Data Analysis: Four players who are similar to PSG’s Marco Verratti

This is the third part in a series of articles looking at the use of data profiles in identifying potential recruitment targets within football. You can read part one here and part two here. In part one we looked at potential matches for Trent Alexander-Arnold of Liverpool and in part two I looked at players who profile in a similar manner to Jack Grealish of Manchester City. This time we move away from the English Premier League to look at one of my favourite midfielders, Marco Verratti of PSG.

I should start by being absolutely clear that this article is not intended as a means to find a group of players who are an ideal fit as potential replacements for Marco Verratti. Instead, the intention is to show that we can use data to build profiles and then find similar players to our target player or initial profile. The use of data in this manner is part of the recruitment process but only a part. Data lets us cut through the noise of all of the available players out there and to create shortlists of players quickly that suit our needs or the profile that we are looking for. After this stage, I would look to implement a series of checks on the players on our list including video scouting and live scouting.

As a part of Total Football Analysis we offer clubs, players and agencies a consultancy service and a large part of that is built around the use of data and video scouting to provide shortlists of players that fit a specific profile. To do this we make use of a tool that we know as xGOLD. This has been custom-built in-house to streamline the use of data in the identification of talented players. In order to create the shortlist for this article, I have used xGold to identify four players that best meet the profile of Grealish. From there I have created the profiles that you will see in this piece using my own bespoke dashboards in Tableau. Given that we are still at the early stage of the European season, if any games have been played at all!, we will be using data from the 2020/21 season with all data found in Wyscout.

When Marco Verratti moved to France to sign for PSG  from Pescara in 2012 he did so to much surprise in his homeland. The assumption was that Verratti would follow in the footsteps of so many other talented young Italian players and sign for Juventus. Instead, Verratti chose to move to France to join a team, in PSG, that were very much at the start of their transition into becoming a footballing superpower. Now, of course, PSG are a very different proposition and at the time of writing, they have recruited a certain Lionel Messi to supplement an attack that already contains Neymar and Kylian Mbappe. While the attack is frightening, however, the midfield unit at PSG is ruthlessly efficient and that midfield is run effortlessly by a now 28-year-old Marco Verratti, a midfielder who is very much in the prime of his career.

Verratti has a data profile that shows that he is the perfect modern midfielder and that he is comfortable in all phases of the game. The only downside for Verratti is that he has a history of injury problems that tend to see him miss matches season upon season. If he were able to stay fit then, for me, he would be right up there in the conversation around the best players in World football.