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Player reportPremier League 2026

Adam Wharton

Crystal Palace
Ball-winning 6 (destroyer) DM
11.7 defensive actions/90
Capability Analysis
Breaking Pressure
only 117 pressured-passing actions across 3 high-press matches -- not enough sample (needs 5+ matches and 12+ actions)
Progression62%vs 25 central mids
"Can he move the team forward with a pass, not just recycle it sideways?"
Progressive passes /905.2376%
Line-breaking passes /902.3284%
Threat added by passing /901.36xT72%
Pass accuracy75.15%16%
Ball-Winning72%vs 25 central mids
"How actively does he win the ball back?"
Interceptions /900.8868%
Ball recoveries /904.8984%
Tackles /902.1972%
Duels won /900.8164%
defensive midball-winning 6press resistancescreening
741
minutes
8 apps
361
passes
72% completed
72%
pass completion
361 passes
26
progressive passes
3.2/90
96
defensive actions
11.7/90
21
tackles + interceptions
50% tackle win
23
recoveries
2.8/90
41
line-breaking passes
5.0/90
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 (55% of his 361 passes)
72% completion · 361× in 8/8 matches
↓
PROGRESS CENTRAL
break a line through the middle
3.2 prog/90 · 41× in 8/8 matches
↓
SCREEN / WIN BALL
protect the back four
5.3 ball-wins/90 · 44× in 8/8 matches
↓
RECYCLE / PROGRESS
keep it ticking, feed the final third
5.2 f3-entries/90 · 43× in 7/8 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 — 3× (low confidence, shown as a number only, no tactical conclusion drawn) — omitted from the signature rather than presented as one.
17

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 →
45
passes / match
11.7
def actions / 90
24–74
pass range (matches)
13
clearances
Pass range = his fewest and most passes in any single match this season (24 at the low end, 74 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.

10

How dangerous are his carries?

Real ball-carries

71 tracked carries (8.6/90, 15 progressive, 593m 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.

6%6%18%6%13%25%17%4%4%1%
progressivelateral/short% of his 71 carries originating in each zone · own goal left, attacking →
Every carry, exact path — median 8m, longest 19m
By zone — where the carry started → where it ended
4Outside → Inside
61Inside → Inside
2Outside → Outside
4Inside → Outside
First (24)Second (24)Third (17)Fourth (6)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).

14
tackle duels
7
won
7
beaten · 50%
brighter band = more tackle duels · own goal left, attacking →
INSIDE 93%
OUTSIDE 7%
Tackle-duel location — 13 inside · 1 outside
Right Wing
1 · 7%
Right Half-Space
6 · 43%
Central
4 · 29%
Left Half-Space
3 · 21%
Left Wing
0 · 0%
Vision AI beaten in 7 of 14 tackle duels (50% loss rate) — a real defensive leak worth flagging.
Every tackle duel, exact location
wonlost — dribbled pastown goal left, attacking →

He attempted only 3 dribbles of his own all season — dribbling is not part of this role; his ball-carrying is covered above, his defending against the dribble below.

04

How does he build & move the ball?

How does he escape the first line?

11%
vertical passes
14×
2%
switches
2×
31%
carries
38×
56%
short circulation
69×
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 →RWRHSCLHSLWRW2143%929%629%6RHS7531%2329%2228%2112%9C11912%1417%2035%4228%338%10LHS368%317%636%1339%14LW812%112%175%6FROM
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 — 6 progressive passes (21% of his progression) at 0.203 xT each. He moves it inside.

His progression is inward: 45% of progressive passes move the ball toward the middle versus 14% 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: 15 line-breaking passes and 43 final-third entries, 6.2 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%9%5%8%6%5%0%8%14%18%8%1%2%5%5%3%0%
completedincomplete361 passes · any zone → any zone · own goal left, attacking →
361
passes
72%
completed
102
lost
Vision AIIn line with his 72% season completion rate.
05

How does he progress play?

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

26
progressive · 3.2/90
43
final-third entries · 5.2/90
3
box entries · 0.36/90
17
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 (1.46/90), 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:
14%14%29%14%14%14%
chance creation (7)assist (0)% of the selected group's key passes originating in each zone
03

Where does he become vulnerable?

104 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.

39
attacking third (cheap)
50
middle third
15
own third (dangerous)
Vision AI 38% of losses are in the attacking third — a notable share happen deeper, which invites transitions.
Mistake danger (proxy): 3.86 danger-index/90 · 0.306 avg/turnover. Weights each loss by threat conceded at that location. True xT-conceded needs the opponent possession model; positional proxy.
06

What is his passing profile?

361
passes attempted
52%
mostly forward
51%
mostly short
Direction
Forward
188 · 52%
Sideways
117 · 32%
Backward
56 · 16%
Length (completed)
Short (<15m)
133 · 51%
Medium
107 · 41%
Long (>30m)
19 · 7%
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.

0.690.280.280.250.250.19
own goal left, attacking →
Highest-value routes (xT)
0.69
Central Mid third → Left Half-Space Att third
3 passes · 1 to a shot
0.28
Right Half-Space Def third → Central Att third
1 passes
0.28
Central Mid third → Left Wing Att third
2 passes
0.25
Central Att third → Central Att third
1 passes · 1 to a shot
0.25
Right Half-Space Def third → Right Half-Space Mid third
2 passes
0.19
Right Half-Space Att third → Right Half-Space Att third
1 passes
08

Where Does He Receive?

