Receiving on the turn revisited, who are the best passers?

A couple of weeks ago we introduced our latest “Receiving on the Turn” metrics which identify how often players either open or close their body when receiving a pass (if you missed this article, it can be found here). Of course this isn’t always entirely down to the receiver, the quality of the pass will have an influence on the receivers ability to turn, so today I’m going to explore these metrics from the Passers point of view. We have leveraged the information used to create three new Passing Metrics:

Passes with Receiver Opening the Body - This is where a pass has been played to a receiver whose body orientation has changed to a more open position (i.e. rotating towards their teams attacking direction) between the point of the pass & the point of reception.

Passes with Receiver Closing the Body - This is where a pass has been played to a receiver whose body orientation has changed to a more closed position (i.e. rotating towards their own goal) between the point of the pass & the point of reception.

Passes with Receiver Opening to Goal - This is where a pass has been played to a receiver whose body orientation has changed to a more open position & at the point of reception they are facing the opponents goal.

Okay so the first interesting thing to note about these metrics is there appears to be a substantial positional effect. Looking at the leaders in Passes with Receiver Opening the Body the first 15 players are all Centre Backs & the 16th ranked player is Josko Gvardiol, a natural Centre Back that’s playing at Full Back. It’s a similar story when looking at Passes with Receiver Opening to Goal where the highest ranked outfield player that isn’t a Centre Back ranks 25th & finally, 9 of the 11 most Passes Received Closing the Body are Full Backs.

I think this highlights that when looking at these metrics it is going to be important to look at them with positional context in mind. This is all very understandable of course, the further back on the pitch you play the more forward passes you are likely to play & therefore the more opportunities for the receiver to open their body & the opposite is true the further forward & wider you play, the more likely you are to play sideways or backwards passes that might lend themselves to the receiver closing their body.

So first up lets have a look at the highest ranked players in each position group & where they rank overall:

I am actually pretty excited that the more defensive minded players are showing up so well here, traditionally passing metrics have skewed a little more towards the more attacking players who are involved in Chance Creation so I’m pleased that we can bring something new to the table that might help to showcase the passing quality of other players.

So let’s look at a few positions & see what we can learn, starting from the back with Goalkeepers.

It has historically been very difficult to pick out the best passing Goalkeepers from data alone so it is pleasing to see Alisson & Ederson showing up as the standouts here as they are both often recognised as the best Goalkeepers with the ball at their feet. Perhaps unsurprisingly given what we explored in the previous article regarding Tottenham’s Centre Backs, but Guglielmo Vicario also profiles well here (16.59% Passes with Receiver Opening Body, 1.63% Passes with Receiver Closing Body) & there is a clear drop off when compared to his replacements (Forster, Kinsky & Austin combined: 11.38% Passes Opening Body, 2.38% Passes Closing Body).

Next lets move one position forward & have a look at the Centre Backs. With Centre Backs showing up the most prominently in Passes with Receiver Opening the Body & Passes with Receiver Opening the Body to Goal. Let’s have a look at the top 5 in both volume & percentage of passes played.

As with Goalkeepers I’m pleased to see players like William Saliba, Virgil van Dijk & Levi Colwill top the list as these are players well recognised for their ability on the ball, but it is Dan Burn that I’d like to highlight. The emergence of Lewis Hall as well as Sven Botman’s absence through injury have given him the opportunity to return to his more natural position at Centre Back & he has responded with one of the best seasons of his career. Thomas Tuchel handed him his England Debut during this past International break & it’s easy to see why, always regarded as a strong defensive player (199 Challenges Won this season ranks 3rd in the Premier League) but he also profiles as an extremely detailed passer ranking clearly 1st in both Passes with Receiver Opening the Body & Opening to Goal, and third on Passes with Receiver Closing the Body at 2.49%.

Finally, given Cole Palmer was the stand out player when it came to Receptions Opening the Body I thought it would be interesting to look at the players that pass to him the most in the Chelsea team, below are the top 5 players when it comes to Passes complete to Cole Palmer this season:

=1. Moises Caicedo, 143
=1. Enzo Fernandez, 143
3. Malo Gusto, 91
4. Marc Cucurella, 79
5. Levi Colwill, 73

First of all kudos to the Chelsea Midfield for matching each other there, given those two are clear of the rest lets have a look at how they compare to each other:

So my first takeaway from this given that neither player is off the scale here is that Cole Palmer's numbers for Receptions on the Turn (which were off the scale) are likely more indicative of his own receiving ability rather than the quality of the passes he receives. Then when we get to the comparison of the two players it’s a clear victory for Moises Caicedo when it comes to putting the ball in a position that allows the target to receive the ball on the turn, however, both players could look to improve on the number of passes they play that force their targets to close their body.

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