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Player reportPremier League 2025/26

Jefferson Lerma

Crystal Palace
Ball-winning 6 (destroyer) DM
16.5 defensive actions/90
defensive middeep-lying playmakerpress resistancescreening
1920
minutes
31 apps
945
passes
77% completed
77%
pass completion
945 passes
98
progressive passes
4.6/90
351
defensive actions
16.5/90
54
tackles + interceptions
55% tackle win
102
recoveries
4.8/90
157
line-breaking passes
7.4/90
Overview

The player

Who he is and how he compares with his peers.

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
drop between the centre-backs — mostly in the middle third (57% of his 945 passes)
77% completion · 945× in 31/31 matches
↓
PROGRESS CENTRAL
break a line through the middle
4.6 prog/90 · 157× in 28/31 matches
↓
SCREEN / WIN BALL
protect the back four
7.3 ball-wins/90 · 156× in 31/31 matches
↓
RECYCLE / PROGRESS
keep it ticking, feed the final third
3.6 f3-entries/90 · 76× in 20/31 matches
Signature: Receive → Progress Central → Screen / Win Ball → Recycle / Progress — the only steps proven repeatable this season (4 of 5 in the full pattern). Not enough evidence yet for the rest of the chain below.
Not a pattern: escape pressure — 9× (low confidence, shown as a number only, no tactical conclusion drawn) — omitted from the signature rather than presented as one.
19

Where is he influential — vs where is he merely present?

Red fill = raw touch territory. Gold rings = zones where his influence (xT added, progression, line-breaks, key passes) outweighs how often he's actually there — one combined map instead of two separate maps to compare by eye. Red with no ring: present but not dangerous. A ring on faint red: rare touches, outsized impact.

own goal left, attacking →
30
passes / match
16.5
def actions / 90
1–73
pass range (matches)
62
clearances
Pass range = his fewest and most passes in any single match this season (1 at the low end, 73 at the high) — a measure of match-to-match involvement, not pass distance.
In possession

In possession

What he does with the ball: build-up, progression, creation, carrying and finishing.

11

How dangerous are his carries?

Real ball-carries

138 tracked carries (6.5/90, 23 progressive, 1114m total) — the ball moving with his touches, a different signal from dribbles below (beating an opponent 1v1). even a player who rarely dribbles past a man can still carry the ball forward constantly in build-up; this is that.

1%11%8%7%2%7%12%12%1%1%1%11%8%12%7%
progressivelateral/short% of his 138 carries originating in each zone · own goal left, attacking →
Every carry, exact path — median 7m, longest 24m
By zone — where the carry started → where it ended
13Outside → Inside
93Inside → Inside
25Outside → Outside
7Inside → Outside
First (39)Second (38)Third (31)Fourth (30)grouped by carry pattern (start + end position), largest group first
startendown goal left, attacking →

Beaten in the tackle

How often an attacker gets past him in a 1v1 defensive duel — the closest signal the data has to "dribbled past" (no attacker-beat-defender field exists directly, so this counts tackles he attempted and lost).

29
tackle duels
16
won
13
beaten · 45%
brighter band = more tackle duels · own goal left, attacking →
INSIDE 69%
OUTSIDE 31%
Tackle-duel location — 20 inside · 9 outside
Right Wing
4 · 14%
Right Half-Space
7 · 24%
Central
10 · 34%
Left Half-Space
3 · 10%
Left Wing
5 · 17%
Vision AI beaten in 13 of 29 tackle duels (45% loss rate) — a real defensive leak worth flagging.
Every tackle duel, exact location
wonlost — dribbled pastown goal left, attacking →

Dribbles (1v1s)

Can he escape pressure on the ball? His carries/dribbles in tight central areas, by channel. Season rate: 0.42 dribbles attempted /90.

brighter band = more dribbles · own goal left, attacking →
INSIDE 56%
OUTSIDE 44%
Dribble location — 5 inside · 4 outside
Right Wing
4 · 44%
Right Half-Space
1 · 11%
Central
0 · 0%
Left Half-Space
4 · 44%
Left Wing
0 · 0%
Vision AI 56% of his carries are central — he receives and turns in congested midfield zones rather than out wide.
03

How does he build & move the ball?

How does he escape the first line?

15%
vertical passes
62×
5%
switches
21×
20%
carries
82×
59%
short circulation
240×
Answer: he escapes the press primarily through carrying — stepping out with the ball.

