Man Utd connections for half of Premier League’s top line-breakers | OneFootball

Four current Manchester United stars and an ex-Red Devil make up half of the Premier League’s top 10 line-breaking passers.

Everyone loves a line-breaker these days and, according to our friends at Gradient Sports, these are the players who have played most such passes in the Premier League this season.

First, though: what is a line-breaking pass? Gradient explains…

The top 10 Premier League line-breaking passers…

10) Calvin Bassey (Fulham) – 29 Palace’s Jaydee Canvot has also completed 29 line-breaking passes but he’s attempted more than Bassey, whose higher success rate gets him into the top 10. Bassey also has the highest number of passes into a player who can open up to receive.

9) Antonio Silva (Bournemouth) – 29 The Bournemouth defender likes to… double penetrate opponents, completing more passes breaking multiple lines than any other player in the Premier League, successfully finding a target with five out of the six he’s attempted.

8) Harry Maguire (Manchester United) – 31 The Manchester United centre-back is graded as the fifth-best passer in all the league, behind only Declan Rice, Granit Xhaka, Bruno Fernandes and the number two on this list.

7) Lisandro Martínez (Manchester United) – 35 Martinez has completed all 27 of his passes attempting to break an opposition’s attacking line. Does that alleviate the irritation of how often he stands on the ball or walks with it when United need some urgency? Can’t say that it does, no.

6) Victor Lindelof (Aston Villa) – 35 With four current players and Lindelof’s history at Old Trafford, half of this list is made up of players with Manchester United connections.

5) Youri Tielemans (Manchester United) – 36 Tielemans is seeing plenty of the ball having received the fifth-highest number of passes in the league. He does, though, have the lowest line-breaking pass completion rate (76%) of this top 10, just one per cent less than…

4) Sandro Tonali (Tottenham Hotspur) – 38 Tonali has attempted 50 line-breaking passes, but only two have succeeded in breaking an opponent’s defensive line.

3) Kobbie Mainoo (Manchester United) – 39 The United star has completed more passes breaking midfield lines than any other player.

2) Jan Paul van Hecke (Tottenham Hotspur) – 53 Van Hecke’s line-breaking qualities were a huge attraction to Spurs, and the ex-Brighton centre-back has completed more passes above expectation than any other player, going a long way to making him the highest-graded passer in the Premier League.

1) Elliot Anderson (Manchester City) – 57 So many line-breaking passes but not one that has penetrated an opponent’s defensive line, with almost a 60/40 split between opponents’ defensive and midfield lines. Only 2.5% of Anderson’s many, many passes are into a dangerous position. But no player has passed the ball as often under pressure and Anderson is one of only six to have completed more than one big-time pass. The percentage of his passes that break a line so far is 14.8%. Rodri’s last season was 14.9%.