Since various issues with this keep coming up in different discussions, I sat down last evening and tried to compile the most useful stats from the Fbref scouting reports. All values/90, and referring to Premier League games 2022/23 season.
Figures in bold denote cases where the player is in the top 15 percentiles - ie, elite PL level.
Figures in italics denote cases where the player is below the 50 percentile - ie, sub-average PL level.
As far as percentiles go, Martial's is compared to strikers, the others to wingers/att mids.
SHOOTING AND SCORING: All of our attackers except Sancho create or get a high volume of scoring chances (NpxG) and have an elite level of shot volume and/or shot conversion. Garnacho and Antony shoots often but converts rarely (especially Antony), Sancho and Martial shoot rarely but convert often. Rashford is the only player to both shoot often and convert often, unsurprisingly. Sancho’s shot volume is extremely low (and his high conversion rate must obviously be seen in this light). But this is not a group who is adept at setting up goals (XaG)! None of our attackers have elite levels for this, and two (Rashford and Antony) are below average. More on this under passing and possession.
ON THE BALL: Short story here: We have two players who are good at this/do it a lot (Garnacho and Antony), and they are largely good at the same things. The other three are not generally good/strongly present in this part of the game, statistically speaking. For progressive carries in general, Garnacho and Antony are both great, while Martial and Rashford do little of it and Sancho is ordinary. The same two players are very involved in carrying the ball into the attacking 1/3, especially Garnacho, while Rashford and Sancho do this rarely, for players in their position. It’s a slightly different picture for carries into the penalty area, where Sancho and Garnacho stand out, Antony here not as much. For take-ons, the only thing that stands out as top level here is how frequently Garnacho attempts it. As a whole, it doesn’t look like a very successful group in this part of the game. The volume of successful take-ons is not in elite territory for any of the players. Indeed, in terms of the % of attempted take-ons that are successful, they are all sub-average, except Martial, but he is also the only one who makes few attempts. To an extent you can probably expect many attempts to mean a lower rate of success, but also if you go by the number of successful take-ons (which is the net output offensively so to speak), it’s hard to see these as good numbers.
PASSING: Here our forwards fall fairly neatly into two groups: Those who have some elite-level quality in this area (Sancho and Martial), and those who don’t ( Rashford, Antony, Garnacho).
For progressing the ball through passing in general, only Martial has a high level of output relative to his position. Rashford and Garnacho have sub-average output here, which of course reflect their deployment, playing usually off the defenders shoulder. Clearly, Uniteds attackers don’t play a large role in passing the ball up the pitch. They also don’t play a big role in passing the ball into the attacking 1/3 (all sub-average except Martial). For passes into the penalty area, it is again Sancho who stands out a mile, while Garnacho basically manages to make one pass into the PA once every five 90 minutes. Crossing into the penalty area is basically something our attackers don’t do, which presumably is by design.
You’d think then that they’d be all the more involved in receiving it, but actually that’s only the case with Garnacho, who is the only player with elite levels here. Otherwise, as a group they attempt few passes (especially Rashford and Garnacho) but are relatively accurate with the ones they make (Sancho and Martial elite level, no one sub-average). Sancho stands out for his ability to make key passes, which no one else does well (Rashford, Garnacho and Antony all sub-average in this respect).
I’m a little unsure how to read SCA (shot-creating actions) and GCA (Goal-creating actions). Except to say Sancho is the one who stands out positively.
Overall conclusion: Be very, very glad we have Bruno (and Eriksen).
POSSESSION: This also is an area where the group doesn’t appear especially strong. They are not very heavily involved in possession generally (Touches), especially not Rashford and Martial, but the relative involvement (ie, compared to other players in their position) increases in the attacking 1/3 and even more in the PA. Clearly, this reflects Uniteds style of play: Compared to others, our attackers have the ball a lot in the oppo penalty area, less in the attacking third as a whole and unusually little elsewhere on the pitch.
But here there are striking contrasts between indivdual players. Rashford is the most extreme – huge presence on the ball in the box, very little elsewhere. Garnacho has the strongest possession imprint, huge in the box and the attacking third, ordinary elsewhere. Antony has a big possession presence in the attacking third but ordinary further back and in the penalty area, Sancho is ordinary everywhere and Martial is weakly involved both in the penalty area and in the defensive 2/3. Miscontrols is not a astrong area, with Rashford, Garnacho and Sancho all being sub-average in this, and no one very good. Dispossession is mixed – It happens rarely to Sancho and Antony, but frequently to Garnacho (as you’d expect, given his style).