How he moves the ball — his 4 busiest progression routes, not where every pass starts and ends separately. Arrow width = how often, colour = xT gained, dashed = switch of play. The full breakdown is in the lane matrix below.

own goal left, attacking →
Lane transition matrix — when he receives in a lane, where does it go?
TO →RWRHSCLHSLWRW10739%4230%3228%302%21%1RHS14327%3820%2841%5910%143%4C1765%919%3343%7524%439%16LHS1965%99%1733%6425%4929%57LW1021%19%932%3358%59FROM
Rows normalised: each row sums to 100% of that lane's completed passes. Grey number = passes from that lane.

Primary route: the right wing in the final third → the right half-space in the final third — 12 progressive passes (13% of his progression) at 0.262 xT each. He moves it inside.

His progression is inward: 55% of progressive passes move the ball toward the middle versus 9% going wider — he cuts in rather than holding width.

10% of his passes are cross-field switches — he changes the point of attack often.

Quality behind the volume: 33 line-breaking passes and 76 final-third entries, 14.8 total xT added.

Origin and destination are measured on the same event row — no receiver inference. Receiver identity is not recoverable from this data source.
All passes — origin zone share
Filter: from to
1%8%8%7%4%2%1%6%12%9%5%2%1%6%10%10%6%2%
completedincomplete945 passes · any zone → any zone · own goal left, attacking →
945
passes
77%
completed
221
lost
Vision AIIn line with his 77% season completion rate.
02

How does he progress play?

How much he drives the ball forward. Progressive = completed pass advancing ≥15 toward goal.

98
progressive · 4.6/90
76
final-third entries · 3.6/90
20
box entries · 0.94/90
16
progression index /90
Progression index: one composite number — progressive passes + progressive carries + 2% of total distance progressed + 8× positive xT added, all per 90. Weights VOLUME and THREAT together rather than counting progressive actions alone.
12

How does he create chances?

12 key passes (0.56/90), 0 of them assists — where his chance creation specifically comes from, 18 zones (6×3), showing his share of key passes originating there.

Chance creation — key pass origin zone share
Filter:
17%25%8%25%8%17%
chance creation (12)assist (0)% of the selected group's key passes originating in each zone
14

Can he finish?

19 shots · 1.88 xG · 0 goals (-1.88 vs xG). Mostly right-footed. Circle size = xG.

shots  19
on target  12
goals  0
xG  1.88
xG on target  1.92
xG / shot  0.099
Where he shoots from — click an area of the box
06

Where does he become vulnerable?

227 times he gave the ball away. For a defender the danger is where — a loss in his own third can turn into a chance against; higher up it costs little.

82
attacking third (cheap)
98
middle third
47
own third (dangerous)
Vision AI 36% of losses are in the attacking third — a notable share happen deeper, which invites transitions.
Mistake danger (proxy): 3.58 danger-index/90 · 0.336 avg/turnover. Weights each loss by threat conceded at that location. True xT-conceded needs the opponent possession model; positional proxy.
07

What is his passing profile?

945
passes attempted
48%
mostly forward
47%
mostly short
Direction
Forward
451 · 48%
Sideways
284 · 30%
Backward
210 · 22%
Length (completed)
Short (<15m)
338 · 47%
Medium
329 · 45%
Long (>30m)
57 · 8%
05

Preferred Progression Routes — xT-weighted

His progressive passes as zone→zone routes, weighted by expected threat (xT) added — arrow width and the number are the total xT generated on each route, not just how often he plays it. This is where he actually moves the needle.

1.650.730.700.680.680.40
own goal left, attacking →
Highest-value routes (xT)
1.65
Right Wing Att third → Right Half-Space Att third
5 passes · 1 to a shot
0.73
Left Half-Space Mid third → Right Wing Att third
5 passes
0.70
Right Wing Att third → Central Att third
2 passes
0.68
Left Wing Att third → Central Att third
2 passes · 1 to a shot
0.68
Left Wing Att third → Left Half-Space Att third
2 passes
0.40
Central Mid third → Left Wing Att third
3 passes
09

Where Does He Receive?

The zones where Jefferson Lerma gets on the ball — his top three ball-collection areas highlighted (gold = primary). Reception is proxied by where his on-ball actions begin (no explicit receiver is recorded).

