South America Shining at Club World Cup ...Middle East

Stat, Viz, Quiz is the Opta Analyst football newsletter. This week’s edition looks at the Club World Cup, Jarell Quansah, and fouled players.

We hope you’re all enjoying the summer. There may not be as much football as we’d like, but the FIFA Club World Cup has at least partially scratched the itch.

There had been some concerns about the quality we’d see in the first edition of the new format for the tournament, but games involving teams from one confederation have especially stood out, and in this week’s SVQ, we’ll be taking a closer look at that.

The transfer window continues to see private jets flying here, there and everywhere with new signings aboard, followed by fans with so much focus and dedication you would think they were air traffic controllers. This week we’ll be profiling Jarell Quansah, who is seemingly heading to Bayer Leverkusen from Liverpool.

This week’s quiz is all about headers, while our Ask Opta question tasks us with finding out which players have been fouled more often than others.

We head to the USA to kick things off, though.

If you haven’t done so already, you can subscribe below for free to receive SVQ every Tuesday.

STAT – CONMEBOL Climbing

When the new format of the FIFA Club World Cup was announced, there was concern from some that one continent would dominate.

One continent has indeed been strong pretty much across the board, with their teams almost unbeatable.

However, it has not been Europe, as many expected, but South America.

Michael Olise’s late goal to hand Bayern Munich a 2-1 win over Boca Juniors on Friday was the first loss suffered by any of the six CONMEBOL representatives in the United States since the tournament began, in what was the 10th game featuring one of them at the Club World Cup.

The nine games prior to that had all seen the South American team either draw or win. The four games since have seen one more defeat, with Botafogo losing 1-0 to Atlético Madrid but that result still saw the Brazilian side go through to the knockout stage at the expense of Diego Simeone’s men on goal difference.

Palmeiras also sealed their place in the last 16 with a dramatic comeback draw against Inter Miami on Monday. Having trailed 2-0 with 10 minutes remaining, Abel Ferreira’s men fought back to draw 2-2 and secure top spot in Group A.

That means of the 14 games featuring South America teams prior to Tuesday, seven have seen CONMEBOL victories, with five draws and just two losses.

It’s heartening to see, not just for those unsure of how competitive the new tournament would be, but when you consider the old format had not seen a non-European side win since 2012, it is refreshing to see a strong showing from outside Europe.

In fact, the first three editions of the old format FIFA Club World Cup were won by South American sides, with Corinthians winning in 2000, São Paulo in 2005 and Internacional in 2006. Since then, only Corinthians in 2012 have lifted the trophy.

As this is considered a completely new tournament by FIFA, technically anyone would be a ‘new winner’, but South American teams have so far shown that they are not only taking it very seriously, but that they can match some of Europe’s best for quality as well.

In no game was this more apparent than Botafogo’s 1-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain last week. It saw the winners of the Copa Libertadores beat the winners of the UEFA Champions League, though prior to the game, the Opta supercomputer gave the Brazilians just a 6.4% chance of victory, showing what a brilliant achievement it was.

Flamengo’s 3-1 comeback win over Chelsea was also an eye opener. Fair enough, Nicolas Jackson’s senseless red card didn’t help the Blues, but Filipe Luís’ men had already gone 2-1 in front by that point.

We aren’t even out of the group stage yet so there’s a long way to go, but as things stand it looks like the knockout stages could be competitive and entertaining.

We’ll be continuing to cover the Club World Cup over on the Opta Analyst website, so be sure to visit as the tournament progresses for all the latest stats and stories.

VIZ – Quansah-fiable

You wonder how negotiations have gone between Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen this summer.

Firstly, the Premier League champions signed Jeremie Frimpong; then the even bigger deal for Florian Wirtz to head to Anfield was completed after several weeks of talks.

Leverkusen sporting director Simon Rolfes must have said “Actually, before you go…” to his Liverpool counterpart Richard Hughes, as there were more numbers to crunch as the Bundesliga club wanted to procure young defender Jarell Quansah from the Merseysiders.

With Jonathan Tah leaving for Bayern Munich, new boss Erik ten Hag needs reinforcements and Quansah appears to be the main target for Die Werkself.

The England centre-back has had an up-and-down start to his senior career. He was loaned to Bristol Rovers in League One for the second half of the 2022-23 season where he made 16 league appearances under then Rovers boss Joey Barton. Quansah didn’t pull up any trees, but he had a steady spell in the south west of England.

The 2023-24 campaign was his breakout season after his return to his parent club, making 33 appearances in all competitions for Liverpool, 27 of which were starts. Very few would have seen that coming at the start of that campaign, but Jürgen Klopp showed faith in Quansah.

He scored three goals and added three assists, with his six goal involvements as many as Virgil van Dijk (4 goals, 2 assists). Of Liverpool centre-backs that season, only Ibrahima Konaté (1.4) averaged more than Quansah’s 1.2 interceptions per 90 minutes.

