Who are the Premier League's 2020/21 pass masters?

2:57pm on Wednesday 6th January 2021
By Martin Macdonald

Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson completes the most passes per game in the Premier League in 2020/21.

The former Sunderland midfielder has evolved his game under Jurgen Klopp to become one of the league's pass masters, sitting deep in the middle of midfield to recycle possession while also distributing the ball to team-mates who possess a more effective creative spark.

On average, he makes 96.7 passes to team-mates per game, with a completion rate of 87%.

Crucially, though, these passes are by no means always side-to-side in a relatively safe fashion, as he has the second-best record in the league for passes into the final third with 28.7. Only Man Utd's Bruno Fernandes completes more per game with 29.7.

Second on the list is Man City midfielder Rodri, who completes 88.2 passes per match.

The current leaderboard, found below, shows players who have featured in at least 500 minutes in the league this season.

If this filter was to be taken away, the players with the most passes completed on average would be Henderson's Liverpool team-mate Thiago Alcantara, who has averaged 101.9 per game, albeit just from four appearances.

Premier League pass masters

Player	Team	Passes P90	Final Third Passes P90	Pass Completion
Jordan Handerson	Liverpool	96.7	28.7	87%
Rodri	Man City	88.2	18.3	91%
John Stones	Man City	87.3	6.7	93%
Thiago Silva	Chelsea	84.8	7.3	93%
Ilkay Gundogan	Man City	84.7	24.7	90%

Taking defenders John Stones and Thiago Silva out of the equation and just focusing on midfielders, then Liverpool's Curtis Jones and Fabinho would enter the top five, completing 82.8 and 80.3 passes per game each respectively.

However, the Brazilian has played the majority of his last few games for the club at centre-back due to their current defensive crisis.

2020/21 Premier League: Standings, Matches, Team Stats, Player Stats

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