Packing: The football metric that explains how good Brighton's Adam Lallana and Pascal Gross are
What is Packing?
Packing measures each time a forward pass or dribble is completed before, crucially, counting up how many opponents have been taken out or bypassed in the process.
So the metric focuses on vertical passing that takes players out of the game, which is a big part in how you win football games.
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Hide AdAt the Euros in France 2016, 34 of 51 games were won by teams who had bypassed more players than their opponents. Only three suffered defeats.
See attached YouTube video for a visual explanation.
Where did it come from?
I came across Packing last year while reading Christoph Bierman's Football Hackers: The Science and Art of a Data Revolution.
In his book, Bierman explains Packing was created by former Bayer Leverkusen players Stefan Reinartz and Jens Hegeler back in 2015.
Reinartz was quoted as saying: "You need a pass giver and a pass recipient, to get into reasonably interesting spaces. You need someone drawing the ball and someone who plays the killer pass."