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Did a bit of nosing around the Googles, in thinking about people freaking out about Dembele having lost the ball 33 times last match.
It was interesting to me because Dembele had the ball a LOT more than usual, which would mean more lost balls, even aside from a broken team.
In August 2018, Neymar lost the ball vs Angers 34 times. In that same weekend, Messi lost the ball 27 times Valladolid.
In the Barça remuntada against PSG, Neymar lost the ball 38 times, and 46 times against Juventus. It got me to thinking about stats and stuff.
If a player is tasked with driving the offense, and loses the ball in trying something, forcing a pass or being ambitious, how should we weigh it?
When Messi makes a run at 5 defenders and loses the ball, nobody says, "Jesus! Another lost ball." We gasp at the audacity of it all. Same with others.
The more a player has the ball (unless it's Xavi), usually the more often they're going to lose it. It's part of the deal for dynamic, ambitious players.
This isn't to say 33 lost balls isn't a "Holy shit!" number of dispos. Nope. But it's probably worth trying to apply a bit of context to that number. Maybe.
