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Player reportPremier League 2025/26

Pape Matar Sarr

Juventus
Ball-winning 6 (destroyer) DM
15.3 defensive actions/90
defensive midtempo controllerpress resistancescreening
1548
minutes
26 apps
646
passes
84% completed
84%
pass completion
646 passes
31
progressive passes
1.8/90
264
defensive actions
15.3/90
51
tackles + interceptions
64% tackle win
77
recoveries
4.5/90
39
line-breaking passes
2.3/90
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 (60% of his 646 passes)
84% completion · 646× in 25/25 matches
↓
ESCAPE PRESSURE
turn out of a tight central area
57% won · 23× in 11/25 matches
↓
PROGRESS CENTRAL
break a line through the middle
1.8 prog/90 · 39× in 18/25 matches
↓
SCREEN / WIN BALL
protect the back four
7.4 ball-wins/90 · 128× in 25/25 matches
↓
RECYCLE / PROGRESS
keep it ticking, feed the final third
3.3 f3-entries/90 · 57× in 16/25 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 →
26
passes / match
15.3
def actions / 90
1–61
pass range (matches)
49
clearances
Pass range = his fewest and most passes in any single match this season (1 at the low end, 61 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

177 tracked carries (10.3/90, 40 progressive, 1828m 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.

3%5%6%2%1%8%13%10%4%1%2%6%14%16%8%2%
progressivelateral/short% of his 177 carries originating in each zone · own goal left, attacking →
Every carry, exact path — median 8m, longest 36m
By zone — where the carry started → where it ended
16Outside → Inside
115Inside → Inside
39Outside → Outside
7Inside → Outside
First (79)Second (45)Third (32)Fourth (21)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).

33
tackle duels
21
won
12
beaten · 36%
brighter band = more tackle duels · own goal left, attacking →
INSIDE 52%
OUTSIDE 48%
Tackle-duel location — 17 inside · 16 outside
Right Wing
5 · 15%
Right Half-Space
7 · 21%
Central
4 · 12%
Left Half-Space
6 · 18%
Left Wing
11 · 33%
Vision AI beaten in 12 of 33 tackle duels (36% 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: 1.24 dribbles attempted /90.

brighter band = more dribbles · own goal left, attacking →
INSIDE 78%
OUTSIDE 22%
Dribble location — 18 inside · 5 outside
Right Wing
1 · 4%
Right Half-Space
1 · 4%
Central
9 · 39%
Left Half-Space
8 · 35%
Left Wing
4 · 17%
Vision AI 78% of his carries are central — he receives and turns in congested midfield zones rather than out wide.
02

How does he build & move the ball?

How does he escape the first line?

10%
vertical passes
24×
3%
switches
7×
37%
carries
90×
50%
short circulation
123×
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 →RWRHSCLHSLWRW6977%5320%141%11%1RHS6941%2836%2522%151%1C1418%1126%3639%5518%269%13LHS1692%35%927%4630%5136%60LW962%22%29%926%2560%58FROM
Rows normalised: each row sums to 100% of that lane's completed passes. Grey number = passes from that lane.

Primary route: central areas in the middle third → central areas in the final third — 3 progressive passes (9% of his progression) at 0.092 xT each. He keeps it in the same lane.

His progression is inward: 50% of progressive passes move the ball toward the middle versus 15% going wider — he cuts in rather than holding width.

Only 6% of his passes switch play, so his threat is same-side — contain the flank he occupies and the route closes.

Quality behind the volume: 15 line-breaking passes and 57 final-third entries, -1.0 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%7%8%5%2%1%6%9%11%5%1%1%6%11%14%8%2%
completedincomplete646 passes · any zone → any zone · own goal left, attacking →
646
passes
84%
completed
102
lost
Vision AIIn line with his 84% season completion rate.
06

How does he progress play?

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

31
progressive · 1.8/90
57
final-third entries · 3.3/90
6
box entries · 0.35/90
14
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?