DEFENSIVE: Not great, to say the least. Again, this is probably more a reflection of style than of individual qualities, but Tackles + Interceptions is poor across the group, while the volume of ball recoveries is ordinary to poor. AERIAL IMPACT is also poor across the group, except to an extent Rashford.
The overall impression that emerges is that of a group of attackers who are employed in an aggressive and direct manner, with perhaps an unusually strong emphasis on the final phase attacks, and on carrying the ball rather than passing it creatively. They contribute relatively little in other aspects and phases of the game. The profile underlines I think how reliant we are on the midfield for both the build-up and for creative passing – and on the full-backs for any kind of crossing. Stylistically, Rashford and Garnacho especially, but also Antony come over as a fairly similar type of player (which you don’t need stats to tell you), while Martial and particularly Sancho bring a quite different sort of game, with other strengths and weaknesses.
Figures in bold denote cases where the player is in the top 15 percentiles - ie, elite PL level.
Figures in italics denote cases where the player is below the 50 percentile - ie, sub-average PL level.
As far as percentiles go, Martial's is compared to strikers, the others to wingers/att mids.
| STAT | Rashford | Garnacho | Sancho | Antony | Martial | |
| NpxG | 0.45 | 0.32 | 0.23 | 0.32 | 0.62 | SHOOTING |
| xAG | 0.11 | 0.20 | 0.17 | 0.11 | 0.16 | AND SCORING |
| Shots | 2.98 | 3.18 | 1.06 | 3.49 | 2.22 | |
| Goals/shot | 0.19 | 0.13 | 0.29 | 0.08 | 0.20 | |
| Prog carries | 2.49 | 4.97 | 3.86 | 4.61 | 1.33 | ON THE |
| Prog carrying dist | 69.59 | 131.32 | 106.29 | 126.58 | 46.85 | BALL |
| Carries into final1/3 | 1.51 | 4.37 | 1.67 | 3.10 | 1.33 | |
| Carries into pen area | 1.58 | 3.97 | 2.20 | 1.52 | 0.59 | |
| Take-ons att | 4.04 | 7.35 | 4.17 | 3.82 | 2.07 | |
| Sucessful take-ons | 1.40 | 1.99 | 1.74 | 1.19 | 1.03 | |
| Take-on success% | 34.6 | 27 | 41.8 | 31.0 | 50.0 | |
| Prog passes | 2.34 | 0.99 | 4.09 | 3.56 | 2.96 | PASSING |
| Prog passes rec | 7.32 | 13.51 | 8.94 | 8.24 | 6.06 | |
| Passes attempted | 24.97 | 28.41 | 41.06 | 40.59 | 28.23 | |
| Pass completion% | 75.4 | 80.4 | 83.6 | 78.7 | 82.7 | |
| Key Passes | 0.87 | 0.40 | 2.12 | 1.05 | 1.03 | |
| Passes into final 1/3 | 1.06 | 0.20 | 1.06 | 1.38 | 1.48 | |
| Passes into PA | 1.36 | 0.20 | 2.20 | 1.58 | 1.03 | |
| Crosses into PA | 0.08 | 0 | 0.08 | 0.07 | 0 | |
| SCA | 2.64 | 2.78 | 4.47 | 3.49 | 2.22 | |
| GCA | 0.38 | 0.99 | 0.61 | 0.26 | 0.74 | |
| Touches | 37.08 | 47.09 | 50.98 | 53.30 | 37.09 | POSSESSION |
| Touches att 1/3 | 20.78 | 30.6 | 27.5 | 30.18 | 21.28 | |
| Touches Pen Area | 5.62 | 8.34 | 5.23 | 3.82 | 4.29 | |
| Miscontrols | 2.53 | 3.97 | 2.65 | 1.84 | 2.51 | |
| dispossessed | 1.40 | 2.38 | 1.06 | 0.53 | 1.48 | |
| Ball recoveries | 3.24 | 3.97 | 5.76 | 4.94 | 1.48 | DEFENSIVE |
| Tkl+Int | 0.94 | 1.39 | 1.29 | 1.84 | 0.30 | |
| Aerials won | 0.72 | 0.40 | 0.15 | 0.20 | 0.89 | AERIAL |
SHOOTING AND SCORING: All of our attackers except Sancho create or get a high volume of scoring chances (NpxG) and have an elite level of shot volume and/or shot conversion. Garnacho and Antony shoots often but converts rarely (especially Antony), Sancho and Martial shoot rarely but convert often. Rashford is the only player to both shoot often and convert often, unsurprisingly. Sancho’s shot volume is extremely low (and his high conversion rate must obviously be seen in this light). But this is not a group who is adept at setting up goals (XaG)! None of our attackers have elite levels for this, and two (Rashford and Antony) are below average. More on this under passing and possession.
