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Player reportPremier League 2025/26

Elliot Anderson

Man City
Ball-winning 6 (destroyer) DM
17.9 defensive actions/90
Capability Analysis
Breaking Pressure
no action recorded in any high-press match yet
Progression80%vs 23 defensive mids
"Can he move the team forward with a pass, not just recycle it sideways?"
Progressive passes /906.2691%
Line-breaking passes /902.1887%
Threat added by passing /901.67xT96%
Pass accuracy83.12%48%
Ball-Winning71%vs 23 defensive mids
"How actively does he win the ball back?"
Interceptions /901.152%
Ball recoveries /907.4787%
Tackles /902.5774%
Duels won /901.4970%
defensive midball-winning 6press resistancescreening
3526
minutes
38 apps
2572
passes
82% completed
82%
pass completion
2572 passes
250
progressive passes
6.4/90
703
defensive actions
17.9/90
145
tackles + interceptions
61% tackle win
306
recoveries
7.8/90
315
line-breaking passes
8.0/90
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 (56% of his 2572 passes)
82% completion · 2572× in 38/38 matches
↓
ESCAPE PRESSURE
turn out of a tight central area
49% won · 102× in 34/38 matches
↓
PROGRESS CENTRAL
break a line through the middle
6.4 prog/90 · 315× in 38/38 matches
↓
SCREEN / WIN BALL
protect the back four
11.5 ball-wins/90 · 451× in 38/38 matches
↓
RECYCLE / PROGRESS
keep it ticking, feed the final third
7.0 f3-entries/90 · 276× in 38/38 matches
Signature: drop to receive → escape the press on the turn → progress centrally or recycle → screen the counter. Block the central lane and press his first touch to force him backwards.
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 →
68
passes / match
17.9
def actions / 90
26–128
pass range (matches)
54
clearances
Pass range = his fewest and most passes in any single match this season (26 at the low end, 128 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

588 tracked carries (15.0/90, 109 progressive, 5313m 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.

0%5%6%6%5%0%1%8%14%9%3%1%7%12%12%7%4%
progressivelateral/short% of his 588 carries originating in each zone · own goal left, attacking →
Every carry, exact path — median 7m, longest 55m
By zone — where the carry started → where it ended
75Outside → Inside
356Inside → Inside
118Outside → Outside
39Inside → Outside
First (177)Second (163)Third (130)Fourth (118)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).

104
tackle duels
63
won
41
beaten · 39%
brighter band = more tackle duels · own goal left, attacking →
INSIDE 57%
OUTSIDE 43%
Tackle-duel location — 59 inside · 45 outside
Right Wing
14 · 13%
Right Half-Space
19 · 18%
Central
14 · 13%
Left Half-Space
26 · 25%
Left Wing
31 · 30%
Vision AI beaten in 41 of 104 tackle duels (39% loss rate) — a solid 1v1 defensive record.
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: 2.60 dribbles attempted /90.

brighter band = more dribbles · own goal left, attacking →
INSIDE 66%
OUTSIDE 34%
Dribble location — 67 inside · 35 outside
Right Wing
10 · 10%
Right Half-Space
18 · 18%
Central
19 · 19%
Left Half-Space
30 · 29%
Left Wing
25 · 25%
Vision AI 66% 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?

14%
vertical passes
147×
4%
switches
38×
31%
carries
318×
50%
short circulation
512×
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 →RWRHSCLHSLWRW28355%15728%8013%372%51%4RHS33743%14425%8422%756%214%13C47213%6022%10633%15718%8713%62LHS5462%136%3521%11431%16740%217LW4642%87%3326%12065%303FROM
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 → central areas in the final third — 25 progressive passes (10% of his progression) at 0.222 xT each. He moves it inside.

