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Player reportPremier League 2025/26

Bukayo Saka

Arsenal
Creative wide forward W
2.08 key passes/90 · 30% in the half-space
Capability Analysis
Wide Delivery43%vs 7 wingers
"Does he create danger from wide areas -- crosses and cutbacks?"
Crosses /900.00%
Cross accuracy: 0.0%
Cutbacks /903.586%
Chance Creation46%vs 7 wingers
"Does he create real chances for others?"
Expected assists /900.05xA14%
Through balls /900.00%
Threat added by passing /900.94xT86%
Box entries (pass) /903.4486%
Ball-Carrying40%vs 7 wingers
"Does he advance the ball himself when the pass isn't on?"
Progressive carries /904.5343%
Carry distance /90118.01m57%
Successful take-ons /901.7529%
Take-on success39.19%29%
Box Threat76%vs 7 wingers
"Is he a genuine goal threat by shot volume and quality?"
xG /900.32xG86%
Shots /902.6657%
xGOT /900.33xGOT86%
Goals vs xG (in line with xG): 3 goals from 3.5 xG (-0.5)
right winger1v1 carriercuts insidehalf-space creator
2983
minutes
38 apps
10
goals
10.58 xG
148
dribbles
39% won
69
key passes
2.08/90
24
box entries
0.72/90
33
progressive passes
1.0/90
31
final-3rd entries
0.9/90
72%
pass completion
1163 passes
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
Right Wing, Attacking third — mostly in the attacking third (67% of his 1163 passes)
62% of touches wide right · 1163× in 38/38 matches
↓
CARRY / BEAT MAN
dribble past the full-back, cut inside
39% won · 148× in 35/38 matches
↓
PROGRESS
drive the ball into the final third
1.0 progressive · 0.9 f3/90 · 33× in 18/38 matches
↓
CREATE / FINISH
cut-back or shot from inside
2.08 key passes /90 · 10 goals · 157× in 30/38 matches
Signature: receive wide right → beat the full-back → carry into the left-foot channel → deliver or shoot. Stop the 1v1 on the right and you starve the chain.
21

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 →
31
passes / match
4.2
dribbles / match
3–58
pass range (matches)
1–9
dribble range (matches)
Pass range = his fewest and most passes in any single match this season (3 at the low end, 58 at the high) — a measure of match-to-match involvement, not pass distance. Dribble range works the same way, for dribbles/carries per match.
In possession

In possession

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

05

How dangerous are his carries?

Real ball-carries

375 tracked carries (11.3/90, 102 progressive, 3782m total) — the ball moving with his touches, a different signal from dribbles below (beating an opponent 1v1). this counts every touch-carry, not just his dribble attempts below — a fuller picture of how much of his ball-carrying is control-and-move rather than beating a man.

0%2%7%21%50%15%0%1%1%2%1%0%0%0%1%0%
progressivelateral/short% of his 375 carries originating in each zone · own goal left, attacking →
Every carry, exact path — median 8m, longest 40m
By zone — where the carry started → where it ended
83Outside → Inside
67Inside → Inside
212Outside → Outside
13Inside → Outside
First (219)Second (76)Third (70)Fourth (10)grouped by carry pattern (start + end position), largest group first
startendown goal left, attacking →

Dribbles (1v1s)

Bukayo Saka's signature is the dribble. Does he carry outside (down the right wing) or inside (into the half-space / centre)? Every dribble classified by channel. Season rate: 4.47 dribbles attempted /90.

brighter band = more dribbles · own goal left, attacking →
INSIDE 38%
OUTSIDE 62%
Dribble location — 56 inside · 92 outside
Right Wing
91 · 61%
Right Half-Space
48 · 32%
Central
7 · 5%
Left Half-Space
1 · 1%
Left Wing
1 · 1%
Vision AI 62% of his dribbles are in the wide right lane — he attacks the full-back on the outside, then threatens to cut inside onto his left foot.
16

How does he build & move 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 →RWRHSCLHSLWRW56150%28339%2179%502%90%2RHS20217%3441%8235%705%112%5C5210%546%2433%1712%6LHS176%124%435%635%6LW714%157%429%2FROM
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 — 64 progressive passes (36% of his progression) at 0.055 xT each. He moves it inside.

His progression is inward: 83% of progressive passes move the ball toward the middle versus 1% going wider — he cuts in rather than holding width.

9% of his passes are cross-field switches — he changes the point of attack often.

Quality behind the volume: 88 line-breaking passes and 31 final-third entries, 14.2 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%5%9%12%33%27%0%1%2%3%3%1%0%0%0%1%1%
completedincomplete1163 passes · any zone → any zone · own goal left, attacking →
1163
passes
72%
completed
324
lost
Vision AIIn line with his 72% season completion rate.
13

How does he progress play?

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

33
progressive · 1.0/90
31
final-third entries · 0.9/90
24
box entries · 0.72/90
18
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.
07

How does he create chances?

