Leicester’s Wesley Fofana v Rúben Dias: How roles, team impacts statistics

If we’re strictly comparing their individual statistics, Fofana leads the Portuguese international for almost all of the “defensive” metrics. Ball recoveries, tackles made, aerial duals won, ground duals won, clearances and interceptions (on a per 90 basis) are all victorious for the Frenchman – with Dias making more blocks. But, had these metrics been, what we refer to as “possession adjusted” – where the amount of possession a team has is calculated in reference with their performances inside an “off-the-ball” metric (tackle, block, interception, etc.), then Dias would’ve performed a lot better.

Because of three key principles; Fofana being the aggressor in the defensive partnership, the Foxes formation (allowing three central defenders), and Leicester City seeing less of the ball than Manchester City, Fofana is perceived to be the “better” defender through these metrics. Realistically, both defenders are exceptional, but to draw assumptions purely over their performances in these metrics – without context – would be disingenuous.

As I’ve already mentioned, Fofana is definitely the aggressive defender inside the partnership at the back, when playing as a two, and is given a lot of freedom to press, tackle, and intercept when fielded as the wide centre-back in a three. In Manchester City’s composition, Dias is the dictator and controller of the backline – allowing either Stones or the defensive-midfielder to initiate in tackles. Instead, he drops off and holds conservative positions – again, hamstringing his ability to score highly in the aforementioned metrics.