Odegaard leads in defensive stats
According to statistics firm Opta, Odegaard topped this index in Europe's top five national championships (England Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue I and Bundesliga). He successfully performed 40 times, nine more than Joshua Kimmich (Bayern) and Andre-Franck Zambo Anguissa (Napoli). Jack Harrison (Leeds) ranked fourth with 30 times, while Kevin De Bruyne (Man City) ranked fifth with 29 times.
In his main role as an attacking midfielder, Ordegaard also contributed 10 goals and seven assists in 27 Premier League matches this season.
"It was interesting and a bit surprising," said Norwegian football expert Lars Tjærnas. "Odegaard's record of recovering the ball in the last third of the field is so outstanding and superior to other players."
Commentator Thore Haugstad believes that Odegaard's achievements are the result of hard work. However, he also found it strange that the Arsenal star made a big difference compared to the group behind.
According to the CIES Football Observatory, Arsenal are the club with the most passes in the bottom third of the pitch in Europe's top five leagues this season. Part of that is Odegaard's work.
According to Tjærnas and Haugstad, Odegaard is becoming a perfect player. The Norwegian midfielder excels at dribbling, scoring, assisting, recovering and distributing the ball. "There are probably only two things that Odegaard needs to improve on: defense with pure strength and duels that can't use ball retrieval at times," said Tjærnas.
Odegaard made headlines when he joined Real in 2015, at the age of 16. But the Norwegian star played only 11 matches for the giants of Madrid. After playing many times at Heerenveen, Vitesse, Sociedad and Arsenal on loan, Odegaard was bought by the English team permanently in 2021.
Currently, Arsenal leads the English Premier League from 2022-2023. Odegaard and his teammates own 69 points after 28 games, eight points and one more than the second ranked team Man City. If crowned this season, Arsenal will end 19 years empty-handed in the best league in England.
