Numbers narrative: An early check on the Vinícius-Mbappé duo
· Yahoo Sports
Two matches into the La Liga season, Vinícius Jr and Kylian Mbappé have shared the pitch for 177 minutes. While the sample remains small, the direction of their exchanges has already been notably different. We will continue to monitor it as the season progresses.
Mbappé has found Vinícius more frequently. He has completed 13 passes to the Brazilian, compared with six travelling in the opposite direction. That works out at 6.61 passes per 90 minutes from Mbappé to Vinícius, more than twice Vinícius’s rate of 3.05 to Mbappé.
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Yet the greater volume has not produced the greater threat.
Vinícius’s six passes to Mbappé have generated 0.29 expected threat (xT), compared with just 0.08 from Mbappé’s 13 passes to Vinícius. Per 90 minutes together, that is 0.146 xT created by Vinícius for Mbappé against 0.043 in the other direction.
Four of Vinícius’s six completed passes to Mbappé have gone into the penalty area. Mbappé has completed three passes into the box for Vinícius despite making more than twice as many passes to him overall.
Mbappé has created three shots for Vinícius, at a rate of 1.53 per 90, while Vinícius has created two for Mbappé, or 1.02 per 90. Their non-penalty expected goals creation is similarly tight: 0.19 npxG created by Vinícius for Mbappé and 0.17 by Mbappé for Vinícius.
The first game, a 2-1 win away at Espanyol, contained relatively little combination from Vinícius to Mbappé. In 94 shared minutes, Vinícius completed one pass to Mbappé, which entered the box but did not create a shot. Mbappé completed five passes in the other direction, including one into the box and one that created a shot.
Four days later against Real Sociedad at the Bernabéu, the numbers changed considerably. During 83 minutes together in Real Madrid’s 4-1 victory, Vinícius completed five passes to Mbappé, three of them into the penalty area. Two created shots and one produced an assist. Mbappé completed eight passes to Vinícius, with two entering the box and two creating shots.