He was even picked by Arne Slot to start the first game of last season at Ipswich Town ahead of Konaté, a sign of how much he impressed the new Liverpool manager in pre-season. It didn’t end how Quansah would have liked, with the centre-back replaced at half-time. Slot cited the player’s struggles in winning duels, not necessarily because he wasn’t winning any – Quansah won four of his eight duels in the first 45 minutes at Portman Road – but Ipswich were clearly targeting him, with no other Liverpool defender engaging in more than five duels in the whole game.

Quansah did play 25 matches in total last season, though just 13 were starts, and some came at right-back. Slot perhaps had a point when it came to duels, though. While Quansah won a respectable 53.1%, that was well below the rate of Liverpool’s other centre-backs Joe Gomez (59.1%), Konaté (65.2%) and Van Dijk (67.9%).

Any regression in his numbers may have been partly due to a difference in what Slot wanted from his centre-backs compared to Klopp. In the German’s final season at Anfield in 2023-24, Quansah averaged 24.6 carries – a player moving the ball five metres or more – per 90 minutes, the most of any Liverpool defender in the Premier League. In fact, of defenders in the whole of England’s top flight, only Brighton’s Jan Paul van Hecke (28.3) and Manchester City’s Rúben Dias (25.8) averaged more per 90 (minimum 1,000 minutes played).

This season, that reduced to just 16.6, the third most of Reds defenders, as well as 7.2 progressive carries – moving the ball more than five metres upfield – per 90, down from 12.6 the season prior when only seven Premier League defenders averaged more (min. 1,000 mins).

At just 22 and in the slightly less pressurised environment of the Bundesliga, Quansah still has plenty of room to grow, and he can follow the path that many other young talents have taken in the German top flight.

Supposedly the deal with be worth around £35 million with add-ons, which would be a club record for Bayer Leverkusen and tells you how highly Quansah is rated. Then again, Liverpool of all clubs know how much money the German club have at their disposal after recent sales.

That Liverpool have reportedly insisted on a buy-back clause says it all, but it will be interesting to see how Quansah develops from here, especially ahead of next summer’s World Cup.

QUIZ – On Your Head

This week’s quiz looks at headed goals. Can you use your head to remember those who used theirs? Answers at the bottom of the page.

1. Who has scored the most headed goals in Premier League history?

2. Who has scored the most headed goals in a single season in Premier League history?

3. Who are the only two players to have scored a hat-trick of headers in a single Premier League game? Clue: They both played for Everton and Newcastle during their careers.

4. Who scored the most headed goals in the Premier League in the 2024-25 season?

5. Which player attempted the most headed shots in the Premier League in 2024-25?

Ask Opta

This week’s question comes from Reece C, who asks: “I saw Bruno Guimarães won lots more fouls than any other PL player last season. Is there anyone in Europe who won as many?”

Do you have a stat-based question you’d like Opta to answer in a future edition of SVQ? Email us at [email protected] or message us on X @OptaAnalyst with #AskOpta and we’ll pick the best one.

Answer:

You’re correct, Reece. Bruno Guimarães won an astonishing 108 fouls in the Premier League in 2024-25, at least 37 more than any other player.

Wolves’ Matheus Cunha – now of Manchester United – won the joint-second most with 71, though he did win the most fouls in the opposition final third with 26.

As for other European leagues, no, no one else was able to match Guimarães for fouls won, with Bologna’s Dan Ndoye in Serie A the only other player to reach three figures (101).

The most fouls won in the Bundesliga was RB Leipzig’s Loïs Openda (77), while in La Liga it was Real Sociedad winger Takefusa Kubo (73) and in Ligue 1 it was Strasbourg’s Dilane Bakwa (71).

The most fouls won in the opposition final third in Europe’s top five leagues was Michael Olise for Bayern Munich (31), while Empoli’s Liam Henderson conceded the most fouls (83).

Our Opta data hubs have detailed team and player stats, predictions, expected league tables and much more. Click below to start your own data investigations of last season’s Premier League, or you can dive into our data on the FIFA Club World Cup here.

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Quiz Answers

1. Who has scored the most headed goals in Premier League history?

Peter Crouch (53 in 468 games)

2. Who has scored the most headed goals in a single season in Premier League history?

Harry Kane (10 in 2022-23)

3. Who are the only two players to have scored a hat-trick of headers in a single Premier League game? Clue: They both played for Everton and Newcastle during their careers.

Duncan Ferguson (for Everton vs Bolton on 28 December 1997), and Salomón Rondón (for West Brom vs Swansea on 14 December 2016)

4. Who scored the most headed goals in the Premier League in the 2024-25 season?

Chris Wood (8 – at least twice as many as any other player)

5. Which player attempted the most headed shots in the Premier League in 2024-25?

Erling Haaland (34)

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