Football Stats: PPDA and Packing
Measuring Pressing with Passes Per Defensive Action and the Impact of Passes using Packing
The use of data to understand football better has been on the rise in the past few years. For decades, football was usually quantified using simple statistics like shots, shots on target, goals, assists, etc. which focused on the shiny moments of a game and usually the attacking players.
However, in the past few years, there’s been a more concerted effort to quantify the utility of every action in a game. This has seen an increased focus on metrics such as expected threat, the number of progressive passes carries, etc. Today we’ll explain two such metrics.
- Passes Per Defensive Action (PPDA): This is used as a measure of the intensity of a high press.
- Packing: This is used as a measure of the value of a pass and a pass received.
What is PPDA in football?
As mentioned above PPDA is a measure of the intensity of a high press. It is a count of the number of passes an opposing team’s defense makes before any defensive action such as a tackle, interception, foul, etc. is made by the team out of possession.
PPDA is measured only from the opponent’s defensive 3/5ths of the pitch which is why it is a measure of the intensity only of a high press.
If a team is focused on winning the ball back as soon as possible they should aim for a low PPDA. Since this would mean that they’re limiting the amount of time and passes a team gets in their defensive positions and are pressuring them.
What can PPDA tell us?
Teams press in different ways based on the opposition, state of the game, etc. For example, certain teams might want to only press when the opposition enters their half. This was a tactic that was employed by Bayern Munich in their victorious 2013 Champions League campaign against Barcelona in the semifinal.
Sometimes, teams might want to let the opposition pass until a certain player who is thought to be weak on the ball is in possession before pressing them or cutting out passing options to force a longer and less accurate ball. This can often be seen when teams let center-backs have the ball. In other cases, teams might just want to force the opposition to pass the ball into certain zones on the pitch before pressing.
It is for those reasons we can’t come to a simple conclusion that a team with a high PPDA doesn’t press well.
However, a good method of leveraging PPDA is not by aggregating it at the match level but by the phase of play a team is in. For example, if a team is trailing the game by a goal and there are just 10 minutes left, you’d want the team to press high and regain possession as soon as possible to create an opportunity.
On the other hand, a team that is defending a slender lead might want to have a high PPDA because they don’t want to risk overcommitting their players in forward positions.
When broken down at the granularity of phases of play a coach can use PPDA stats to know how they can train their team to improve their pressing or know when not to press high.
A look at the Stats
Let’s take a look at the PPDA stats for the current premier league season obtained here.
Straight away we can see that the teams at the bottom of the table have a pretty high PPDA, this makes sense because most of them tend to play in a low block and defend deep hoping that they can catch teams off guard on a counterattack or a set piece.
Another interesting thing to see is that proficiency in pressing high doesn’t necessarily translate to a high-league position when you look at the top half of the table. Leeds, Chelsea, and Liverpool have the three lowest PPDAs and yet are 14th, 10th, and 6th in the league table. Tottenham on the other hand has a pretty high PPDA and is yet 5th in the table.
Manchester City ranked 4th in PPDA last season but ranked 7th this year, this might be because of Erling Haaland who doesn’t seem to have the same ability to press defenders. This indicates another change in the tactical armory of Pep Guardiola.
What is Packing in football?
Packing is a statistic that can be used to quantify the utility of a pass or dribble. It is computed by counting the number of opposition players that a pass or dribble bypassed, leaving them behind the ball.
Packing gives credit to both the player that passes the ball as well as the player that receives the ball. While the player on the ball exhibits their skill in picking a pass and breaking a team's defensive lines. The receiver exhibits their skill in finding pockets of space and controlling the ball.
If you were building a team you’d like to have defenders and deep-lying midfielders who can break the lines with their passes. You’d like to have attacking players who can find space and receive such passes and thereafter make actions that lead to chances.
To illustrate the same take a look at the image below
Assuming that the team in red is in possession and player 2 has the ball. If player 2 passes the ball to 3 both 2 and 3 would receive a score of 3 since they bypass the three players in blue. However, if 2 decides to play it safe and pass it back to 1 both 1 and 2 receive a score of 0 since they haven’t bypassed any of the opposing players.
Using packing as a statistic it is much easier to identify the value of players like Thiago, Kroos, Thiago Silva, Stones, Firmino, etc. who can create more progressive actions.
This blog on packing highlights how players like Thiago, Kimmich, Alaba, Sabitzer, and Mueller have high packing scores in the Bundesliga. This article highlights how Kroos is the leader in making bypassing passes and Hazard during his time at Chelsea was exceptional at receiving them.
As a team, a high packing score can indicate that they tend to dominate possession but also have the ability to play through low defensive blocks. On the defensive end conceding a low-packing score can indicate how organized and compact a defense is making it difficult for teams to play through.
Conclusion
We hope that you’ve learned of the utility of Passes per defensive action and packing in the world of football stats. If you have any thoughts or would like us to cover other less-known stats in football please drop a comment below. Until the next time take care and be kind.