123
1 = primary, 2 = secondary, 3 = third · own goal left, attacking →
His collection zones
16%
Primary
Left Half-Space, Middle third
16%
Secondary
Central, Middle third
11%
Third
Right Half-Space, Middle third
These are the zones where he collected the ball most.
10

Where Does He Operate? — Every Zone

Every on-ball touch (pass, dribble, shot) binned into a 6×3 grid — raw counts of where Jefferson Lerma actually gets on the ball. Hover any zone for its breakdown by action type, its share of all touches, and the exact coordinate range it covers.

Filter:
145599975415660110885425137577683924
own goal left, attacking → · brighter + higher number = more touches

Passes only — completed vs incomplete, by zone

Same zone grid, restricted to passes so completed/incomplete and match filters actually mean something — a shot or a dribble has no "completed" in the pass sense.

1%8%8%7%4%2%1%6%12%9%5%2%1%6%10%10%6%2%
own goal left, attacking →
08

Every Pass This Season — completed vs incomplete

Every pass this season, plotted individually — green = completed, grey (dashed) = incomplete, gold = key pass. Filter by outcome or isolate one match below.

12Key pass
40Cross
14Cutback
98Progressive
157Long ball
45Switch
By zone — where the pass started → where it landed
107Outside → Inside
382Inside → Inside
102Outside → Outside
133Inside → Outside
By direction
451Forward
210Backward
284Sideways
own goal left, attacking →
04

Tactical patterns — how his football actually looks

Three clustered sequence diagrams from his own event data — his three busiest routes: the way he progresses, the pattern behind his chances, and where a turnover turns dangerous.

own goal left, attacking →
How does he progress the ball forward?
His most common route for progressing play: he plays inside from the right wing toward the right hs in the final third — 5 passes worth 1.65 xT.
Where do his chances come from?
Of 12 key passes, his busiest route is a delivery where he plays inside from the right hs toward the central in the final third — 3 times. The receiver isn't identifiable in this data, only where the pass started and ended.
Where does he lose the ball most?
This is a RATE, not a raw count — the share of his touches in each zone that end in a turnover, so a zone he simply plays in more often doesn't automatically look riskier. His weakest zone is the central in the final third: 49% of his 39 touches there are lost (19 times).
33%14/43 lost19%10/53 lost17%8/46 lost9%3/32 lost24%10/42 lost19%13/67 lost19%20/104 lost21%31/149 lost9%14/153 lost25%16/64 lost47%21/45 lost41%11/27 lost49%19/39 lost28%11/39 lost48%20/42 lostRWRHSCLHSLWDEFMIDATT
13

Crosses & Cutbacks

40 crosses (1.88/90, 14 completed) and 14 cutbacks (0.66/90, 4 completed) — two separate wide-delivery patterns into the box, each its own map with a completed/failed filter. Neither is a tagged event, so both are inferred from pass geometry — the intended end point of a failed attempt is still real data (an interception doesn’t erase where the ball was aimed): a cross is a pass aimed into the box starting from a wide channel; a cutback starts almost on the byline but is squared back rather than driven forward, aimed centrally around the box. The completed-cross count was checked against this platform’s own real match-level cross totals and lands within about 1 cross of the true count.

Crosses — close-up on the final third
Cutbacks — close-up on the final third
completedfailed (dashed)close-up on the box — attacking ↑ toward goal
Out of possession

Out of possession

Where and how he defends and presses.

15

How & where does he defend?

351 defensive actions across the season (16.5/90). Where he wins the ball, and how — the core question for a defender. Aerial duels are not recorded for this competition, so aerial dominance is not measured here.

click a card to isolate that action type · own goal left, attacking →
29
tackles · 55% won
25
interceptions · 1.2/90
102
recoveries · 4.8/90
62
clearances · 2.9/90
4
blocks
38
avg action height
50
won high (att 3rd)
130
middle third
171
own third
Vision AI A mid-block defender. He wins the ball mainly by stepping in — tackles, interceptions & recoveries outweigh clearances. 156 proactive ball-wins (7.3/90), tackle success 55%. He defends mostly around the middle third.
16

Can he play under pressure?

Split by how hard the opponent pressed (opponent PPDA — lower = more intense press). Can Jefferson Lerma still play out when the opponent presses high? His build-up quality split by press intensity — the key question for a ball-playing defender. Tiers of ~10-11 matches — directional evidence, not proof.

press tier
completion
prog /90
line-breaks /90
xT /90
High press (PPDA 3.9, 10m)
75%
5.6
8.2
1.29
Mid press (PPDA 4.9, 10m)
74%
4.2
7.1
0.90
Low press (PPDA 6.3, 11m)
80%
4.1
7.0
1.19
Team

Team context

How much of the team runs through him, and what changes without him.

