The Pitbull
Gary Medel may have been bought to break up attacks and put in his usual tireless shift off the ball, but his work on the ball stood out. In the last season, the Chilean defensive midfielder lead the league in passes completed. This may surprise the many Interisti that claimed upon his arrival that he would simply be “another Gargano,” giving up possession needlessly while running like a headless chicken off the ball.
Medel completed a total of 2,695 passes, finishing just three passes ahead of Empoli’s Mirko Valdifiori. Third in the list was Roma’s Miralem Pjanic, 500 passes off the pace of Medel.
So far, he has started the current season in great form as well, and it looks like we can look forward to continued impressive performances from the Chilean.
Source: CalcioData, ESPNFC.com, Squawka.com
Author’s note: Being a defensive mid, obviously half of his passes were backwards right? Wrong.
78% of his passes were passed forward. With a starting lineup high of 92% passing completion of total passes to match. His average passing length was over 18 meters, averaging 39 long balls per match. Dispelling any idea that his game was easy layoffs, thus leading to his outstanding possession numbers.
Under Mancini, and even at times under Mazzarri, Inter have had amazing possession, whether we made anything of it or not. Medel as the linchpin was absolutely instrumental in making that so.
Now obviously, he does not play the role of a regista; many of his passes being played to feet instead of as a through ball pushing the team forward. Still, he was allowed under Mancini to attack more than under Mazzarri and this hurt his defensive contributions but increased his forward passing numbers after the winter break.
One thing is certain however, he is no brainless anti-footballer as many would ignorantly write. We at least know that is an absolutely un-founded claim. Credit must be given where it’s due. Here’s to one of the most consistent players at Inter in recent years.
What do you make of the stat? Comment below and let us know!
In a nutshell, Medel need to match Cambiasso performance / contributions.
He’s okay but need to be better and expand his skills and roles.
He have to, if we are to finish in top 4 next season.
great player indeed,we will see him at the copa America.
Medel is good for inter.. we need him next seasons.. run,tackle is very good.. inter need destroyer like him for defense.. but he is very short.. maybe motta/toure can play with medel.. will be great midfield..
Hej is a very good player and inter ned himla
This is what happens when morons try to use stats.
Lol did I rate him overall as a defensive mid using all relevant stats or stick to the stat the article aimed to address ie: possession? Which claim did I make that was moronic? Thanks!
you inter fans are so gullible……..Medel is a former Cardiff City player who was part of a team that got relegated…….has medel enjoyed success anywhere ? There is only 1 pitbull and that was Edgar Davids, a defensive midfielder that can steal the ball, dribble with it, set up plays, shoot long distance for goals…..now that is a pitbull ! Clearly Medel has minimal skill – he can’t dribble, can’t join a play, can’t shoot and can’t score……..Medel is half bulldog half shitsu hence making him a “bullshit” but then again here’s the Ausilio mentality “why pay for a stallion when a mule can do the same job for less money”
Davids? Long shot yes, but dribble and set-up play? He’s not as good as Cambiasso…
he’s WAYYYYY better than Medel !!!
Please keep to like 3 posts a day. For a few times, your post do make me laugh, but then you slowly start getting annoying.
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He’s good, but what makes him inferior to Cambiasso for instance is his lack of vision in key moments when a decisive pass can lead to a goal. But that’s not why he’s at the club. He does his part pretty well, the lack of creativity, control losses and defensive stupidity during the season were team mistakes. Or Ranocchia’s 😀 I hope Medel grows even more next year under Mancio.
He’s a pure defensive midfielder, a different types compared to volante styles of Cuchu, if you want a comparison Medel is more like Davids
Nope, this what actually good defensive midfielders look like:
Name Tackles Success %
Krychowiak 3,54 80,45%
Gonalons 4,39 74,27%
Kondogbia 3,34 71,72%
Allan 4,85 68,35%
Wanyama 3,54 70,45%
Medel 2,33 59,06%
we don’t need a “defensive midfielders” , in that sense someone like motta , carrick ,busquets are what we need
or gattuso.
but with much more good passes!
Davids also had some great vision on the game and could pass a good pass.
I’ve once criticize medel for his shooting ability, i wonder did he ever train wight lifting for his feet..because its so weak, let alone the accuracy. Otherwise, he was superb this season on his role..afterall shooting and through passing was never his responsibility..though its nice to have dmf that have all around abilities.
Maybe now people will start to include Medel in their “squad predictions” for next year.
if only bam bam zamorano read this article, he would be ease down his chair instantly, proving his faith on medel is not an utopian dream
Thank you mahdi, I’ve never been vocal in defending medel, but I couldn’t understand why people have been hating on him since he put a lot of effort in every game – thank you for showing some people how blind they are.
Appreciate it mate! Again just noting his consistency on the ball, not his role in the team.
It would be interesting to see how many of those passes are forward, sideways, and backwards. I love Medel, but he is a pure center back or defensive midfielder. He has almost no vision to create plays. So, most of the time he just pass the ball backwards or sideways. But, I guess the job that RM gave him this year.
