How Good is Gabriel Magalhães at Passing?

There is an interesting debate going on about this question, so it makes sense to turn to the data and see what light it can shed.

This week this video was circulating on twitter and sparked a question for me, just how good is Gabriel Magalhães at passing?

🛸 @killgaspar

My ball playing CB🧱

It is really easy to highlight a player's best passing in a less than three-minute clip because almost every Premier League player is in reality a good passer when given time and space, especially compared to players from lower levels.

Where the best passers separate themselves is that they see passes that others don't, have the confidence and ability to try them, and complete them at a higher rate.

So today, let's go through and try to put Gabriel's passing stats in context and try to answer the question of how good his passing actually is.

The best place to start is at the highest level using the standard passing dashboard set of stats.

His most common pass is square followed by the pass that goes out to the left sideline, typically to the left back or midfielder. Overall he is sitting at about 50% of his passes aimed forward.