So comparing the passing of our midfielders this season :
http://stats.squawka.com/en/compari...423&s=101,103,104,105,106,108,109,117,111,113
Turns out Ander makes the most forward passes, least backwards and sideways passes of our starting 3. He does however make the least long passes, so his passes tend to be short ones while Pogba and Matic will go longer more often. However his average pass length is longer than Pogba or Matic.
Its Pogba, Fred then Ander for chances created. Ander 2nd most throughballs after Pogba and ahead of Fred. But Fred with the most crosses.
McTomminay is interesting as he makes the most passes per 90 minutes, but a lot of them are backwards and sideways, yet still more forward passes than Fred and Matic. Also he has the largest average range of pass.
Obviously Fred and McTominay's sample sizes are very small given they havent started even 10 league matches yet so their numbers are prone to the most change as they play more games.
With 5 matches more Ander's numbers are more reasonable but the same thing must be taken into account with Pogba and Matic playing 700-800 more mins. So probably Ander's numbers would come down slightly if he had played the same minutes.
However all of PSG's midfielders here have played about as much as Ander so thats good.
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This should expel some of the mythos that Ander has no range of passing or doesnt find enough passes forward. He ranks well in those areas against his teammates and even PSG.
His passing numbers also come up favourably against Rabiot, other than total passes where Rabiot got on the ball more.
So hopefully now people can understand why PSG would want him.
Theres the obvious part off the ball as well, both Verratti and Paredes make a decent amount of tackles but PSG dont have someone who intercepts much. So Ander would be able to provide that for them, pressing in front of Verratti and intercepting the ball.
