One recent Jürgen Klopp call at Liverpool has caused something of a stir. But with the player involved surpassing Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi, it’s hard to argue.
Is there anything as exciting in football as seeing an attacking player dribbling with the ball? There’s a reason that goals scored at the end of a mazy run through an opposition team are so memorable, and it’s because they defy logic and take your breath away simultaneously.
While it’s pointless to try to decide the greatest goal of all time, Diego Maradona’s second against England at the 1986 World Cup would be in the conversation for this exact reason. He dribbled half the length of the pitch while skilfully evading Bobby Robson’s hatchet men.
The Argentine had completed the most dribbles at World Cups since records began, until his countryman Lionel Messi usurped him for the crown. But who would you say is the best dribbler in Europe’s big five leagues in 2022/23?
The days of judging a player’s dribbling ability by the eye test alone have long since gone. There is now a whole host of data available to assess the success rate and impact of a player carrying the ball at their feet.
Per FBRef, the player with the most take-ons successfully completed in England, France, Germany, Italy or Spain this season is a tie between Messi and a player Liverpool fans won’t want reminding about, Vinicius Júnior. However, the latter has attempted 54 more, leaving the Paris Saint-Germain forward with the much better success rate.
He can’t match up to Leroy Sané, though, who has the best completion percentage among players who’ve attempted at least 50. Even then, with 48 out of his 79 attempts successful, the former Manchester City man isn’t that far above one in two. It’s hard to find an exceptionally dominant dribbler.
As with any metric in football, the location of an action is an important consideration. I could give you 50 guesses at naming the player who has completed the most carries into the final third in the big leagues this season and I doubt you’d get the answer. It’s Rayo Vallecano defender Francisco Garcia, who is 27 clear of the chasing pack (which is led by a trio of PSG forwards who you definitely could guess).
Vinicius is the top player for carries into opposition penalty areas, ahead of Kylian Mbappé. In this chart we get our first glimpse of a Liverpool player, with Mohamed Salah currently ranked seventh for this particular stat. As he has twice finished third in the past, the Egyptian has been slightly superseded by rivals from across the continent.
Salah has also been overtaken at club level when it comes to arguably the most important aspect of dribbling with the ball. The reason Maradona’s stroll through the England defence at the Estadio Azteca is so memorable is because it culminated in something glorious. Delivering end product is vital, and the Reds’ key man for that on the ball-carrying front this term has been Darwin Núñez.
The Uruguayan isn’t just Liverpool’s top player for carries (of at least five meters) which lead to shots or chances created though. The 23-year-old is ranked third in the Premier League, behind Bukayo Saka and Marcus Rashford, but is comfortably top on a pro-rata basis having played at least 839 minutes fewer than both players.
A recent article from Opta Analyst shows that Núñez is doing even better than this, as he is “the leading player for proportion of carries leading to a shot involvement across the top five European leagues.” The former Benfica forward has made 109 ball carries, with 30.3 per cent of them resulting in a shot (26) or chance created (seven).
There’s evidence he may be improving too. Núñez has one goal and one assist from carries in the Premier League this term and they have occurred in the last two matches; the former for his strike at Newcastle, the latter teeing up Salah in the Merseyside derby.
With that having coincided with a shift to the left wing, it is becoming increasingly hard to say that Núñez is ‘out of position’. Dribbling is typically associated with wide men, and in a key metric, he outranks the likes of Messi and Mbappé in this regard. Shifting him to the flank is increasingly looking like a Jürgen Klopp masterstroke.
With productive dribbles an established strength of Cody Gakpo, while Luis Díaz and Salah are also likely to contribute, the Liverpool front line is looking increasingly capable of carrying the team to better things.