His progression is inward: 57% of progressive passes move the ball toward the middle versus 6% 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: 92 line-breaking passes and 276 final-third entries, 37.6 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%4%6%8%5%2%1%5%10%8%3%0%2%6%11%13%8%5%
completedincomplete2572 passes · any zone → any zone · own goal left, attacking →
2572
passes
82%
completed
470
lost
Vision AIIn line with his 82% season completion rate.
02

How does he progress play?

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

250
progressive · 6.4/90
276
final-third entries · 7.0/90
49
box entries · 1.25/90
27
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?

53 key passes (1.35/90), 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:
3%3%31%9%9%6%9%3%3%14%11%
chance creation (35)assist (0)% of the selected group's key passes originating in each zone
14

Can he finish?

44 shots · 3.33 xG · 4 goals (+0.67 vs xG). Mostly right-footed. Circle size = xG.

shots  44
on target  28
goals  4
xG  3.33
xG on target  3.91
xG / shot  0.076
Where he shoots from — click an area of the box
06

Where does he become vulnerable?

522 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.

202
attacking third (cheap)
234
middle third
86
own third (dangerous)
Vision AI 39% of losses are in the attacking third — a notable share happen deeper, which invites transitions.
Mistake danger (proxy): 4.10 danger-index/90 · 0.308 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?

2572
passes attempted
49%
mostly forward
53%
mostly short
Direction
Forward
1259 · 49%
Sideways
718 · 28%
Backward
595 · 23%
Length (completed)
Short (<15m)
1116 · 53%
Medium
815 · 39%
Long (>30m)
171 · 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.

1.451.101.011.000.980.95
own goal left, attacking →
Highest-value routes (xT)
1.45
Right Half-Space Mid third → Right Wing Att third
12 passes
1.10
Right Wing Mid third → Right Wing Att third
7 passes
1.01
Left Half-Space Att third → Left Half-Space Att third
4 passes
1.00
Right Half-Space Mid third → Left Half-Space Att third
3 passes
0.98
Left Half-Space Mid third → Right Half-Space Att third
4 passes
0.95
Left Half-Space Mid third → Left Wing Att third
12 passes
09

Where Does He Receive?

The zones where Elliot Anderson 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
15%
Primary
Left Half-Space, Middle third
14%
Secondary
Central, Middle third
11%
Third
Left Wing, 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 Elliot Anderson 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:
4118130733821613820144262214110152911916321114763
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%4%6%8%5%2%1%5%10%8%3%0%2%6%11%13%8%5%
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.

53Key pass
45Cross
17Cutback
250Progressive
315Long ball
125Switch
By zone — where the pass started → where it landed
283Outside → Inside
846Inside → Inside
464Outside → Outside
509Inside → Outside
By direction
1259Forward
595Backward
718Sideways
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 switches it out from the right hs to the right wing, advancing it forward in the middle third — 12 passes worth 1.45 xT.
Where do his chances come from?
Of 53 key passes, his busiest route is a delivery where he plays inside from the right wing toward the central in the final third — 20 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 wing in the final third: 32% of his 202 touches there are lost (65 times).
17%13/76 lost12%10/81 lost16%19/122 lost13%16/121 lost15%16/105 lost14%20/147 lost20%54/265 lost10%36/357 lost14%54/392 lost16%47/285 lost31%41/134 lost28%21/76 lost25%16/64 lost29%42/145 lost32%65/202 lostRWRHSCLHSLWDEFMIDATT
13

Crosses & Cutbacks

45 crosses (1.15/90, 14 completed) and 17 cutbacks (0.43/90, 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?

