A Comparison of the Deep and Attacking Playmaker: Statistical and Tactical Analysis

The playmaker has always been an instrumental piece in football. Responsible for the orchestration of their teams attacks, every successful team has used one, from Il Grande Inter's Luis Suárez to the great Johan Cruijff, playmaker of the Total Football Netherlands side. Without one, a team's chances are greatly reduced, as there is no player with the responsibility of creating these chances. With one, they can dictate the tempo of the match better, and repeatedly cut through an opposition defence through precise passing to the forwards. 


Although the playmaker comes in many forms, from the Italian regista to the central winger, they nearly all fall under two categories; the deep-lying playmaker, and the more advanced, attacking playmaker. The main difference between the two is their positioning - the former lies between midfield and defence, whilst the latter sits higher up field, behind the attack.

For a list of different types of playmakers, I recommend the an article from the blog '90 Minutes Up'

The two different categories also have different responsibilities in their side, which is because of their positioning. 

The deeper sort of playmaker have the role of collecting the ball from the defence, helping his side have a good retention of the ball and ultimately a better possession stat. They are also in charge of dictating the tempo of the side from in between the banks, something the Fiorentina midfielder David Pizarro does to great effect. One form of the deep-lying playmaker has this as his main job - the regista. Since he is in front of the defence, the holding playmaker has defensive duties to fulfil, supporting the bank behind him to stop them becoming overloaded with opposition players. 

Behind the attack however, the advanced playmaker has little to no defensive responsibilities, but when he does, it is usually to nullify the threat of a deep opposition playmaker, something the Chelsea midfielder Oscar did brilliantly when told to mark Pirlo in their 2-2 draw with Juventus. The attacking playmaker is needed to create chances more than the deeper number 10, since he is closer to the opposition's goal, and will be getting more involved in the later build-up play than his teammate. Something which new Manchester United midfield Shinji Kagawa excels so well at is quickly changing the pace of the game, as soon as he gets the ball, the tempo increases with his fast and aggressive dribbling.

This chalkboard of Xabi Alonso playing for Real Madrid against CSKA Moscow shows the defensive responsibilities of the deep playmaker, throughout the match he made 6 tackles, with just one unsuccessful at 83.3% percent. Notice how most of the tackles are in his own half and near the centre of the pitch, these will be ahead of his defensive line as he covers his teammate from the defensive midfield position he has made his own at the Santiago Bernabeu. The World Cup winner was much more busier in defence than his German teammate Sami Khedira, who made 1 tackle and 2 interceptions throughout the match.  

We can also see how good a passer Alonso is from the stats of his distribution throughout the game. In the chalkboard you can see numerous successful through balls from his deep position, as he had a completion stat of 92%. The majority of these passes were to the wings, which were accommodated by Mesut Ozil and Cristiano Ronaldo, two other key players in Mourinho's setup at the Bernabeu. Alonso also receives a lot of passes from his teammates in defence, as he alongside Sami Khedira are responsible for collecting the ball from them and maintaining a good ball retention.

Alonso's teammate Mesut Ozil however, is much more lazy for defensive work, as the German has few responsibilites in supporting the back four. He only made four contributions to his team's defensive work throughout the whole match against Milan, letting Khedira and the aforementioned Alonso deal with an incredible attack of Ronaldinho, Ibrahimovic and Pato. The number 10 definitely makes up for the lack of defensive work in his game in his creativity and passing. Later on in their Champions League campaign, Madrid faced Harry Redknapp's Tottenham who they beat 5-0 over two legs against the London club.

With an accuracy of 91%, Ozil passed brilliantly in the hole, creating an outstanding 12 chances though the German left with just one assist to his name. You can clearly see that the majority of passes were made within the middle third of the oppositions half, amongst the trio behind Adebayor. These balls were predominantly short between the front four, something you see in Mourinho's counter-attacking philosophy, there are also very few passes back, as the Portuguese legend has his teams attacking with great pace, and rarely if ever slowing down attacks in the final third.

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