The Juventus captain leads many of Europe's top players in two specific statistics In terms of the number of forward passes made and the number of progressive runs (i.e. how often a run with the ball brings the player significantly closer to the opposition’s penalty area), Manuel Locatelli outperforms Vitinha and Fabian Ruiz of PSG, Kimmich and Pavlovic of Bayern, as well as Modric, Rodri and Pedri. The Juventus captain is among the best in Europe according to this statistic, published on the X profile of the statistics website DataMb. In the first eight matches of the current league campaign, with Tudor and Brambilla in charge, Locatelli averaged 57.63 successful passes and 25.75 forward passes. In the subsequent 18 matches under Luciano Spalletti, successful passes rose to 75.33 per game (+30%), forward passes to 36.72 (+43%) and appearances among the top ‘passers’ in the final third to 12. Under Spalletti, Locatelli plays further forward and in a more attacking role. According to DataMb, Locatelli is the top midfielder in Europe’s top five leagues for progressive passes (those gaining more than 9 metres of ground), forward passes, long passes and passes in the final third; third for touches, completed passes and successful short passes; and fourth for duels won. The Juventus player, born in 1998, needs to improve in two key areas: shots on target and key passes. The former Milan and Sassuolo player still shoots too infrequently on target (once every three matches on average under Spalletti), but, above all, according to DataMb figures, he ranks only in the 39th percentile for key passes (over 60% of midfielders in Europe perform better than him). Comparing him with the other players analysed by Gazzetta.it, which uses DataMb’s statistics, Pedri is in the 96.2nd percentile, Rodri in the 79th, Vitinha in the 76th and Pavlovic in the 51st. Only Modric (36th percentile) is on a par with the Juventus player. Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting