Yeah, that game is definitely not representative though, to be fair. But, in general, Xavi’s 2004-2005 season is sorely underrated—he was absolutely world-class that year. Which is, for instance, why he won La Liga Spanish Player of the Year and made multiple ESM teams of the month.
PDG just posted a link of this post from 2012 and I think it's worth to post here (if weren't posted already) Just to update the numbers from Messi and Ronaldo: C. Ronaldo 41 assists, 183 games (0.224) L. Messi 40 assists, 163 games (0.245)
Yeah, another place I made some posts on the topic was here (you saw already Isaias though because I spotted a rep from you on one of the posts again just now!) - data according to the particular sources involved in compiling it, such as in this post https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/top-5-individual-performance-in-cl-history.2124240/#post-41111178 For sure on a per game basis Zidane fares very well for CL assists (less so in league games overall to be fair, as has been discussed before I know).
Also it was your thread to be fair (I'd forgotten that)! But yeah Puck's listing was pretty much correct according to OPTA-standards I believe (maybe one or two cases where an assist can or can't be given could mean small differences IIRC....).
I think a good question is are there more assisted goals in todays football than other periods of time and regardless, what the profile of assists look like (I assume more assists came from crosses in the past).
I had even forgotten about this thread lol. I think I'll repost Carlito's post about the best campaigns of CL finalists on Sofascore in this thread
Zidane had unmatched ability of getting the ball to the final 3rd. From simple pass and move, to ball carrying/dribbling. Strong in all phases of the game, and sides of the pitch. pic.twitter.com/zXgp3DfFBB— Kylian's Kompany (@someballfacts) May 12, 2024
Zinédine Zidane : all big chances created in UEFA Champions League (1996-2006)detailed thread, will be regularly updated pic.twitter.com/PJpOCGiWIg— Fußballkönig (@GyurkaSarosi) June 8, 2024 Zinédine Zidane - JuventusUEFA Champions League (1996-2001)𝟑𝟓 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 (𝟑𝟏.𝟔 𝟗𝟎𝐬)𝟑𝟕 𝐁𝐂𝐂𝟐 𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐧𝟏.𝟏𝟕 𝐁𝐂𝐂 𝐩𝟗𝟎𝟏.𝟐𝟑 𝐁𝐂𝐂 + 𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐧 𝐩𝟗𝟎 pic.twitter.com/U2RLzFbk2v— Fußballkönig (@GyurkaSarosi) June 9, 2024
Big chances created in euros-🇪🇸Xavi - 4 (0.3)🇪🇸Iniesta - 4 (0.2)🇩🇪L.Matthaus - 3 (0.2)🇩🇪Kroos - 3 (0.3)+🏴Gerrard - 2 (0.2)🇫🇷Platini - 1 (0.2)🇮🇹Del piero - 1 (0.1)🇫🇷Zidane 2000 Euros only - 6 (1.2) pic.twitter.com/urHfBjrXlW— 𝙍𝙚𝙮𝙤 (@AhsoWahba57831) June 23, 2024
324 - Most successful passes by a player in a UEFA EURO group stage:324 - Toni Kroos (EURO 2024)323 - Toni Kroos (EURO 2016)317 - Xavi (EURO 2012)281 - Granit Xhaka (EURO 2016)280 - Toni Kroos (EURO 2020)Cruising. pic.twitter.com/zoAbqYSIWJ— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) June 24, 2024
Sofascore made a mistake, the didn't count BCC stats for french player against Portugal It's not a valid source, I've seen a lot of mistakes from them.
Just watch that france- portugal game in 1984 Euro and tell me how many big chances Platini created and dont be a fool like this, yeah they used opta but they made mistake on big chances stats in some of the games and didnt count it like france- portugal 1984 ( just take a look at all of the french players stats) somehow they did for portugal players
I agree there's error which is why these stats are not gospel. But if you're gonna reject these, we should put an asterisk for all.
Sofascore has Zidane at 5 big chances created in Euro 2000, not 6. And most of those big chances created were in one group stage match against an abysmal Denmark team. Meanwhile, all of Xavi’s big chances created in Euro 2012 were against Italy. So there’s definitely some important context here. As for the discussion between SayWhatIWant and ffff15 regarding Platini, I think we should generally recognize that “big chances created” is a very squishy stat. There’s a definition for it, but it’s inherently subjective in its application. I’d previously thought that it had a mechanical definition that was tied to the xG of the chance, but it was pointed out to me a while back (I think by SayWhatIWant, so credit to him on this) that I was wrong about that. That doesn’t make it useless, but it’d definitely go towards explaining why one might watch a match and totally disagree with the assessment of how many “big chances” there were. I don’t think that makes it useless as a stat, but it’s something to keep in mind, and is especially something to keep in mind when we’re looking at small samples of data like this (since differences of subjective opinion in what should and shouldn’t count can easily make a huge difference in small samples). I think the fact that it’s a stat with a strong subjective element is clearly a good reason not take the “big chances created” stat as an absolute objective measure, but rather more as a general guide (and, as a sidenote, it’s definitely a reason not to cross-pollinate one person or group’s “big chances created” measurements with another’s, because they’ll probably just be measuring different things). One query I have for people on this (that is not particularly related to the players that are the subject of this thread) is whether we know if “big chances created” functions more like Expected Assisted Goals or Expected Assists, in terms of whether it counts situations where there’s a good opportunity but a shot never actually happens, or whether it only looks at the quality of the chance at the point at which a shot occurs. The definitions I can find for “big chance created” are kind of ambiguous on this. I tend to think a stat is better if it operates like Expected Assists (i.e. if it’s is based on the chance of a goal when the recipient receives the ball, rather than looking at the chance of a goal when a recipient shoots it), and I can’t quite figure out how “big chances created” functions in this regard. I think it works the way I think is better, but I can’t figure it out for sure. Does anyone know?
🇫🇷🐐𝐙𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐞 𝐣𝐮𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐫 𝐃𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐬*L* = League*CL* = Ucl pic.twitter.com/u5cMFmxXSL— 𝙍𝙚𝙮𝙤 (@AhsoWahba57831) June 20, 2024
Those are not compiled by OPTA (but rather, as far as I can tell, by a random anonymous person on Twitter), and as I said, comparing tallies of two different people/groups on an inherently subjective stat is not really worth anything.
Zidane 2000/01Detailed statsGame by Game pic.twitter.com/Hp4oAZo5l3— 𝙍𝙚𝙮𝙤 (@AhsoWahba57831) June 18, 2024