703 defensive actions across the season (17.9/90). 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 →
104
tackles · 61% won
41
interceptions · 1.0/90
306
recoveries · 7.8/90
54
clearances · 1.4/90
50
blocks
37
avg action height
63
won high (att 3rd)
324
middle third
316
own third
Vision AI A mid-block defender. He wins the ball mainly by stepping in — tackles, interceptions & recoveries outweigh clearances. 451 proactive ball-wins (11.5/90), tackle success 61%. 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 Elliot Anderson 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 ~12-14 matches — directional evidence, not proof.

press tier
completion
prog /90
line-breaks /90
xT /90
High press (PPDA 3.8, 12m)
76%
4.9
8.4
1.32
Mid press (PPDA 5.1, 12m)
83%
6.4
7.1
1.62
Low press (PPDA 7.6, 14m)
84%
7.6
8.5
2.03
Team

Team context

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

17

Impact on the Team

Insufficient sample: Elliot Anderson played nearly every Man City match in the loaded data, so there is no meaningful "without him" comparison yet. This section fills in as more matches (and the rest of the season) are scraped.

18

His Share of the Team

Of everything Man City produced this season, the categories where the biggest share ran through Elliot Anderson specifically — his share of the team total, not a per-90 rate.

category
share
him / team
final-third entries
18%
370 / 2058
ball recoveries
16%
346 / 2105
threat added by passing (xT)
15%
77.5 / 510.3
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.

Ball-winning 678%Deep-lying playmaker77%Tempo controller71%
Why Ball-winning 6 78%: a weighted blend of ball-winning 70 (weight 40%) + defensive aggression 70 (weight 30%) + progression 96 (weight 15%) + retention 55 (weight 15%). The score reflects how distinctively his profile SHAPE matches this archetype vs his peers.
Elite
final-third threat, progression, line-breaking, carrying, transition, through-balls, dribbling, creativity
Strong
receiving zones, passing directness, crossing, box threat, territory (wide vs central), press resistance, ball-winning, defensive aggression
Average
build-up, retention
Weak
—
Unknown
aerial ability, marking, off-ball running — not in event data
Final-third threat
96
Progression
96
Line-breaking
95
Carrying
94
Transition ~proxy
90
Through-balls ~proxy
89
Dribbling
88
Creativity
85
Receiving zones
82
Passing directness
81
Crossing
78
Box threat
74
Territory (wide vs central)
74
Press resistance ~proxy
71
Ball-winning
70
Defensive aggression
70
Build-up
63
Retention
55
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 / 69 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.

Cristian Cásseres Toulouse · Ligue 1 · 176 cm / 68 kg
89%
Driven by: transition (14%), creativity (13%), final-third threat (13%). Different mechanism — Anderson more via dribbling, territory (wide vs central).
Manuel Locatelli Juventus · Serie A · 185 cm / 75 kg
87%
Driven by: transition (14%), progression (10%), final-third threat (10%). Different mechanism — Anderson more via territory (wide vs central), dribbling; Locatelli more via retention, passing directness.
Arthur Avom Lorient · Ligue 1 · 173 cm / 64 kg
85%
Driven by: transition (13%), final-third threat (12%), carrying (12%). Different mechanism — Anderson more via defensive aggression, dribbling.
Bryan Cristante Roma · Serie A · 186 cm / 80 kg
84%
Driven by: transition (19%), final-third threat (12%), progression (12%). Different mechanism — Anderson more via dribbling, creativity.
Manu Morlanes Mallorca · La Liga 25/26 · 178 cm / 75 kg
84%
Driven by: final-third threat (13%), progression (11%), crossing (10%). Different mechanism — Anderson more via carrying, passing directness.
Dani Ceballos Real Betis · La Liga · 179 cm / 70 kg
84%
Driven by: transition (15%), final-third threat (12%), progression (10%). Different mechanism — Anderson more via box threat, dribbling; Ceballos more via retention, ball-winning.
22

Summary

Elliot Anderson is a ball-winning 6 / deep-lying playmaker: 82% completion, 315 line-breaks and 6.4 progressive passes /90, resisting pressure with 49% dribble success. A central controller. [Off-ball screening position and scanning need tracking data.]

Based on 38 matches (3526 minutes) this season — a reliable read. He profiles as a ball-winning 6 / 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 ball-winning 6 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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