The zones where Adam Wharton 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
23%
Primary
Central, Middle third
16%
Secondary
Right Half-Space, Middle third
10%
Third
Left Half-Space, Middle third
These are the zones where he collected the ball most.
09

Where Does He Operate? — Every Zone

Every on-ball touch (pass, dribble, shot) binned into a 6×3 grid — raw counts of where Adam Wharton 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:
81918121130526633233518302417
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%9%5%8%6%5%0%8%14%18%8%1%2%5%5%3%0%
own goal left, attacking →
11

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
2Cross
1Cutback
26Progressive
41Long ball
13Switch
By zone — where the pass started → where it landed
14Outside → Inside
169Inside → Inside
15Outside → Outside
61Inside → Outside
By direction
188Forward
56Backward
117Sideways
own goal left, attacking →
02

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 hs, advancing it forward in the middle third — 3 passes worth 0.69 xT.
Where do his chances come from?
Of 12 key passes, his busiest route is a delivery where he plays inside from the right wing toward the central in the final third — 5 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 final third: 69% of his 16 touches there are lost (11 times).
—7 touches · too few22%7/32 lost8%2/24 lost25%3/12 lost—0 touches · too few33%4/12 lost30%17/57 lost9%8/85 lost39%14/36 lost50%5/10 lost64%16/25 lost33%5/15 lost26%7/27 lost69%11/16 lost—3 touches · too fewRWRHSCLHSLWDEFMIDATT
Out of possession

Out of possession

Where and how he defends and presses.

13

How & where does he defend?

96 defensive actions across the season (11.7/90). 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 →
14
tackles · 50% won
7
interceptions · 0.9/90
23
recoveries · 2.8/90
13
clearances · 1.6/90
3
blocks
42
avg action height
20
won high (att 3rd)
35
middle third
41
own third
Vision AI A mid-block defender. He wins the ball mainly by stepping in — tackles, interceptions & recoveries outweigh clearances. 44 proactive ball-wins (5.3/90), tackle success 50%. He defends high, stepping out to intercept — suits a high line.
14

Can he play under pressure?

Split by how hard the opponent pressed (opponent PPDA — lower = more intense press). Can Adam Wharton 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 ~2-4 matches — directional evidence, not proof.

press tier
completion
prog /90
line-breaks /90
xT /90
High press (PPDA 3.4, 2m)
70%
3.8
6.1
1.57
Mid press (PPDA 3.9, 2m)
76%
3.4
3.8
1.09
Low press (PPDA 4.9, 4m)
71%
2.7
5.0
0.87
Team

Team context

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

15

Impact on the Team

Insufficient sample: Adam Wharton played nearly every Crystal Palace 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.

16

His Share of the Team

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

category
share
him / team
box entries
13%
90 / 684
expected assists (xA)
13%
5.4 / 41.7
final-third entries
12%
214 / 1768
Recruitment

Style and verdict

Style profile, closest comparables, and the summary.

18

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 648%Deep-lying playmaker39%Tempo controller29%
Why Ball-winning 6 48%: a weighted blend of defensive aggression 58 (weight 30%) + ball-winning 42 (weight 40%) + progression 84 (weight 15%) + retention 22 (weight 15%). The score reflects how distinctively his profile SHAPE matches this archetype vs his peers.
Elite
passing directness, line-breaking, through-balls, final-third threat, creativity
Strong
progression, receiving zones, transition
Average
crossing, box threat, defensive aggression, dribbling, carrying, ball-winning, press resistance
Weak
build-up, retention, territory (wide vs central)
Unknown
aerial ability, marking, off-ball running — not in event data
Passing directness
100
Line-breaking
98
Through-balls ~proxy
91
Final-third threat
91
Creativity
88
Progression
84
Receiving zones
83
Transition ~proxy
71
Crossing
69
Box threat
65
Defensive aggression
58
Dribbling
49
Carrying
46
Ball-winning
42
Press resistance ~proxy
40
Build-up
25
Retention
22
Territory (wide vs central)
19
19

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: 182 cm / 77 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.

Youri Tielemans Man Utd · 176 cm / 72 kg
86%
Driven by: creativity (18%), final-third threat (13%), line-breaking (10%). Different mechanism — Wharton more via passing directness; Tielemans more via retention, build-up.
Pape Gueye Villarreal · La Liga · 189 cm / 79 kg
85%
Driven by: creativity (12%), final-third threat (12%), passing directness (9%). Different mechanism — Wharton more via defensive aggression; Gueye more via box threat, carrying.
Granit Xhaka Sunderland · 186 cm / 80 kg
77%
Driven by: final-third threat (16%), line-breaking (14%), creativity (14%). Different mechanism — Wharton more via defensive aggression, passing directness; Xhaka more via territory (wide vs central), build-up.
Cristian Cásseres Toulouse · Ligue 1 · 176 cm / 68 kg
77%
Driven by: creativity (18%), final-third threat (14%), line-breaking (11%). Different mechanism — Cásseres more via ball-winning, territory (wide vs central).
Nabil Bentaleb Lille · Ligue 1 · 187 cm / 76 kg
72%
Driven by: passing directness (15%), creativity (14%), final-third threat (13%). Different mechanism — Wharton more via defensive aggression, crossing; Bentaleb more via build-up, retention.
Lucien Agoumé Sevilla · La Liga · 185 cm / 72 kg
70%
Driven by: passing directness (17%), line-breaking (12%), final-third threat (10%). Different mechanism — Wharton more via creativity, receiving zones; Agoumé more via territory (wide vs central), ball-winning.
20

Summary

Adam Wharton is a ball-winning 6: 72% completion, 41 line-breaks and 3.2 progressive passes /90, resisting pressure with 33% dribble success. A central controller. [Off-ball screening position and scanning need tracking data.]

Based on 8 matches (741 minutes) — an early read, treat with caution until more minutes are logged. He profiles as a ball-winning 6 — 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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