69 key passes (2.08/90), 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:
24%60%9%5%2%
chance creation (55)assist (0)% of the selected group's key passes originating in each zone
Box deliveries — key passes reaching the final third, by flank
from the left (1)from the right (54)of 55 key passes landing in the final thirdattacking ↑ toward goal
09

Can he finish?

88 shots · 10.58 xG · 10 goals (-0.58 vs xG). Mostly left-footed. Circle size = xG.

shots  88
on target  66
goals  10
xG  10.58
xG on target  11.04
xG / shot  0.120
Where he shoots from — click an area of the box
11

Where does he become vulnerable?

414 possessions lost. Directness has a cost — the question is where. Attacking-third losses are cheap; deep ones are dangerous.

284
attacking third (cheap)
103
middle third
27
own third (dangerous)
Vision AI 69% of losses are in the attacking third — he gambles where a turnover costs little.
Mistake danger (proxy): 2.15 danger-index/90 · 0.172 avg/turnover. Weights each loss by threat conceded at that location. True xT-conceded needs the opponent possession model; positional proxy.
12

What is his passing profile?

1163
passes attempted
41%
mostly sideways
65%
mostly short
Direction
Forward
279 · 24%
Sideways
475 · 41%
Backward
409 · 35%
Length (completed)
Short (<15m)
547 · 65%
Medium
246 · 29%
Long (>30m)
46 · 5%
15

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.

0.810.640.640.350.280.24
own goal left, attacking →
Highest-value routes (xT)
0.81
Right Wing Att third → Right Wing Att third
5 passes
0.64
Right Half-Space Att third → Right Half-Space Att third
3 passes · 1 to a shot
0.64
Right Wing Att third → Right Half-Space Att third
2 passes
0.35
Right Wing Att third → Central Att third
1 passes · 1 to a shot
0.28
Central Mid third → Left Half-Space Att third
2 passes
0.24
Right Half-Space Mid third → Right Wing Att third
2 passes
03

Where Does He Receive?

The zones where Bukayo Saka 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
45%
Primary
Right Wing, Attacking third
18%
Secondary
Right Half-Space, Attacking third
14%
Third
Right Wing, Middle third
These are the zones where he collected the ball most.
04

Where Does He Operate? — Every Zone

Every on-ball touch (pass, dribble, shot) binned into a 6×3 grid — raw counts of where Bukayo Saka 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:
164138110253259601257121156431403
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%5%9%12%33%27%0%1%2%3%3%1%0%0%0%1%1%
own goal left, attacking →
14

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.

69Key pass
23Cross
38Cutback
33Progressive
98Long ball
43Switch
By zone — where the pass started → where it landed
281Outside → Inside
220Inside → Inside
287Outside → Outside
51Inside → Outside
By direction
279Forward
409Backward
475Sideways
own goal left, attacking →
10

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 straight through the right wing in the final third — 5 passes worth 0.81 xT.
Where do his chances come from?
Of 69 key passes, his busiest route is a delivery where he plays inside from the right wing toward the central in the final third — 23 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 left half-space in the middle third: 46% of his 13 touches there are lost (6 times).
38%17/45 lost32%7/22 lost22%2/9 lost—1 touch · too few—0 touches · too few20%33/165 lost32%32/99 lost37%11/30 lost46%6/13 lost—2 touches · too few23%120/521 lost39%76/196 lost32%12/38 lost36%5/14 lost25%2/8 lostRWRHSCLHSLWDEFMIDATT
02

Does he carry inside or outside — his ball-carries across the pitch

Four arrows, one per movement class of his ball-carries: outside→inside (cutting in with the ball), inside→outside (carrying wide), outside→outside (down the touchline) and inside→inside (through the middle). Each count is measured from the carry's real start and end coordinates.

own goal left, attacking →
Across 375 ball-carries, his dominant tendency is that he drives along the touchline (57%). He carries from outside into the middle 83 times and out toward the touchline 13 — a genuine inside forward who cuts in with the ball.
08

What happens right after he carries the ball

Every carry's end point matched against his own very next pass or shot in the same match, when one starts almost exactly there — the direct continuation of that touch, not a separate stat. “No clean link” means no pass or shot of his own started close enough to count (often the carry ended in a tackle or a loss); it isn't a claim about exactly what happened, only that nothing traceable followed.

Shot
20 · 5%
Progressive / key pass
70 · 19%
Simple pass
205 · 55%
No clean link
80 · 21%
Of 375 carries, 5% flow straight into a shot of his own, 19% into a key or progressive pass — a genuine end product to the carry, not just ball retention. 21% have no clean link to a next touch of his own close to where the carry ended.
06

Crosses & Cutbacks

23 crosses (0.69/90, 7 completed) and 38 cutbacks (1.15/90, 24 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.

18

How & where does he defend?

371 defensive actions across the season (11.2/90). 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 →
52
tackles · 56% won
20
interceptions · 0.6/90
140
recoveries · 4.2/90
21
clearances · 0.6/90
27
blocks
50
avg action height
106
won high (att 3rd)
164
middle third
101
own third
Vision AI A front-foot / high defender. He wins the ball mainly by stepping in — tackles, interceptions & recoveries outweigh clearances. 212 proactive ball-wins (6.4/90), tackle success 56%. He defends high, stepping out to intercept — suits a high line.

