B/R Football Ranks: Football's Ultimate Passers
If you could build the perfect passer in a laboratory, taking attributes from several of the world's best in the art, what would the result look like?
It's an intriguing question—one that perhaps only a coronavirus-enforced pause in football can prompt. But it's intriguing nonetheless because of the range of options to choose from. We've attempted to answer it here.
We distilled the art of passing into categories and drew up shortlists for each area, picking the best of the best. Blending them together gave us a look at what is detailed below: an amalgamation of some of the most creative, technical, gifted passers on the planet, all spliced into one.
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A few rules: We only chose from active players, which is why Xavi, Xabi Alonso and Andrea Pirlo aren't picked for any categories, and we only chose a player once, creating a variety in the exercise and placing an importance on truly choosing the right skill set for each slot.
Short Passing: Marco Verratti, Paris Saint-Germain
There's a bit more to short passing than quite literally completing short passes, though anyone who can do that efficiently is clearly off to a good start.
The passes must have purpose, and if the ball is moving short distances, left and right, then one man is usually at the centre of it, dictating the tempo and the direction of the game. That's as much a mental skill as a technical skill: You need an eye for where the space may open so that you can work the ball into it.
Add that to the fact ball security in the centre of the park is paramount and you'll find the best short passers are often doing three vital things at once: directing their own troops, holding the opponents at bay and playing crisp, easy-to-control balls every time.
The best in the business at this is Marco Verratti. The signal controller at the heart of PSG's midfield, he takes the ball under immense pressure, in extremely dangerous areas and without hesitation, then he turns to vapour when tacklers try to close in and pings the ball around with incredible ease.
He can play off both feet if required and plays the game in a permanent state of calm (on the ball), giving him the edge over a couple of other strong cases.
Top Three: No. 1. Marco Verratti, No. 2. Luka Modric, No. 3. Miralem Pjanic
Long Passing: Toni Kroos, Real Madrid
Who can ping a 50-yard ball and have it land on a sixpence? Who finds their targets from distance, either straight to feet or perfectly in stride so they can attack the space?
Several nail the brief, and they do so in their own quite different ways. There are so many types of long pass—switch, straight, flattened, arcing and more—that you could point to a wide variety of players here.
Leonardo Bonucci's long-range passing from defence is masterful, evidenced by that sensational Cristiano Ronaldo goal against Manchester United in 2018. Cesc Fabregas and Ruben Neves are even more accurate from slightly further ahead, while Kevin De Bruyne showcases how devastating the low, drilled technique can be.
There's one player, though, who can execute all of these techniques seamlessly, capable of conjuring whichever pass is required: Toni Kroos.
The German is a strong answer to plenty of these categories, so to pick him for long passing, where so many of his iridescent qualities shine through, feels fitting.
He can clip them over the defence, finding a runner in stride, or hammer it between the lines to take an entire midfield out of the equation. His angles, technique and choices are almost always spot on.
Top Three: No. 1. Toni Kroos, No. 2. Cesc Fabregas, No. 3. Ruben Neves
Vision: Mesut Ozil, Arsenal
Certain players see things unfolding on the pitch that others don't—or can't.
Passing lanes, runs, openings—they're the things that unlock a game. But in order to make the most of them, you need a player who can spot them and set things in motion.
Toni Kroos fares well again here. He's got the range of techniques and passing, but unless you have the vision to accompany that, it doesn't surface. He ties it together well.
Manchester City duo Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva excel here too, as does Lionel Messi, who passes almost as well as he does everything else: sickeningly.
But no one sees the field—the full field—like Mesut Ozil. His vision is unparalleled, while his unselfishness has led to him playing what seem like impossible passes, ones that no one else thought practical.
Take his first-time back-heeled flick for Olivier Giroud against Aston Villa in 2015, his instep flick to Cristiano Ronaldo for Real Madrid in 2012 or his curler for Nacho Monreal at the back post in 2018 against Swansea City. For the latter goal, Monreal wasn't even in the TV picture when Ozil let loose.
With movement and runners around him, Ozil's 360-degree vision becomes a truly menacing tool.
Top Three: No. 1. Mesut Ozil, No. 2. Lionel Messi, No. 3. Toni Kroos
Through Ball: Lionel Messi, Barcelona
The idea of Messi dropping deeper on the pitch as he ages, reverting to more of a dictating, central-midfield role, is a popular one.
Whether Messi fancies that is another question. But if he opted for it, he'd ace it as he has a standout quality that many hyper-goalscoring wingers don't: His weight of pass on a through ball is absolutely exquisite.
You don't have to scroll too far back in his assists column to find a perfect example: Feb. 2, home to Levante, when he received the ball, turned and fed a perfect pass through the defence onto the onrushing Ansu Fati, who finished with aplomb.
He's been doing that his entire career, from his false-nine days of feeding Thierry Henry, David Villa and Co. to now, setting up Suarez, Fati and more.
Many others excel in this area—City pair Silva and De Bruyne are in the running again, as are Paul Pogba, Kroos, Fabregas and Ozil—but no one has quite mastered the timing, weight and angle to the consistent degree Messi has.
Top Three: No. 1. Lionel Messi, No. 2. David Silva, No. 3. Cesc Fabregas
Decision-Making: Luka Modric, Real Madrid
So you've got the technique down, and you can play every kind of pass and see avenues others can't. But if you lack the decision-making process that must accompany those skills, you'll cause more harm than good.
Decision-making envelopes a huge number of elements. It dictates the success of a team's short-passing game, the ability to control the tempo of play and the area in which it's played; it also separates the best from the rest when it comes to when or if you should try something risky rather than play it safe.
