The new Nike CTR360 II has two of the world’s greatest midfielders as it’s key athletes; Cesc Fabregas and Andres Iniesta.
Both are products of the famed Barcelona Academy – La Masia, both began their lives as defensive midfielders, both were raised on the famed fluid style of Spanish football and both combined to give Spain the World Cup winning goal in the 116th Minute of the World Cup final in Johannesburg.
But who is the victor of this titanic midfield clash? We’re here to find out!
Fabregas combines technical fluidity with the ability to single-handedly dictate match pace.' He has provided more assists (16) in his club˘' league since the beginning of the 2009/10 season than any other player.
Fabregas has created a chance every 24.8 minutes on average, a league-' high amongst regular players.' Most notably, Fabregas was the most prolific player in terms of creating chances for his teammates in Europe˘ top five' leagues in season 2009/10, setting up a chance every 29 minutes.
Iniesta showed his game-changing ability this summer in South Africa and' it˘ no surprise that his passing accuracy and assist ratio are establishing
him as one of the world˘ best.
In the Champions League this season, Iniesta has found a teammate with a superb 90% of his passes. Last season in La Liga, the gifted schemer posted an incredible' 93.7% passing accuracy rate in the middle third of the pitch. Iniesta has' already created a joint-competition-high 16 goal-scoring chances for' teammates in his country˘ European qualifying matches.
PASSING
Starting with passing, Fabregas edges out Iniesta on total passes attempted over the course of a season by nearly 200! Certainly fitting in with Arsenal’s famed passing philosophy, it only makes sense that Cesc would ping more passes off his football boots than your average player.
It’s also interesting to see the difference in averages between La Liga and the Premiership – with the average Spanish League player attempting more than 150 more passes than their Premiership couterparts.
PASSING ACCURACY PER GAME
Fabregas vs Average' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' Iniesta vs Average
The CTR360 II claims that the new Pass and receive pads will help players bring a whole new level of accuracy to their passing game – but Iniesta and Fabregas are two players that need very little help from their football boots in that department!
In terms of quantity, Fabregas again edges out his Barcelona buddy, posting up an average of 51.5 complete passes per game compared to Iniesta’s 47.4.
Assists
Fabregas vs Average' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' Iniesta vs Average
The CTR360 II‘s sibling football boots are named the ‘Trequartista’ – after the Italian name for the second striker, who’s all about getting assists for his team mates, so assists are really part of the DNA of the CTR footballer.
This is another area in which Fabregas edges out Iniesta, since 2007 Cesc has 42 assists to his name compared to Iniesta’s 32. Again this probably says more about the club than the player – with Barcelona normally playing with 3 outright attackers working for each other, with Iniesta’s job to keep play flowing. Whereas Fabregas will normally only have 1 or 2 strikers in front of him, with his job to play them in all game.
DISTRIBUTION
Fabregas
Iniesta
Breaking down the passing by areas of the pitch, it goes to show Iniesta’s principal of ‘quality over quantity’. Whereas Fabregas’ place in the centre of the Arsenal midfield allows him licence to create dozens of passes per game, Iniesta’s accuracy in the most crowded areas of the pitch – Defence and Midfield – are both above 95%.
So there you have it, two different players, two very different leagues, one pair of football boots.
Fabregas creates more chances and makes more passes overall, but Iniesta consistently dominates the midfield with an inhuman ability to pick passes in the most difficult areas of the pitch.
We think it’s too close to call – so we’re opening the floor to you!
Use the comments below to pick who your favourite is out of these two awesome CTR360 II wearers!
Interesting statistics.
The one key thing to remeber each players contribution to the team as a whole. The diference between both players is their individual component to the team. From the given stats it shows that Cesc passes more than Iniesta, which at any given moment could be true. But when the statistic is taken as an individual player it tends to be baised about the individual conditions. Arsenal uses Cesc in about 90% of their plays because of the fact that he provids that extra finishing touch, Barcelona on the other hand does not filter each and every ball through Iniesta.
Most of Barcelonas play passes through Xavi and then it moves to Iniesta or Messi. Two very different circumstances. During national team games Iniesta and Cesc tend to be on at the same time, also meaning that they dont necessarily play the same passing game, although they do play it nontheless.
Imagine putting Cesc and Iniesta on the same Barca team, although Cesc might “have it in his DNA” it doesnt mean that this statistic would stay the same.
Same goes for the assistance statistic, who scores more goals? Iniesta or Xavi? Iniesta because Xavi delivers the killer pass. Cesc on the other hand does the distributing more than anyone else because he doesnt necessarily have a “Xavi” to deliver to him, hence why his stat is so much higher than Iniesta.
Even though I seem to be taking away the essence of the article that is based on the performance of the boot, I wont deny that both these players are incredible at what they do and that regardless of the statistics they are both absolutely pivotal in the role that they play on both teams.
Cheers
Awesome comment – very intelligent insight; clearly you know your stuff!
Absolutely – we try to mention that it’s as much the team and the league’s style of play as much as anything, we just got our hands on these stats and thought they told a pretty interesting story!
top artical, yea also the more passes doesnt bring success, as fabregas has more passes yet didnt win anything with his club. Top boots btw give away possibe ?? 🙂 also a link to new adidas predator kinetic and adizero prime worth a look http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkW2cNZqbvY thanks
They’re both good players, but i’d prefer Iniesta for Barca, because, he’s a player with a ability to pass and attack in 1 person. Fabregas is a real pass master but the lack of his attacking skill bothers me. but he can learn it because he is a young player with a great feature.
But for now, Iniesta.
Fabregas has no scoring ability? Cesc single handedly beat AC Milan……….in Milan.
can you please told me from where do you take this stadistics.
Regards
I love the game and all the great players. The article reveals how meticulous Nike has been in producing the boot.
well Cesc is a much more balanced player, he drops to defend and wins the ball. I never see that from Iniesta. Cesc also has a much more difficult task in the Premier League because the game is much faster and midfielders have a much harder job than they do in La Liga. Iniesta does score more but he’s playing on the wing and has a different task. Fabregas is a central midfielder, it’s very dangerous to dribble in the middle because it’s much more costly to lose possession. I think iPodkiller is thinking this reluctance to dribble in the middle is a lack of skill, while in reality it’s a representation of his intelligence. Also Iniesta plays at Barcelona, the best team on the planet. It’s much easier to play there than any other team, because those players will get the best out of anyone they play with. It would be interesting to see if Iniesta could leave and get the recognition of Fabregas. He certainly is a top player, but outside of Barca I think his skills would be put to a more rigorous evaluation.
On current form Iniesta. On both at their best I think Iniesta edges it by 0.5% because he’s come up tops in key big big games.
Side note on passing stats, Iniesta doesn’t pass that much because there’s XAVI. LOL.
Whereas in Arsenal no one competes with Fab for the ball when he plays. Unless another Henry appears.
I agree with TITO 993, Xavi controls Barcelona’s midfield and does the majority of passes while Iniesta plays a bit more forward receiving those passes so yeah two different circumstances.
Both would have a place in my team but if I had to choose between one of them I’d go with Iniesta.
One of the main reasons Spain won this World Cup was because of their strong midfield, thanks Xavi, Iniesta and Fabregas even though he came out of the bench in most games. But hey that is what makes a World Cup winning squad.