In the last post, we mentioned how Toby Alderweireld was crucial to Tottenham’s direct play style, because of his long passes that open up the opposition’s defense, and got this response:

Indeed, for a midfielder of his quality, Modric has unusually low assist numbers — according to Squawka, Modric made only 4 assists in La Liga’s 2015/2016 season. That’s less than players like Bebé and Paco Alcacer.

In fact, when we look at assists, 4 out of the top 5 players are Forwards. Clearly, assists are not the stat to look for when it comes to playmaking skills.

So, can we define the ‘Modric’ Pass?

The Pass Before The Assist

Let’s call them ‘Pre-Assists’: the pass made directly before an assist. The top for La Liga (2015/2016 season) was:

Lionel Messi (14) Andrés Iniesta (10) Luka Modric (9) James Rodríguez (9) Luis Suárez (8)

Unsurprisingly, Messi leads yet another stat.

In second place comes arguably the best midfielder of the past decade: Andrés Iniesta. Iniesta, like Modric, has really low assists numbers — only 2 in last season’s league. As expected, Luka Modric is featured, tied in the third place with James Rodríguez.

The biggest surprise is number 5, with a player that isn’t known as a playmaker: Luis Suárez.

What Suárez is doing can’t possibly be the same as what Modric is doing.

Let’s look at what the passes by both players look like: