Thin sample this season. Will Hughes has played 3 matches (54 min) so far, so sections that need a bigger sample to say anything reliable are not shown here — they are missing on purpose, not broken. See all seasons combined →
01
What Patterns Define Him?
His repeatable signature. A step only appears if its reliability score (sample size × match coverage) reaches at least Medium confidence — pattern mining, not anecdotes.
RECEIVE
Left Half-Space, Attacking third — mostly in the attacking third (47% of his 17 passes)
76% completion · 17× in 3/3 matches
Signature: Only Receive shows a proven, repeatable pattern this season — too little evidence yet (3 matches loaded) for a fuller signature chain.
Not a pattern: progress — 0× (insufficient confidence, hidden — not enough evidence yet); arrive — 0× (insufficient confidence, hidden — not enough evidence yet); create / finish — 1× (low confidence, shown as a number only, no tactical conclusion drawn) — omitted from the signature rather than presented as one.
Team
Team context
How much of the team runs through him, and what changes without him.
Crystal Palace's output per match with Will Hughes (3 matches) versus without him (5 matches). Insufficient evidence — the without-sample is only 5 matches; treat every Δ below as noise until more games exist. A proper on-off model needs many more minutes.
WITH (3)
WITHOUT (5)
Δ
goals for /match
1.67
0.80
+0.87
xG for /match
0.75
1.14
-0.40
goals against /match
3.33
1.80
+1.53
points /match
1.00
0.80
+0.20
03
His Share of the Team
Of everything Crystal Palace produced this season, the categories where the biggest share ran through Will Hughes specifically — his share of the team total, not a per-90 rate.
category
share
him / team
expected assists (xA)
5%
2.2 / 41.7
box entries
5%
34 / 684
final-third entries
5%
86 / 1768
Recruitment
Style and verdict
Style profile, closest comparables, and the summary.
Not raw event counts — football style scores: weighted models scored 0–100 against the 383 central mids in the pool (min 450 min). This is what separates players who post similar numbers but play differently. Proxy dimensions are inferred from on-ball data; true off-ball running / under-pressure context is not measured.
aerial ability, marking, off-ball running — not in event data
Passing directness
98
Creativity
72
Receiving zones
64
Final-third threat
64
Progression
62
Crossing
61
Press resistance ~proxy
59
Dribbling
59
Line-breaking
59
Transition ~proxy
59
Through-balls ~proxy
55
Build-up
50
Retention
49
Box threat
43
Defensive aggression
40
Carrying
40
Ball-winning
40
Territory (wide vs central)
20
05
Similar Players — in style space
Closest comparables measured on the style scores above, within the same position family — so it separates how players are alike, not just how much they touch the ball. Each line explains the shared strength and the divergent mechanism. A light physical-profile term (height / weight; this player: 185 cm / 74 kg) is included at a quarter of one style axis's weight — enough to break ties between stylistic twins, not to override style.Scope: pooled across the Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1 and Serie A, percentiled within each player's own league before comparing — a match from another league is marked with its league name.
Style, not quality:a high match here means two players tend to produce the ball in similar ways — it is not a ranking, a scouting recommendation, or a claim that they are equally good.
Hans Nicolussi Caviglia Parma Calcio 1913 · Serie A 25/26 · 180 cm / 76 kg
69%
Driven by: territory (wide vs central) (30%), passing directness (26%), creativity (12%). Different mechanism — Hughes more via passing directness, line-breaking.
Ísak Bergmann Jóhannesson Koln · Bundesliga · 180 cm / 72 kg
68%
Driven by: passing directness (16%), territory (wide vs central) (15%), ball-winning (11%). Different mechanism — Hughes more via passing directness, ball-winning; Jóhannesson more via through-balls, carrying.
Sandro Tonali Tottenham · 181 cm / 79 kg
68%
Driven by: passing directness (32%), creativity (18%), territory (wide vs central) (13%). Different mechanism — Tonali more via carrying, transition.
Florian Neuhaus Borussia Monchengladbach · Bundesliga · 185 cm / 74 kg
65%
Driven by: passing directness (35%), territory (wide vs central) (21%), creativity (11%). Different mechanism — Hughes more via crossing; Neuhaus more via carrying, box threat.
Gianluca Gaetano Atalanta · Serie A · 183 cm / 71 kg
64%
Driven by: passing directness (22%), territory (wide vs central) (22%), creativity (21%). Different mechanism — Hughes more via passing directness; Gaetano more via ball-winning, build-up.
Angelo Stiller Stuttgart · Bundesliga · 183 cm / 77 kg
64%
Driven by: passing directness (24%), creativity (16%), territory (wide vs central) (11%). Different mechanism — Stiller more via line-breaking, carrying.
06
Summary
Will Hughes is an advanced playmaker (8) / deep-lying playmaker: 0.0 progressive passes, 1.67 key passes /90, 0 box entries, 0 goals from 0.00 xG. A box-to-box contributor across every phase.
Based on 3 matches (54 minutes) — an early read, treat with caution until more minutes are logged. He profiles as an advanced playmaker (8) / deep-lying playmaker — best used in a system built around that identity.
His biggest room for growth is box threat — even a modest improvement there would meaningfully lift his overall advanced playmaker (8) profile.
✨ This report is interactive
Click any stat card to filter its map, hover a dot for the exact match, and use the dropdowns to slice passes zone-to-zone. Nothing here is static.
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