Loss index

Also known as losses to successful attacking actions.

Metric defition: number of ball losses a player makes divided by the successful actions in attack (shots, crosses and dribbles).

A metric that quantifies danger created by the player in the final phase in relation to ball losses. Used to evaluate attacking input of offensive players and its relation to missed opportunities/number of tries. Lower is better.

For example, Lionel Messi in the 2018/2019 season made 14.22 successful attacking actions on average and lost the ball 11.73 times per 90 minutes. That makes his loss index very high, at 0.82.

In the same season, José Callejón made just 3.34 successful attacking actions per 90 minutes and lost the ball 8.78 times. That makes his loss index 2.63, which is a little lower than average.