Good post. Also there is a clever play with stats and percentages. For example, if a player completes 8/10 passes and other player completes 9/10 passes, percentage wise there is a difference of 10% but in raw numbers it's just 1 more misplaced pass.
On an average midfielders play around 70 passes, if one player completes 60 passes and other player completes 65 passes then percentage wise it's 85% completion vs 92%. But it's just 5 more completed passes and no one even knows in which area those extra passes are completed. Usually deeper midfielders plays lot of short passes with CBs.
I tried to take few relevant stats for the players compared (last 3 seasons)
Some of the criticism is weird as the points raised are Pogba vs mix of 3-4 midfielders.
He doesn't dribble more than Modric/Thiago, he doesn't create as many chances as Kroos, his goal scoring record is no better than KdB . It's all mashed up, cherry picking better stats from 3-4 CMs and then point out how Pogba is not better than them.
Anyways, Pogba misplaces around 5-6 passes more than other 3 CMs on an average but his quality of chances is always better than other 3 midfielders, this season and last , his expected assists per 90 mins is almost same as other 3 combined.
Is 5-6 passes worth what Pogba brings to the team?
Goals from Open play | |
Pogba | 13 |
Kroos + Modric | 16 |
Kroos + Thiago | 16 |
Modric + Thiago | 14 |
Assists (Open Play) | |
Pogba | 21 |
Kroos + Modric + Thiago | 26 |
Kroos + Modric | 19 |
Kroos + Thiago | 12 |
Modric + Thiago | 21 |
XA/90 | |
Pogba | 0.56 |
Kroos + Modric | 0.69 |
Kroos + Thiago | 0.55 |
Modric + Thiago | 0.64 |
Btw, again this is not to say Pogba > any midfielder, just to point out how midfielders are different and contribute is so many other ways. There is no need to take one particular attribute from each midfielder to compare them with Pogba.