TheTimeshave produced an intriguing report showing the twoplayers with the most passes exchanged between them at each Premier Leagueclub, and its pretty interesting reading.
While most fans believe their star players have a 'telepathic' connection and look to pick certain playersout whenever they can, the evidence suggests the most prolific partnerships are the ones made out of necessity (and proximity) rather than anything more elaborate.
Who passes to each other most in your team? Mostly defenders but Pogba, Zlatan, sanchez, Ozil break trend pic.twitter.com/MK9GcFCXBt
As you may have expected (or maybe not), defenders tend to dominate the statistics with the majority ofclubs showing a defender as at least one of their top-ranking pair.
"At many clubs the pair exchanging the most passes are a full back and a central midfielder. Two examples of this are Kyle Walker and Victor Wanyama, the Tottenham Hotspur colleagues, and Christian Fuchs and Danny Drinkwater at Leicester City," explains Times journalist Bill Edgar.
"That Walker, a right back, and Fuchs, a left back, receive more passes than they deliver in these pairings is a reminder that full backs, though nominally defenders, are often more advanced than central midfielders as teams pass their way forward during attacks."
However, despite the common theme,Arsenal and Manchester United stand out from the defensivepattern with their in-sync attacking duos - Mesut Ozil/Alexis Sanchez and Paul Pogba/Zlatan Ibrahimovic respectively.
While this bodes well for both sides forward link up play, of the four players,only Sanchez is currently within the top 10 of the league highest assists, with three.
The Premier League'soverall pair with the most passes is that of Jake Livermore and Ahmed Elmohamady at Hull City, with three completed passes more than that of Philippe Coutinho and James Milner from Liverpool in second place.
Interestingly, while the two teams have experienced contrasting fortunes this season,both partnerships are between a full backand more advanced midfielder, andthe 'defender' inboth cases (Elmohamady and Milner)has beenplaying out of his natural position.
Player spotlight from yesterday on Ahmed Elmohamady. Not a right-back and unlikely to ever become one #hcafc https://t.co/AAo1yrQmhj
Hull's fellow strugglers Sunderland represent the least passes between a pair, with just 65 exchanges (less than a third of Hull's tally)between Steven Pienaar and Patrick Van Aanholt.
The evidence would suggest that either the Black Cats have a very diverse passing system, or that they have not built up many relationships in a team struggling for form.
The Times believes that the data collected can reveal how football tactics are changing and"much about their team's style of play."