Gakpo and Mendy among best and worst stat performers at World Cup

 

After the World Cup drew to a close on Sunday, now is the time to reflect on some of the best and worst performers throughout the tournament. 

 

Here we have looked at the success rates in six different categories to see who came out on top for each. 

 

Conversion rate (5+ shots) 

 

While the Netherlands made it to the quarter-finals of the World Cup, they never really performed to the standard that was expected of them by so many. However, one of the bright sparks for the Oranje was Cody Gakpo, who managed to score three of their 10 goals from only five shots, which meant he returned a better a conversion rate (60%) than any other player in Qatar. 

 

Croatia enjoyed yet another brilliant World Cup run, finishing third, after ending 2018 as the runners-up. Ivan Perisic was yet again one of their most important players in this run, and was their highest rated player (7.08), scoring once and registering three assists. However, playing within that frontline, it would have been expected he would have scored more than once, especially when you consider he had 15 shots in total in the tournament. This meant his conversion rate ranked as the worst at the World Cup, at only 6.3%. 

 

Dribble success rate (10+ dribbles attempted) 

 

Morocco’s World Cup was a historical one and it couldn’t have been achieved without the dedication and discipline of the squad. One of those who exemplified this was Azzedine Ounahi. Ounahi was near impossible for opposition teams to tackle, driving the ball forward with energy and purpose from the centre of midfield. He completed 10 of 12 attempted dribbles in Qatar, which accounted for a 83.3% dribble success rate. 

 

It was a disappointing World Cup for Spain, crashing out in the round of 16 to Morocco and though he was able to register two goals in four appearances, Ferran Torres had the joint worst dribble success rate at the tournament, alongside Australia’s Mathew Leckie, only mustering a 10% success rate from their 10 attempted dribbles. 

 

Save success rate (4+ appearances) 

 

Though it was Emiliano Martinez who walked away with the Golden Glove, it would have made just as much sense had it been Croatia’s Dominik Livakovic. As well as making a record equalling four penalty shootout saves across two games, Livakovic also managed to make the most saves (24) of any goalkeeper at the World Cup, 11 of which came against Brazil alone, also a record for a game in Qatar. Altogether this saw the Croatian shotstopper yield a save success rate of 80.6%, which ranked as the highest of goalkeepers who made more than three appearances. 

 

Senegal did well to clinch second in a tricky group, before losing to England in the last 16. They actually faced just 9.3 shots per game in Qatar, that a lower return than losing finalists France (11.4), but yet conceded seven goals. Edouard Mendy, as a result, could only maintain a 50% save success rate across his four appearances, the worst return at the tournament. 

 

Tackle success rate (10+ tackles) 

 

It could be said that at Qatar 2022, teams tended to sit back and relied on their defensive capabilities to get them over the line in matches, which might go some way to explaining why five players returned a 100% tackle success rate. Those five were Dayot Upamecano, Josip Juranovic, Silvan Widmer, Jurrien Timber and Ibrahima Konate. The latter pair both made it into the U23 Best XI as well, with Konate attempting the most tackles (15) of the aforemtnioned quintet, playing his part in helping France to reach the World Cup final for a second successive tournament. 

 

 

Qatar lost all three of their matches at the World Cup, meaning they have gone down as the worst performing tournament hosts in history. They conceded seven goals in total and averaged 43.1% possession, underling how often they were under pressure. With that, it is no surprise that one of their players, midfielder Hassan Al Haydos, had the worst tackle success rate (40%). at the entire tournament, winning only four tackles in total. 

 

Aerial success rate (10+ aerial duels contested) 

 

Group H was considered the ‘Group of Death’ at the World Cup. Consisting of Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay and South Korea, it was easy to see why. It is also understandable why the two players with the best aeriel success rate was Portugal’s Joao Cancelo and South Korea centre-back Kim Min-Jae (both 90.9%) as they both stood strong in a tough group. 

 

However, it was Kim's teammate, Hwang Ui-Jo, who ranked the lowest for aeriel success rate (7.7%), only managing to win one of the 13 he contested. 

 

Shot accuracy rate (5+ shots) 

 

While South Korea went out in last 16 with a big loss to Brazil, they can hold their heads up high from the way they played in the tournament, especially in qualifying from Group H. They scored five goals in their four games, with Wolves forward Hwang Hee-Chan scoring one of those. In total he only played 114 minutes, in which time he had six shots, five of which were on target, giving him the best shot accuracy in the tournament (83.3%) and underlining how much of a threat he was to the opposition when given the chance. 

 

For Canada, they showed promise at times, but ultimately failed to deliver. In all they scored only once, which came through winger Alphonso Davies in an eventual 4-1 loss to Croatia. Leading frontman Jonathan David, who ranked as their second worst rated player (5.90), failed to deliver and lacked any real efficiency in front of goal. In all, he had eight shots, with only one hitting the target, giving him a shot accuracy rate of 12.5%, which was the worst of those to muster five or more shots.

Gakpo and Mendy among best and worst stat performers at World Cup