8 key passes (0.47/90), 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:
25%12%12%25%25%
chance creation (8)assist (0)% of the selected group's key passes originating in each zone
14

Can he finish?

17 shots · 1.63 xG · 2 goals (+0.37 vs xG). Mostly right-footed. Circle size = xG.

shots  17
on target  13
goals  2
xG  1.63
xG on target  1.36
xG / shot  0.096
Where he shoots from — click an area of the box
04

Where does he become vulnerable?

112 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.

22
attacking third (cheap)
66
middle third
24
own third (dangerous)
Vision AI 20% of losses are in the attacking third — a notable share happen deeper, which invites transitions.
Mistake danger (proxy): 2.45 danger-index/90 · 0.376 avg/turnover. Weights each loss by threat conceded at that location. True xT-conceded needs the opponent possession model; positional proxy.
05

What is his passing profile?

646
passes attempted
38%
mostly sideways
58%
mostly short
Direction
Forward
231 · 36%
Sideways
245 · 38%
Backward
170 · 26%
Length (completed)
Short (<15m)
318 · 58%
Medium
201 · 37%
Long (>30m)
25 · 5%
07

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.

0.450.400.340.330.280.23
own goal left, attacking →
Highest-value routes (xT)
0.45
Central Mid third → Left Wing Att third
3 passes
0.40
Central Mid third → Left Half-Space Att third
2 passes
0.34
Central Mid third → Central Att third
2 passes · 1 to a shot
0.33
Left Wing Mid third → Right Half-Space Att third
1 passes
0.28
Left Half-Space Att third → Left Half-Space Att third
1 passes
0.23
Left Half-Space Def third → Right Wing Att third
1 passes
09

Where Does He Receive?

The zones where Pape Matar Sarr 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
17%
Primary
Left Half-Space, Middle third
17%
Secondary
Central, Middle third
10%
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 Pape Matar Sarr 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:
940729054167406374391453042503011
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%7%8%5%2%1%6%9%11%5%1%1%6%11%14%8%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.

8Key pass
4Cross
2Cutback
31Progressive
39Long ball
19Switch
By zone — where the pass started → where it landed
51Outside → Inside
263Inside → Inside
114Outside → Outside
116Inside → Outside
By direction
231Forward
170Backward
245Sideways
own goal left, attacking →
03

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 central to the left wing, advancing it forward in the middle third — 3 passes worth 0.45 xT.
Where do his chances come from?
Of 8 key passes, his busiest route is a delivery where he plays straight through the central in the final third — 2 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 right wing in the defensive third: 37% of his 19 touches there are lost (7 times).
37%7/19 lost22%4/18 lost10%3/31 lost9%3/35 lost17%3/18 lost26%13/50 lost18%9/51 lost16%17/106 lost7%8/113 lost23%15/65 lost26%7/27 lost13%2/15 lost11%3/27 lost11%4/36 lost11%4/35 lostRWRHSCLHSLWDEFMIDATT
13

Crosses & Cutbacks

4 crosses (0.23/90, 2 completed) and 2 cutbacks (0.12/90, 2 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?

264 defensive actions across the season (15.3/90). 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 →
33
tackles · 64% won
18
interceptions · 1.0/90
77
recoveries · 4.5/90
49
clearances · 2.8/90
12
blocks
38
avg action height
32
won high (att 3rd)
108
middle third
124
own third
Vision AI A mid-block defender. He wins the ball mainly by stepping in — tackles, interceptions & recoveries outweigh clearances. 128 proactive ball-wins (7.4/90), tackle success 64%. 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 Pape Matar Sarr 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 ~8-10 matches — directional evidence, not proof.

press tier
completion
prog /90
line-breaks /90
xT /90
High press (PPDA 3.9, 8m)
82%
0.6
2.3
0.45
Mid press (PPDA 5.1, 8m)
84%
2.7
2.0
0.65
Low press (PPDA 6.6, 10m)
86%
2.0
2.5
0.61
Team

