That’s right. Neymar scored another goal that we won’t forget soon. Here it is, in case you missed it:
There were a few of these masterpieces in his not so long career and he is used to be the center of attention. But since his arrival in Barcelona back in the summer 2013, he had to share and, why not, avoid playing the team-leader role he was used to. The first season was used for adaptation and questions arose if the investments would ever pay-off. His second season was clearly better than the first one and showed he could be a great player on the big stages as well.
26th September 2015: Lionel Messi leaves the pitch at the 9th minute during a league match and won’t be back in the next two months. The question runs the world: how will Barcelona do this long without its biggest star? Is Neymar ready to assume his old role?
I hadn’t an anwer at the moment either, but now I can look back and see what the numbers have to tell us. I used STATS data to build the table below, which shows Neymar numbers relative to passes completed, passes made, passes completed percentage, shots made, goals scored, suffered fouls and assists made during this season playing with and without Messi. I also have goals scored and suffered and points won, so we can infere the collective performance.
The numbers clearly show improvement in Neymar’s performance since he was put under pressure. Passes completed and passes completed percentage present slightly lower values. A decrease in ball possession is expected when you lose someone who is able to keep the ball as Lionel Messi. Even though, the total number of passes made is the same. In this sense, Neymar increased his participation on team offense. Since then, he shoots more and scores more goals and, furthermore, Barcelona scores more goals and wins more points. Neymar influences the performance of his teammates as well, as he has distributed assists since Messi’s injury.
The last evidence showing how Barcelona plays at the moment is presented by the heat maps of Who Scored?. The first one shows Barcelona – Sevilla on 8th August 2015 for the UEFA Super Cup, when Neymar did not play. Here we can see how most of the actions took place where Messi plays.
On 20th September 2015, things were more balanced when playing Levante and, with both of the stars on the pitch, we can see a more fairly distribution of the actions.
And finally, when playing Villareal on 8th November 2015, Barcelona concentrated its actions on the left side and we can see a mirrored heat map of that one in the first situation.
Neymar is rated at the moment the best player at the Spanish La Liga according to Who Scored?. Together with the presented informations, there is only one possible answer to the stated questions: Neymar is ready for this role and Barcelona is doing well without Messi.
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Tactical Numbers 