Inter Stats – Marcelo Brozovic’s season in numbers

MILAN – Every match a midfielder takes to the pitch and knows that he’ll have to outrun Marcelo Brozovic. But looking at the numbers, almost nobody can do it. In fact, the Croatian midfielder leads the ranking of kilometres ran on the pitch, although that’s no new sensation for the Croatian who’s been at the top of this particular ranking for a while. At the moment, according to Lega Serie A’s figures, Brozovic has run an average of 12.535km per game, while no other player across the 20 teams in the league has an average of more than 12km per game.

A fact that, as mentioned, isn’t surprising and the Nerazzurri fans are used to seeing Brozovic everywhere: with his characteristic running the Croatian ties the game together as he tackles, drops back to cover and pushes forward for assists or shots on goal. This statistical review of his matches this season so far, in collaboration with Opta, allows us to highlight some of ‘Epic’ Brozovic’s excellence.

His 32 appearances this season are divided as follows: 23 in the league, six in the Champions League, two in the Coppa Italia and one in the Europa League. Brozovic is an untiring source of play for the Nerazzurri team being the central pivot of the midfield. And the numbers speak clearly and highlight an extraordinary attribute, that of pass accuracy despite his vast mileage: Brozovic has averaged 65 attempted passes per game with a success rate of 89%. His great ability lies in combining ball recovery with linking the play and finishing offensive moves.

Brozovic leaves everything on the pitch. He’s made 42 interceptions, while his tackles success rate, duels won and aerial duels won are all over 50%. In addition to this tenacious work, there is also attacking production: Brozovic has score three goals in the 2019/20 season. The first opened the season against Lecce, his second was in the first Derby fixture thanks to a deflection, and his third was a wonderful left-footed strike in the return Derby fixture that proved the catalyst for the Nerazzurri comeback. In total the Croatian international has attempted 51 shots towards the opposition’s goal.

His three goals aren’t all: he’s also created 45 chances and made six assists this season. Five of them have come in the league, with Brozovic setting up Lautaro against Sassuolo, Gagliardini against Genoa, Lukaku in Turin and Naples, and Borja Valero against Fiorentina. Meanwhile his assist in the Champions League was for Candreva’s goal to make it 2-0 against Borussia Dortmund.

Let’s rewatch Marcelo Brozovic’s best bits this season in this clip.