Leicester: Is James Justin likely to get England call-up for Euros?

Next, I wanted to understand which of the right-back’s creates the most chances for their team and decided to judge this through their shot creation (using the shot-creating actions per 90 metric). This metric accredits the two actions prior to a shot (which can be either a pass or a dribble) as being influential in creating the shot. Players who perform well inside this metric are often considered threatening in the attacking third.

It’s perhaps inevitable that Alexander-Arnold leads the way in this metric with an impressive 3.11 SCA p/90. Liverpool have shown an emphasis of initiating attacks through their full-backs, and this has seen the 22-year-old flourish. In second is Justin (2.47), followed by James (2.41), Cash (1.4), Wan-Bissaka (1.33), and Walker (1.27). With only 0.06 SCA p/90 separating Leicester City’s Justin and James, it’s fair to say they both possess similar attacking prowess from right-back.

So far, both the top performer in the attacking (shot-creation) and defending (tackles and interceptions) metric have found themselves either bottom, or struggling in the opposing one – portraying a reliance on one aspect of their game. Whereas, both James Justin and Reece James have performed admirably in both – offering a more well-rounded approach.

Inside the attacking performances, I wanted to see which players made a lot of passes into the final third and penalty area. There’s more to a full-back than simply attacking and defending, and there’s certainly more to attacking than just creating shots – so I thought a more extensive understanding of passing numbers would clearly outline the best facilitators in attack.

It’s a fairly similar result to the SCA p/90 – in the most part – as Alexander-Arnold shows up well with 6 passes into the final third and 3.26 passes into the penalty area (PPA) p/90 minutes. After the Liverpool full-back is Reece James – with 3.58 final third passes and 1.75 PPA p/90, meaning he is slightly ahead of Leicester City’s Justin – 2.53 final third passes and 1.35 PPA p/90.

Surprisingly, the worst shot-creator – Kyle Walker – makes the most final third passes p/90 with 7.36 whilst struggling to find teammates inside the box, with a weak PPA p/90 score of 0.45. I think this is a by-product of Pep Guardiola’s system, and perhaps the Spanish manager’s inefficiencies from utilising wide spaces to create chances.