Players who make the right decisions on the ball—protect and swivel, switch it, keep it simple or try the killer ball—are incredibly valuable. Those who rarely make a bad decision are like gold dust.
Xavi was probably the king of this. His decision-making was unrivalled, bringing unprecedented levels of control to a Barcelona midfield that swarmed all over opponents. He's never really been replaced.
The best active, playing embodiment of Xavi's decision-making is Luka Modric. His colleague Kroos has a better range of pass, but Modric is a better user of the ball than anyone else. That little shimmy he has to sidestep markers helps, but it's his brain that makes him such a danger.
Top Three: No. 1. Luka Modric, No. 2. Sergio Busquets, No. 3. Toni Kroos
Crossing: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Liverpool
You may consider crossing to be on the outer edges of the art of passing, but over the years, we've seen certain players bridge the gap between the two skills.
First among them is De Bruyne, whose assist location chart for the campaign screams crosser, not passer. But these aren't all lofted balls; in fact, most of them are low, driven, powerful passes that sail between defenders and find a target. It's a cross...but it's just as much a pass.
If De Bruyne bridged the gap, then Alexander-Arnold has fused the two arts together. He's the best crosser in the world, keeping De Bruyne and perhaps Joshua Kimmich at bay for that mantle, with his assist tally—28 over the last 1.5 years—evidence of that.
The flattened, whipped technique he uses has been impossible to defend for years. It has allowed the likes of Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah—three sub-6'0" players—to overperform aerially and the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Joel Matip to wreak havoc. It's also extremely reminiscent of David Beckham's style.
Top Three: No. 1. Trent Alexander-Arnold, No. 2. Kevin De Bruyne, No. 3. Joshua Kimmich
Between the Lines: Sergio Busquets, Barcelona
Not all passes are equal. That's a statement that applies not just to the aesthetic quality of a pass, but also to its effectiveness.
Outside of assists and key passes, the quality of a pass has long been difficult to judge statistically. There is no widely available metric to measure, say, how many times a deep-lying midfielder bypasses an opponent's line with a dagger of a pass, setting his team on the attack. Former Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Stefan Reinartz has started a company to track it, but it's early-stage, premium stuff.
So for this section, we're relying solely on the eye test and perhaps giving a slight nod to longevity. Sergio Busquets has been splitting teams open with raking, vertical balls for more than a decade and, even at age 31, is still near-impossible for opponents to read.
He shifts and feints with his body to open up space to use, then he plays firm, low passes forward to Messi and Co. If he can send a TV viewer's eyes one way then pass the other, what must his marker, just five yards away, be thinking as he tries to close him down?
Another master of this art is Kroos, but he's edged out by Busquets and has already been used for long passing.
Top Three: No. 1. Sergio Busquets, No. 2. Toni Kroos, No. 3. Frenkie de Jong
Weak Foot: Santi Cazorla, Villarreal
Being able to pass off both feet is a necessity. If you can't do it, you run the risk of being funnelled into positions and areas you can't use to your advantage or pressed in ways that eliminate your strengths. You'd struggle to play at the base of midfield, a la Verratti or Jorginho, if you could only comfortably pass to one flank.
Sometimes one-footed players can avoid issues by utilising blazing speed (Arjen Robben, Gareth Bale) or a little shimmy to create space (Luka Modric). But why resort to any of that when your "weak" foot can practically be as strong as your strong foot?
Very, very few players in world football can claim to be quite so ambidextrous, meaning they really stand out. Santi Cazorla is one.
For years at Arsenal he played off his right and his left, and people could barely tell the difference. Now he's taken that impressive trait to Villarreal's midfield.
He's the pick, though Ousmane Dembele, who takes penalties with both feet, depending on how he's feeling, is a worthy second place.
Top Three: No. 1. Santi Cazorla, No. 2. Ousmane Dembele, No. 3. Pedro
Aesthetic: Thiago Alcantara, Bayern Munich
This is the bit that woos you, that stirs excitement in you, that reminds you of how the beautiful game can indeed represent art: the aesthetic quality of a pass.
This category, more than any other, may just be a case of "to each their own." Different things thrill different people, and several footballers display technique, grace and power in striking the ball in different ways.
De Bruyne, Messi, Kroos and Pogba are all good shouts here, but this writer plumps for Thiago Alcantara, a player whose crispness of pass weakens the knees a little.
He clips passes with an arc, can make even the most difficult, acrobatic strikes look elegant and uses his foot like a multi-faceted spade, using different parts depending on the angle and curl required.
There's rarely a moment at which Thiago doesn't look the epitome of grace, like football is uncomfortably easy for him. It's a trick, though; what he achieves while looking at ease is impossible for most others at full capacity.
Top Three: No. 1. Thiago Alcantara, No. 2. Paul Pogba, No. 3. Lionel Messi
Final Ball: Kevin De Bruyne, Manchester City
De Bruyne's name has been referenced throughout despite not being the pick for any specific category—until now. We've saved him for the part that counts above all else: the final ball.
The Belgian's assist tallies over the years speak to his quality in the creation department: 20 for Wolfsburg in 2014-15, then 18, 16 and 16 in his three full, fit seasons with Manchester City so far.
In every one of those seasons, he's exceeded 100 key passes except for the most recent, which has been paused due to the coronavirus pandemic with him on 96.
He is an extremely precise passer from every range and can conjure most types of pass. Over the last few years, he's developed something of a forte in low, driven passes that skim the ground, with his control, direction and use of backspin to make them drift into his target's path simply astounding.
Again, you can make a strong case for the likes of Pogba, Kroos, Ozil and more here, but De Bruyne's reliability, quality and production trumps all.
Top Three: No. 1. Kevin De Bruyne, No. 2. Cesc Fabregas, No. 3. Lionel Messi
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