Does anyone read pass the headline anymore? There is a stat on forward passes and distances of his passes.
Fxxk. I read the the headlines and the articles. What I don’t ever read is the author’s note. Which is what you must be pointing at. Anyway, thanks for the heads up 🙂
I really like Medel, I think most ppl over looked him. I think what most impressed me was that his tackles always seemed to be timed right. They were not bad ones like Ranocchia or Vidic.
His passing ability did get better over the season. Early on all he made was simple passes back or forward.
Then you were probably confusing Medel for someone else, because he’s a pretty average tackler.
This what actually good DMs look like:
Name Tackles Success %
Krychowiak 3,54 80,45%
Gonalons 4,39 74,27%
Kondogbia 3,34 71,72%
Allan 4,85 68,35%
Wanyama 3,54 70,45%
Medel 2,33 59,06%
We have a terrible defense besides that we could have been fighting for CL spot. Thats what I take from this season.
Mahdi, like Frigo said here, relevant statistics for DM are balls won back/tackles won… here, from ForzaInterForums:
Balls Recovered:
Tachtsidis (Verona) 310
Allan (Udinese) 308
Valdifiori (Empoli) 304
Vázquez (Palermo) 280
Medel (Inter) 267
Top 5 in the league in balls recovered.
Can you imagine if medel playing along with allan in 4-2-3-1 formation??
It would be great
And vazquez, he’s an attacking mid but look at those numbers. I want him!
Then we will be number 1 in balls recovered team..but that just about it.
I love those stats and just hope everyone realises, Im simply commenting on his passing, not his overall job as a dm. Pointing out his differences with Gargano, since he had good recovery numbers but gave the ball away so much it was pointless.
Thank you for this article Mahdi, now some people can see he’s not Gargano #2. He is better and can help a lot with his ever-fighting spirit. His only problem is his build, as we need more muscles in the midfield – someone big like Toure or Mario Suarez.
Many completed passes, I agree. The problem is however that he only passes backwards. It is easy to pass the ball from the midfield back to a defender but it doesn’t help the games much….
read the article…78% of his passes were forward…
fucking hell man did you even read the article?
Blind is he who does not want to see! Read the article.
Bobby r u high?
who give a shit about a statistic when only thing that matter is where you are sitting at the end! and the ugly true is that we are in the middle of the table , out of europe, without clear idea what to do on the pitch… even my grandma can score us when rano is playing because even with a crutch she can outrun rano…
But that’s the problem and i don’t understand how nobody see it. Medel’s main job is not to be the guy with most successful passes in the league. He’s shouldn’t be Xavi type of midfielder, for that job we have Kovacic, Guarin, Brozovic. He’s position is defensive midfielder and he has to stop opposite attacks, made tackles, interceptions, clearings, tactical fouls, helping the defense. And there’s the point where he fails. He have to be number one in those statistics. You can see how many goals we concede this season and he have his big share in that failure. Don’t get me wrong, Medel is a good player, hard worker, navvy who’s job is always underestimated. But in my opinion he’s not good enough to be high class defensive midfielder we need.
I agree frigo, DM’s main job is to win back balls and win tackles. So I looked it up for this season:
Balls Recovered:
Tachtsidis (Verona) 310
Allan (Udinese) 308
Valdifiori (Empoli) 304
Vázquez (Palermo) 280
Medel (Inter) 267
Top 5 in the league in balls recovered.
I think Medel is underrated in our team and he will perform much better with better midfielders around him! I mean he needs others to coordinate movements and perhaps he tried long passes many times because he saw other team-mates couldn’t break down the opposition defence. I believe in him, but I think Allan can offer more (box2box – RCM). I believe Medel coudl co-exist with Allan, they would work hard for a regista type of elegant player like Motta or a strong midfielder like Toure/Kondogbia/Mario Suarez.
I think the main reason he had those outstanding numbers, is because he had to pick up the slack from his teammates. Kova must be our most inconsistent player, 1 amazing game followed by 4 bad ones. Not easy for a player like Medel to rely on his fellow midfielders, when they all are very inconsistent. And as DARi0 mentioned he was also in the top 5 in the balls recovered department.
Nope, the reason he has those numbers is because he’s a bulldog, the problem is that to recover that many balls he leaves his position constantly and expose our defense, that’s why opponents get through our midfield like knife through butter.
Also Medel is a pretty average tackler:
Attempted Tackles Success %
Krychowiak 3,54 80,45%
Gonalons 4,39 74,27%
Kondogbia 3,34 71,72%
Allan 4,85 68,35%
Wanyama 3,54 70,45%
Crisetig 2,44 61,05%
Medel 2,33 59,06%
His tackling is on par with Crisetig FFS, much worse than actually good DMs.