Defensive work in the attacking half

Ball-wins in the attacking half only (own half vs. attacking half, a simple 2-way split, not the usual thirds) — the clearest single signal of how much he presses and recovers the ball high up the pitch.

191
attacking-half actions · 5.76/90
17

Against Different Pressing Intensities

Split by how hard the opponent pressed (opponent PPDA — lower = more intense press). Does Bukayo Saka keep producing when the game is tight and the press is high? Tiers of ~12-14 matches — directional evidence, not proof.

press tier
xT /90
prog /90
key P /90
dribble%
High press (PPDA 4.7, 12m)
0.93
1.1
1.67
43%
Mid press (PPDA 6.7, 12m)
0.88
0.9
2.41
41%
Low press (PPDA 9.9, 14m)
0.99
1.0
2.20
33%
Team

Team context

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

19

Impact on the Team

Arsenal's output per match with Bukayo Saka (7 matches) versus without him (1 matches). Insufficient evidence — the without-sample is only 1 matches; treat every Δ below as noise until more games exist. A proper on-off model needs many more minutes.

WITH (7)
WITHOUT (1)
Δ
goals for /match
1.57
2.00
-0.43
xG for /match
1.50
2.01
-0.51
goals against /match
0.71
0.00
+0.71
points /match
2.57
3.00
-0.43
20

His Share of the Team

Of everything Arsenal produced this season, the categories where the biggest share ran through Bukayo Saka specifically — his share of the team total, not a per-90 rate.

category
share
him / team
successful take-ons
16%
58 / 359
box entries
13%
114 / 879
goals
12%
10 / 80
Recruitment

Style and verdict

Style profile, closest comparables, and the summary.

22

Playing-Style Profile

Not raw event counts — football style scores: weighted models scored 0–100 against the 180 wingers 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.

Pressing forward83%Transition runner80%Wide dribbler / isolator75%Inside forward73%
Why Pressing forward 83%: a weighted blend of defensive aggression 81 (weight 45%) + ball-winning 83 (weight 30%) + transition 56 (weight 25%). The score reflects how distinctively his profile SHAPE matches this archetype vs his peers.
Elite
box threat, line-breaking
Strong
ball-winning, through-balls, defensive aggression, crossing, receiving zones, progression
Average
dribbling, final-third threat, carrying, transition, press resistance, creativity, retention, territory (wide vs central), build-up
Weak
passing directness
Unknown
aerial ability, marking, off-ball running — not in event data
Box threat
92
Line-breaking
86
Ball-winning
83
Through-balls ~proxy
81
Defensive aggression
81
Crossing
79
Receiving zones
78
Progression
77
Dribbling
63
Final-third threat
62
Carrying
59
Transition ~proxy
56
Press resistance ~proxy
56
Creativity
51
Retention
47
Territory (wide vs central)
46
Build-up
45
Passing directness
30
23

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: 178 cm / 65 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.

Lennart Karl Bayern · Bundesliga · 168 cm / 67 kg
80%
Driven by: defensive aggression (19%), box threat (17%), receiving zones (11%). Different mechanism — Saka more via territory (wide vs central); Karl more via retention, build-up.
Bradley Barcola Liverpool · 182 cm / 73 kg
77%
Driven by: box threat (22%), defensive aggression (21%), receiving zones (11%). Different mechanism — Saka more via transition; Barcola more via creativity, retention.
Nico Williams Athletic Club · La Liga · 181 cm / 67 kg
73%
Driven by: defensive aggression (23%), box threat (20%), line-breaking (11%). Different mechanism — Saka more via through-balls, ball-winning; Williams more via carrying, creativity.
Francisco Conceição Juventus · Serie A · 166 cm / 67 kg
68%
Driven by: box threat (23%), defensive aggression (13%), crossing (12%). Different mechanism — Saka more via ball-winning, passing directness; Conceição more via carrying, retention.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia PSG · Ligue 1 · 183 cm / 76 kg
67%
Driven by: box threat (20%), crossing (13%), receiving zones (11%). Different mechanism — Saka more via ball-winning, passing directness; Kvaratskhelia more via retention, press resistance.
Antony Real Betis · La Liga · 174 cm / 63 kg
67%
Driven by: box threat (18%), crossing (13%), line-breaking (13%). Different mechanism — Saka more via defensive aggression, dribbling; Antony more via passing directness, retention.
24

Summary

Bukayo Saka is a wide, outside-first right carrier: 62% of dribbles in the wing lane, 64% of passes from wide — but 60% land inside. 1.0 progressive passes and 2.08 key passes /90 plus 10 goals from 10.58 xG. A carry-and-deliver threat.

Based on 38 matches (2983 minutes) this season — a reliable read. He profiles as a pressing forward / transition runner — best used in a system built around that identity. His biggest room for growth is transition — even a modest improvement there would meaningfully lift his overall pressing forward 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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