The 391st edition of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post analyses InStat data on passes for 1,226 teams from 71 competitions worldwide. Manchester City leads the table with 754 passes attempted per domestic league game. Only two of the 1’226 clubs surveyed also made more than 700 passes per match: the Japanese second division side Albirex Niigata (711) and Portuguese giants SL Benfica (708).

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Editors:
Raffaele Poli
Roger Besson
Loïc Ravenel
Thomas Gonzalez

The number of passes attempted greatly vary between clubs. In the English Premier League, for example, Manchester City makes on average 2,1x more passes per game than the club attempting the least, Bournemouth: 754 vs 352. The lowest figure overall was recorded for the Saudi side Al Baten Club (199 per game), while the minimum at big-5 league level was measured for Spanish Liga’s Getafe CF (329).

The Post also presents the data on the percentage of successful passes, as well as their distribution between forward (angle span 90°), backward (idem) and lateral. The greatest figure for successful passes was recorded for Paris St-Germain (91.3%), ahead of Manchester City (90.8%) and Real Madrid (90.0%). Istanbul Başakşehir leads the table for backward passes (20.2% of the total), Bodø/Glimt for lateral passes (61.3%) and the Argentineans of Deportivo Riestra for forward ones (60.8%).