Team context

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

17

Impact on the Team

Juventus's output per match with Pape Matar Sarr (26 matches) versus without him (12 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 (26)
WITHOUT (12)
Δ
goals against /match
1.50
1.50
+0.00
points /match
1.12
1.00
+0.12
goals for /match
1.31
1.17
+0.14
xG for /match
1.03
0.29
+0.74
18

His Share of the Team

Of everything Juventus produced this season, the categories where the biggest share ran through Pape Matar Sarr specifically — his share of the team total, not a per-90 rate.

category
share
him / team
zone-14 entries
9%
29 / 328
final-third entries
6%
108 / 1905
goals
6%
2 / 36
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.

Tempo controller68%Ball-winning 667%Deep-lying playmaker63%
Why Tempo controller 68%: a weighted blend of retention 76 (weight 35%) + press resistance 77 (weight 20%) + build-up 47 (weight 30%) + progression 51 (weight 15%). The score reflects how distinctively his profile SHAPE matches this archetype vs his peers.
Elite
carrying, receiving zones
Strong
dribbling, creativity, press resistance, retention
Average
defensive aggression, box threat, crossing, transition, ball-winning, final-third threat, line-breaking, progression, build-up, territory (wide vs central)
Weak
passing directness, through-balls
Unknown
aerial ability, marking, off-ball running — not in event data
Carrying
88
Receiving zones
88
Dribbling
82
Creativity
77
Press resistance ~proxy
77
Retention
76
Defensive aggression
70
Box threat
68
Crossing
64
Transition ~proxy
64
Ball-winning
58
Final-third threat
52
Line-breaking
51
Progression
51
Build-up
47
Territory (wide vs central)
47
Passing directness
30
Through-balls ~proxy
26
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: 185 cm / 80 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 Serie A, Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1 and Premier League, 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.

Kobbie Mainoo Man Utd · Premier League · 184 cm / 72 kg
82%
Driven by: carrying (18%), receiving zones (17%), press resistance (16%). Different mechanism — Sarr more via defensive aggression, box threat.
Xaver Schlager Nottingham Forest · Premier League · 174 cm / 78 kg
78%
Driven by: press resistance (19%), carrying (16%), dribbling (16%). Different mechanism — Sarr more via territory (wide vs central), defensive aggression; Schlager more via passing directness, through-balls.
Thomas Partey Villarreal · La Liga 25/26 · 185 cm / 77 kg
76%
Driven by: receiving zones (18%), dribbling (17%), carrying (16%). Different mechanism — Sarr more via territory (wide vs central), defensive aggression; Partey more via through-balls.
Ebenezer Akinsanmiro Monza · 184 cm / 70 kg
76%
Driven by: press resistance (16%), dribbling (16%), carrying (16%). Different mechanism — Sarr more via receiving zones, territory (wide vs central); Akinsanmiro more via through-balls, ball-winning.
Jobe Bellingham Borussia Dortmund · Bundesliga · 188 cm / 73 kg
73%
Driven by: receiving zones (19%), creativity (16%), carrying (15%). Different mechanism — Sarr more via territory (wide vs central), dribbling.
Dani Lorenzo Malaga · La Liga · 176 cm / 68 kg
72%
Driven by: press resistance (19%), carrying (17%), dribbling (15%). Different mechanism — Sarr more via line-breaking, box threat.
22

Summary

Pape Matar Sarr is a tempo controller / ball-winning 6: 84% completion, 39 line-breaks and 1.8 progressive passes /90, resisting pressure with 57% dribble success. A central controller. [Off-ball screening position and scanning need tracking data.]

Based on 26 matches (1548 minutes) this season — a reliable read. He profiles as a tempo controller / ball-winning 6 — best used in a system built around that identity. His biggest room for growth is build-up — even a modest improvement there would meaningfully lift his overall tempo controller 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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