He intercepts a lot of balls though, because like I already said he follows the ball anywhere, which an intelligent DM, specially if it’s your only one shouldn’t do.
alot of rano fanboys would do anything to deflect the blame on others. even if mancio had vidal khedira and fernandinho as starters and we would still get owned because of the brainfarts and stupid mistakes committed by our defence. medel is not exceptional but he gets the job done, then again the all round shittyness of the inter defence was already well known before he even got here. he cleaned up but its obvious we need reinforcements
I’ve yet to see a Rano fanboy. Who could even praise him?
oh trust me, they exist. even guarin has his own fans nowaydays. its crazy
I’ve defended Guarin several times. It’s just because I see a lot of hate towards him and he has proven his quality sometimes. I wouldn’t really mind if we let him go, but there’s even worse players that definitely need to see the exit before Guarin in my opinion. You cannot say the same about Rano. He’s been decent at best. Defending Rano let alone praising, now that’s crazy. Can’t believe that dude was Inter’s captain for an entire season.
You’re using stats used by a moron that doesn’t know what they mean to excuse Medel.
You do realize that if you use tackling, interceptions, aerial and passing stats, Ranocchia figures as one of the best CBs in Serie A. for about 3 seasons straight.
Stats should only be used by people that understand them not by morons.
Again, I simply claim, as is true, that he is no Gargano, and that his passes werent as short or negative as many commonly claim. I never calimed he’s the best tackler or anything else, simply commenting on his passing numbers, as was the purpose behind the article. I’ve worked statistical analysis professionally mate, hope you have a good day though!
After a bad campaign its hard to appreciate someone who has a dirty work 🙂
Dirty work, that’s right. lol
Adding to this, his accuracy with long balls has been amazing.
Haters gonna hate
Guys just check serie a summary statistic from whoscored.com.. we have the highest posession in serie a, second in shots per match, etc. And guarin is our best player based on rating, 4th best on the league (vazquez, pogba, tevez, guarin). Id really like to see vazquez to Inter, he reminds me of alvarez a bit, but I think he’s better and could be Inter’s david silva.
And mancini himself said that medel is the player who suprised him the most since his arrival.
statisticly we had very good season… we were on juve’s level even better but defensive errors and some mazzari shit costed us
Totally agree.
This squad is very talented. Some signings and work in the summer and we can compete for top 3 easily.
Not easily, as you can see the final table… Wwe have talent but so do the others. Competitors are also buying and selling, so we need to make no mistakes in the transfer market.
I’m very optimistic about this summer.
Serie a overal statistic this season…
The thing is we score goals but we also ceonceding a lot…
#ranopower
It’s not Rano, it’s Juan. You will see, Rano is a lot better when paired with a solid center-back.
It is Rano. stop being blind. Can’t you see how sloppy he can be. JJ has been a left back for months and not at fault for goals lately.
These statistics are really positive, makes me look brighter at the future.. We just need to sort out our defence.
too bad it’s not NFL, NBA or MLB where statistics give you a clear picture about a team/player’s performance
In NBA, NFL, MLB, most of the stats are related to “score”. But in soccer, you score only 2-3 goals on average per game. It is just more difficult to measure the strength of a team
What about passes, interceptions, rebounds, turn overs, assists.
Assist is direct related to score, others such as rebounds, turnover are all more closer than passes, passing rate etc in football. Anyway there is another important factor that I have mentioned. in soccer, most likely you score only 1-2 goals for a team of 11. Only a small number of players will directly related to score. I think Soccer is a bit harder to model. And also most of those stats only showed our offensive side.
Statisticly we finished the season in 8 place.. That can’t be good no matter what statistics are.. It’s like everybody already forgot how many times this season we looked absolutely awful, without any idea on the pitch, with no penetration or stability. Oh sure we have the biggest posession, it is a shame that you don’t get any points for that.
This was the season when we wanted to get back to CL, we paid two coaches to get us there, CL was well within the reach when we hired Mancini and he failed miserably, just like Walter.
So don’t write things like we were on juve’s level, we are not anywhere near their level and we won’t be any time soon. Let’s get back to the CL and then think about Juve and scudetto. If someone thinks that we can compete for Scudetto next season he is just fooling himself.
Most people are just needed someone or something to blame that’s why LOL
I’ve always said that he’s a good player and he’s vital for our team, without his defensive contributions this season we would be much lower in the standings.
The only downside is that he sometimes likes to shoot on the edge of the box, his shooting is absolutely horrendous.
It happened a couple times n the Empoli game, his shots were nowhere near the target. He should pass it off to someone else when he’s that far up the pitch.
People who said medel is shit were just pure moron. The fact is he was everywhere, he won the ball, he deliver forward, he doing a lot of things as well as defend… But 1 thing people didn’t notice, he can’t win the war on midfield alone plus he need to backing up our defensive part… He carry out everything, he carry out our CB’s responsibility, he backing up guaro or our WB if they not in their position…
This all prove that most of us just love football not understand it…
I was one of Medel’s critics. I would have never guessed his passing was so accurate. I see how wrong I was now 🙁
That’s just proof that half of the supporters of this site is stupid headless chickens.