Thiago Alcantara: Breaking Down the Stats on Bayern Munich Target

Thiago Alcantara is set to leave (Telegraph) Barcelona to join Bayern Munich. The move is a big splash for the Champions League winners who appear poised to have another brilliant campaign.

Here is a look at some of his statistics from his previous season with Barcelona.

Alcantara made 27 La Liga appearances, starting 15 matches and coming on as a substitute in 12. He only contributed twice in Barcelona’s Champions League matches, making one start and entering one other match.

Playing as a central midfielder for the famous Spanish club, Alcantara contributed two goals and five assists. He was mostly disciplined, as he only received four yellow cards while committing less than a foul per match (21 total fouls).

Not only was Alcantara disciplined in terms of fouls and cards, but he was careful in defending too. He was particularly strong in individual defensive situations: Alcantara was only dribbled past 13 total times (0.5 per match) and was able to win 1.6 tackles per match. This figure (1.6) ranked him as one of Barcelona’s 10 most abundant tacklers.

Sticking with defense, Alcantara intercepted 1.3 passes per match, again ranking him top 10 in one of Barcelona’s defensive categories. He chipped in just over a clearance every other match (0.6) in La Liga.

Perhaps where Alcantara is most impressive statistically is in regards to his passing. Despite attempting the seventh most passes per match for Barcelona during their last La Liga campaign (65.2 passes per match), he was quite precise. The 22-year-old connected on 91.8 percent of his pass attempts, another top 10 showing for Barcelona in La Liga.

Alcantara did not complete all these passes simply by playing the ball short and square either. The Spaniard looked to open the game up for Barca with longer balls quite often. In fact, Alcantara completed the third most long balls of any Barcelona player during the La Liga season (4.9).

Not only did he complete a high amount of long balls, but he did so with accuracy, completing 93 percent of his 131 attempted long passes: a very impressive ratio, indeed.

He was also one of the team’s more incisive passers, completing 0.4 through balls per match with a 50 percent success rate. Only three other players on Barcelona completed through balls at a higher clip than Alcantara. He showed an ability to create for others, also, serving up just under a key pass (0.8) per appearance in his 27 La Liga matches.

Another standout metric for Alcantara was his ability to beat defenders off the dribble. While Barcelona is certainly known for being a pass-happy side, Alcantara was one of the team’s most frequent dribblers, skipping past a defender 1.4 times per match.

Indeed, the numbers suggest that Bayern Munich will be getting a well-rounded midfielder who can defend, pass with precision, create his own space and open a match up with long balls.

It will be intriguing to see him grow in Germany under Barcelona legend Pep Guardiola.

All data courtesy of WhoScored?.