The most dominant aerial duel winners in Europe

Once upon a time, aerial ability seemed like one of the most important aspects in evaluating players, particularly those playing in central areas of the pitch. It was vital to know that a team’s centre backs and midfielders could beat their opponents in the air and stop their burly centre forward winning flick-ons for a nippy winger or second striker to run onto. 

However, in modern times, the importance of that ability seems to have greatly diminished. That’s due to the way possession-based football has become the dominant style in football. Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona side of the early 2010s. Instead of focusing on physical attributes, Guardiola built his team with the most technical players he could, with every single one of them extremely comfortable on the ball. 

The defenders had to be top quality with the ball at their feet, whilst up front, the Spaniard shifted Lionel Messi to a central role. Clearly, he couldn’t compete in the air against centre backs but that didn’t matter, as Barcelona kept the ball on the grass. Instead, he would drop deep into midfield, causing chaos for opponents and allowing him to create as well as score.   

It would be an exaggeration to say that every team now tries to play in that way, but Guardiola’s team certainly had a huge influence and led to more teams valuing technical ability over physical ability and preferring centre backs who can confidently aid in build-up rather than be dominant in ground and aerial duels. 

It would be wrong to say that aerial ability doesn’t matter anymore though. Whilst a lot of top teams have a more technical focus, they need to be able to compete against teams who will try and exploit that by attacking them more aerially or by simply trying to use a physical advantage over their technically superior opponent. 

With that in mind, here are the players who were most dominant in aerial duels in the 2021/22 season. The top two might come as a surprise…

Nathan Ake - 83.7%

Who expected a Manchester City player to be first in this list? Guardiola’s current side clearly don’t put a high emphasis on the importance of aerial duels, but as above, they do need to be able to defend against the aerial route. 

Interestingly, City were also a major threat at set-pieces in 21/22, scoring 21 times from them. Ake was one of their most dangerous players from corners and free-kicks, scoring three goals. 

It is worth saying that Ake was not a key part of City’s team though, as he played only 923 Premier League minutes.

John Stones - 83.1%

A second City player on the list - and one who was a little more regularly in Guardiola’s team - is England international, Stones. However, both he and Ake were behind Aymeric Laporte and Ruben Dias in the pecking order of City defenders. 

Stones ranked in the 95th percentile for centre backs when it came to xG, showing what a danger he was from attacking set-pieces. However, he only scored once. 

Marcelo - 82.4%

No, not that Marcelo. This is the 35-year-old former Lyon defender. 

He spent last season at Bordeaux, who have now been relegated to the third tier of French football due to financial issues. However, they had already finished bottom of Ligue 1, after a significant step back from their previous season. 

The Brazilian is now a free agent, and despite a poor season, could get another move in France due to his experience in the league. 

Konstantinos Mavropanos - 81.8%

The 24-year-old Greek spent the season at Stuttgart on loan from Arsenal and impressed enough for the Bundesliga side to make the deal permanent for a fee of around €3million. 

As he made 30 appearances, he was a core part of the Stuttgart team which avoided relegation on the final day of the season. His aerial dominance was part of the reason the side stayed up on goal difference, as they conceded 59 goals compared to Hertha Berlin’s 71. 

Notably, Bundesliga is the league which averages the most aerial duels per 90 out of all the top five leagues, so Mavropanos will be best appreciated in the division he is currently competing in. 

Adama Soumaoro - 79.2%

Moving over to Serie A, finally we have Bologna defender, Soumaraoro. 

The French-Malian played 28 times as his side finished 13th in the league. Bologna had the best defensive record in the bottom half of Serie A, with Soumaro’s reliability in the air a reason why they were able to perform so well defensively, relative to their position.