EVERY football fan loves to see a pacy winger in full flight, taking on opponents and driving at the other side’s defence. These sorts of players have always been guaranteed to get fans off their seats in the stadium and at home and when an excellent dribbler of the ball is in form, they can at times look unstoppable.
Most of these players naturally gravitate towards either wing of the pitch; after all, this is generally where the space that they can exploit can be found. But which Premiership player is the best at taking on their opposite number and leaving them for dead?
We’ve delved into the numbers to see which player is the best dribbler in the league, measuring both the number of dribbles attempted and the resulting success rate.
The chart above details the Premiership’s top dribblers; players near the top of the graphic are those that attempt the most, while those to the right have the highest success rate.
READ MORE: Scottish Premiership referees' stats revealed
As we can see, there are a few standout players here. Aberdeen’s Connor McLennan, for instance, averages more dribbles than anyone else in the league with 11.59 per 90 minutes, but is only successful 61% of the time. Someone like James Forrest, on the other hand, attempts fewer dribbles but has the highest success rate of any Premiership player.
Forrest is probably the most effective dribbler in the league this campaign going by these figures, although Jordan Jones deserves an honourable mention, as does Motherwell’s Jake Hastie. Only McLennan attempts more dribbles than Jones over the course of a game, and only Forrest has a higher success rate.
Similarly, Hastie is performing very well here but his numbers do need to be taken with a pinch of salt, given the fact that the young winger only has 420 minutes of top-flight football to his name so far this season. However, if he can maintain his excellent start to life in the Premiership, then he could catch up with the likes of Jones and Forrest in the not-too-distant future.
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