17

Impact on the Team

Crystal Palace's output per match with Jefferson Lerma (31 matches) versus without him (7 matches). What his own defending should move — goals conceded and results — leads; attacking output (largely out of a defender's hands) is shown after, for context. A proper on-off model needs many more minutes.

WITH (31)
WITHOUT (7)
Δ
goals against /match
1.26
1.71
-0.46
points /match
1.19
1.14
+0.05
goals for /match
1.03
1.29
-0.25
xG for /match
1.35
1.15
+0.20
18

His Share of the Team

Of everything Crystal Palace produced this season, the categories where the biggest share ran through Jefferson Lerma specifically — his share of the team total, not a per-90 rate.

category
share
him / team
interceptions
6%
26 / 425
ball recoveries
5%
112 / 2079
box entries
5%
35 / 700
Recruitment

Style and verdict

Style profile, closest comparables, and the summary.

20

Playing-Style Profile

Not raw event counts — football style scores: weighted models scored 0–100 against the 258 defensive 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.

Deep-lying playmaker41%Tempo controller34%Ball-winning 630%
Why Deep-lying playmaker 41%: a weighted blend of progression 59 (weight 30%) + build-up 57 (weight 30%) + press resistance 27 (weight 20%) + retention 23 (weight 20%). The score reflects how distinctively his profile SHAPE matches this archetype vs his peers.
Elite
passing directness, box threat
Strong
through-balls, line-breaking
Average
final-third threat, crossing, territory (wide vs central), creativity, progression, build-up, transition, receiving zones
Weak
defensive aggression, ball-winning, press resistance, dribbling, retention, carrying
Unknown
aerial ability, marking, off-ball running — not in event data
Passing directness
95
Box threat
85
Through-balls ~proxy
81
Line-breaking
70
Final-third threat
62
Crossing
62
Territory (wide vs central)
60
Creativity
59
Progression
59
Build-up
57
Transition ~proxy
53
Receiving zones
51
Defensive aggression
37
Ball-winning
35
Press resistance ~proxy
27
Dribbling
25
Retention
23
Carrying
15
21

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: 179 cm / 84 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.

Nahuel Estévez Parma Calcio 1913 · Serie A 25/26 · 181 cm / 77 kg
82%
Driven by: press resistance (18%), carrying (14%), passing directness (13%). Different mechanism — Lerma more via box threat, press resistance.
Joris Chotard Brest · Ligue 1 · 179 cm / 70 kg
81%
Driven by: press resistance (19%), passing directness (17%), dribbling (14%). Different mechanism — Lerma more via box threat.
Martin Frese Hellas Verona · Serie A 25/26 · 179 cm / 75 kg
77%
Driven by: press resistance (19%), carrying (15%), retention (14%). Different mechanism — Lerma more via receiving zones, box threat; Frese more via territory (wide vs central), ball-winning.
Stefano Sabelli Genoa · Serie A · 176 cm / 70 kg
70%
Driven by: press resistance (16%), retention (15%), dribbling (13%). Different mechanism — Lerma more via box threat, creativity; Sabelli more via territory (wide vs central), line-breaking.
Janik Haberer Union Berlin · Bundesliga · 186 cm / 78 kg
65%
Driven by: carrying (16%), through-balls (13%), retention (12%). Different mechanism — Lerma more via passing directness, transition; Haberer more via line-breaking, territory (wide vs central).
Matthieu Udol Lens · Ligue 1 · 178 cm / 79 kg
62%
Driven by: box threat (22%), through-balls (11%), press resistance (11%). Different mechanism — Lerma more via passing directness, build-up; Udol more via carrying, territory (wide vs central).
22

Summary

Jefferson Lerma is a deep-lying playmaker: 77% completion, 157 line-breaks and 4.6 progressive passes /90, resisting pressure with 33% dribble success. A central controller. [Off-ball screening position and scanning need tracking data.]

Based on 31 matches (1920 minutes) this season — a reliable read. He profiles as a deep-lying playmaker — best used in a system built around that identity. His biggest room for growth is retention — even a modest improvement there would meaningfully lift his overall deep-lying playmaker 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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