a great passer. He is the best player with his passing in general, making 86.64 passes per game with a success rate of 94.18%. Next, he has the highest success rate in the forward passes (88.75%) which is achieved by making a decent amount of these passes (21.02).
Furthermore, he is also in the top three in progressive passes, where he makes 10.76 of these passes per game and has the highest success rate at 89.53%. Even though he is not in the top 5 in his defensive duels, he has acceptable numbers which could be helpful (7.25 defensive duels per game, 60.37% success rate).
Conclusion
The two pivots in Spain’s formation are arguably the most important positions in that team as they are in the heart of midfield. They are key members in making their build-up and passing game plan a reality.
Therefore, with Thiago Alcántara and Rodri Hernández, the positions would be well-covered. They have the best statistics in the metrics concerning what a pivot in Spain needs. Hopefully these two players will be fit for Euro 2021 next summer and lead Spain to glory.
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