Manchester United are the best crossers in the Premier League as per a new data released by EA Sports. The new statistics suggests that the Red Devils have had a change of style under new manager Jose Mourinho, having focussed on long balls and/or building up play through the middle under David Moyes and Louis van Gaal.
The Old Trafford outfit were known to be a crossing team under legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson and the new shift in trend is suggestive that the Portuguese is taking the club back to the successful mantra of the Scot. As per the report, full-back Antonio Valencia is the Red Devils’ most accomplished crosser having completed a league-high 39 crosses in 2132 minutes of league football this season.
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The most interesting revelation by the report is that the Old Trafford outfit have completed as many crosses in 27 games this season – 139 to be precise – as they had done in their last 3 seasons under Moyes, Giggs and Van Gaal. Under the Dutchman last season, the 20-time league champions had finished in 14th position for most crosses completed in the league.
Here are the complete team-wise stats of the most crosses in the Premier League:
| Rank | Team | Crosses Completed |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester United | 139 |
| 2 | Swansea City | 137 |
| 3 | Southampton | 121 |
| 4 | Crystal Palace | 120 |
| 5 | West Bromwich Albion | 97 |
| 6 | Liverpool | 96 |
| - | West Ham United | 96 |
| 8 | Middlesbrough | 95 |
| - | Watford | 95 |
Apart from Manchester United and Liverpool, no other team in the top 6 of the Premier League feature in the list released.
Here are the statistics of Manchester United’s completed crosses in the Premier League in the last 4 seasons.
| Season | Matches | Crosses Completed |
|---|---|---|
| 2013/14 | 38 | 139 |
| 2014/15 | 38 | 136 |
| 2015/16 | 38 | 104 |
| 2016/17 | 27 | 139 |
Only under David Moyes did Manchester United complete as many crosses as they have already done this season but that is having played 11 games less. The Red Devils are set to complete more crosses this season than they have managed since the departure of Sir Alex, almost 4 years ago.
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Here is the list of the players with most completed crosses so far this season:
| Player | Team | Position | Mins Played | Crosses Completed | Mins per cross completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antonio Valencia | Manchester United | Defender | 2132 | 39 | 54.7 |
| Kevin de Bruyne | Manchester City | Midfielder | 2092 | 31 | 67.5 |
| Andros Townsend | Crystal Palace | Midfielder | 1794 | 30 | 59.8 |
| Cedric Soares | Southampton | Defender | 1641 | 29 | 56.6 |
| Chris Brunt | West Bromwich Albion | Midfielder | 1721 | 24 | 71.7 |
As is visible from the aforementioned table, Antonio Valencia leads the league with most crosses completed and the Ecuadorian also has the best minutes to crosses completed in the Premier League. Interestingly, Kevin de Bruyne has the second most crosses completed in the league despite Manchester City not featuring in the top 9 cubs with most crosses.