ON THE BALL: Short story here: We have two players who are good at this/do it a lot (Garnacho and Antony), and they are largely good at the same things. The other three are not generally good/strongly present in this part of the game, statistically speaking. For progressive carries in general, Garnacho and Antony are both great, while Martial and Rashford do little of it and Sancho is ordinary. The same two players are very involved in carrying the ball into the attacking 1/3, especially Garnacho, while Rashford and Sancho do this rarely, for players in their position. It’s a slightly different picture for carries into the penalty area, where Sancho and Garnacho stand out, Antony here not as much. For take-ons, the only thing that stands out as top level here is how frequently Garnacho attempts it. As a whole, it doesn’t look like a very successful group in this part of the game. The volume of successful take-ons is not in elite territory for any of the players. Indeed, in terms of the % of attempted take-ons that are successful, they are all sub-average, except Martial, but he is also the only one who makes few attempts. To an extent you can probably expect many attempts to mean a lower rate of success, but also if you go by the number of successful take-ons (which is the net output offensively so to speak), it’s hard to see these as good numbers.
PASSING: Here our forwards fall fairly neatly into two groups: Those who have some elite-level quality in this area (Sancho and Martial), and those who don’t ( Rashford, Antony, Garnacho).
For progressing the ball through passing in general, only Martial has a high level of output relative to his position. Rashford and Garnacho have sub-average output here, which of course reflect their deployment, playing usually off the defenders shoulder. Clearly, Uniteds attackers don’t play a large role in passing the ball up the pitch. They also don’t play a big role in passing the ball into the attacking 1/3 (all sub-average except Martial). For passes into the penalty area, it is again Sancho who stands out a mile, while Garnacho basically manages to make one pass into the PA once every five 90 minutes. Crossing into the penalty area is basically something our attackers don’t do, which presumably is by design.
You’d think then that they’d be all the more involved in receiving it, but actually that’s only the case with Garnacho, who is the only player with elite levels here. Otherwise, as a group they attempt few passes (especially Rashford and Garnacho) but are relatively accurate with the ones they make (Sancho and Martial elite level, no one sub-average). Sancho stands out for his ability to make key passes, which no one else does well (Rashford, Garnacho and Antony all sub-average in this respect).
I’m a little unsure how to read SCA (shot-creating actions) and GCA (Goal-creating actions). Except to say Sancho is the one who stands out positively.
Overall conclusion: Be very, very glad we have Bruno (and Eriksen).
POSSESSION: This also is an area where the group doesn’t appear especially strong. They are not very heavily involved in possession generally (Touches), especially not Rashford and Martial, but the relative involvement (ie, compared to other players in their position) increases in the attacking 1/3 and even more in the PA. Clearly, this reflects Uniteds style of play: Compared to others, our attackers have the ball a lot in the oppo penalty area, less in the attacking third as a whole and unusually little elsewhere on the pitch.
But here there are striking contrasts between indivdual players. Rashford is the most extreme – huge presence on the ball in the box, very little elsewhere. Garnacho has the strongest possession imprint, huge in the box and the attacking third, ordinary elsewhere. Antony has a big possession presence in the attacking third but ordinary further back and in the penalty area, Sancho is ordinary everywhere and Martial is weakly involved both in the penalty area and in the defensive 2/3. Miscontrols is not a astrong area, with Rashford, Garnacho and Sancho all being sub-average in this, and no one very good. Dispossession is mixed – It happens rarely to Sancho and Antony, but frequently to Garnacho (as you’d expect, given his style).
DEFENSIVE: Not great, to say the least. Again, this is probably more a reflection of style than of individual qualities, but Tackles + Interceptions is poor across the group, while the volume of ball recoveries is ordinary to poor. AERIAL IMPACT is also poor across the group, except to an extent Rashford.
The overall impression that emerges is that of a group of attackers who are employed in an aggressive and direct manner, with perhaps an unusually strong emphasis on the final phase attacks, and on carrying the ball rather than passing it creatively. They contribute relatively little in other aspects and phases of the game. The profile underlines I think how reliant we are on the midfield for both the build-up and for creative passing – and on the full-backs for any kind of crossing. Stylistically, Rashford and Garnacho especially, but also Antony come over as a fairly similar type of player (which you don’t need stats to tell you), while Martial and particularly Sancho bring a quite different sort of game, with other strengths and weaknesses.
