From Lee Young-pyo to Nagatomo and Tomiyasu: Finding the next top full-back in Asia – data analysis

In the second section of a data analysis series looking at the best players in Asia, we’ll focus on full-backs.

The leagues selected for this analysis are the following: Qatar Stars League, United Arab Emirates Pro League, Saudi Professional League, Japanese J1 League, South Korean K League and Chinese Super League. The Iranian Gulf Pro League would have been an interesting one to include but it lacks complete data on Wyscout and others like the Indian and Australian leagues missed out as their level is considered slightly lower. We have considered players whose main position was full-back and who played at least 900 minutes in the aforementioned leagues in the last calendar year so the statistics are significant and representative.

The players whose circles are filled are those who made the final shortlist. We provide this information beforehand so readers can see how they performed and why they were selected as they read the data analysis.

General profiling

In this first section of the data analysis, we’ll look at the successful offensive (x-axis) and defensive (y-axis) actions per 90. The colour of the dots represents what percentage of successful actions is attacking actions. This way, we’ll get some names that stand out in defence, in attack, or both ways.

The most offensive-minded full-back in our analysis is Bandar Mohamed Al Ahbabi (31, United Arab Emirates) of Al Ain. The right-back had the most successful attacking actions with 7.03 per 90 but didnt intervene a lot in defence with just 5.88 successful defensive actions per 90. Al Ahbabi, who has always played in his country for Baniyas, Al Ain and Al Dhafra (177 games, 16 goals and 38 assists), has been capped 26 times for the UAE and won the league in the 2017/18 season with Al Ain.

Another offensive but more balanced full-back is Gao Zhunyi (26, China) of Guangzhou. Gao averaged 5.97 successful attacking actions per 90 (second-most) and 7.67 successful defensive actions per 90. The right-footed left-back, who can also play as a centre-back or defensive midfielder, started his career at Shanghai Lucky Star FC before moving to Japan to play for Kataller Toyama and Avispa Fukuoka in the J2 League. In 2015, he returned to China and has played for Shandong Taishan, Hebei and Guangzhou (105 games). He has 9 caps for China and won the league with Guangzhou in the 2018/19 season.