Receiving on the turn, who opens their body to goal the most?
If you have been around the game of football for any period of time you have probably heard at least one of these phrases “Receiving on the Turn”, “Receiving on the Half-Turn” or “Receiving on the back-foot”. It’s something I remember being drilled on from the first moment I joined a grassroots club as a young boy & is something that every coach I worked with during a 10-year spell as an Analyst in the professional game focuses on with their players daily. I have seen it in every training session, I’ve been asked to produce clips of it for players development, I’ve collected data on it & I’ve even used it within a task for a (successful) job interview. The best players do this all the time, at least that’s what I’ve been told, but there is little data available to prove this….until now!
Introducing PFF FC’s Receiving on the Turn metrics
At PFF FC we collect the body orientation of the target player for each pass at the point the pass is played & at the point they receive the ball. This allows us to measure if a player has opened or closed their body between those two points, we also remove passes with poor accuracy to avoid situations where a pass forces the target to adjust their orientation unwillingly. Included in this new set of metrics are:
Receptions Opening the Body (expressed as both a count & a percentage). This is where a players body orientation has changed to a more open position (i.e. rotating towards their teams attacking direction) between the point of the pass & the point of reception
Receptions Closing the Body (expressed as both a count & a percentage). This is where a players body orientation has changed to a more closed position (i.e. rotating towards their own goal) between the point of the pass & the point of reception
Receptions Opening to Goal (expressed as both a count & a percentage). This is where a players body orientation has changed to a more open position & at the point of reception they are facing the opponents goal
Okay lets dive into the data & see what we can learn. First up lets have a look at the top 10 players for each metric when it comes to volume:
Well, looks like we’ve found another stat that Cole Palmer excels at with a ridiculous 57 more receptions opening his body & 26 more receptions opening his body to goal than the rest of the league. There does appear to be a positional impact however with the entire list of players closing their body being made up of Centre Backs which is unsurprising given these players will more often than not be starting from an open body orientation so will have more opportunities to close their body upon reception.
Given there does appear to be a positional relationship, next up I’d like to have a look at some outliers by position using our percentage metrics. Starting off with the Centre Backs, interestingly the two Centre Backs that close their body the least both play for the same team. Cristian Romero (5.3%) & Micky van de Ven (6.2%) have the 2 lowest percentage of receptions when closing their body this season. Of course their absence through injury has been one of the major storylines for Tottenham with it coinciding in a downturn in form, so how do their replacements compare?
Rankings among CB’s in the Premier League: Romero 1st, Van de Ven 2nd, Danso 26th, Gray 33rd, Dragusin 43rd, Davies 54th. Out of 72 CBs with more than 200 receptions.
As you can see the replacements are closing their bodies at twice the rate of Romero & van de Ven. Does this explain the downturn in form? Maybe not entirely, but it’s likely a factor given Ange Postecoglous signature style of play.
The next outlier I want to look at is a Full Back who has had a breakout season this year, especially with the ball at his feet. Lewis Hall is doing a tremendous job of maximising the potential output of each of his possessions with the way he is receiving the ball. He ranks in the top 10 for total receptions when Opening his Body & Opening his Body to Goal in the entire league, but his numbers among Full Backs are perhaps more impressive.
Rank among FB's:
| Lewis Hall | Percentage of Receptions | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Opening Body % | 15.80% | 5th |
| Closing Body % | 8.70% | 13th |
| Opening to Goal % | 10.00% | 1st |
The thing that stands out to me here is how aggressive he is when opening his body, with 63.5% of his receptions opening his body ending in him facing the opponents goal. He has 101 receptions Opening to Goal, which is 2nd in the entire league (behind only Cole Palmer) & 21 more than the next full back. 10.0% of his receptions are Opening to Goal which is double his positions average (4.8%) & 1.4% more than 2nd place (Noussair Mazraoui).
Finally I want to have a look at the relationship between players Opening & Closing their body when receiving.
(Average Closing Body %: 9.90 | Average Opening Body %: 11.0)
We couldn’t complete this article without digging into Cole Palmers numbers a little, as he is perhaps the biggest outlier of all. As mentioned at the top he leads the league by a substantial margin in both Receptions Opening his Body & Receptions Opening to Goal, but to me the most impressive thing is how often he opens his body compared to how often he closes it. He opens his body 23.9% of the time (the most in the league) compared to closing it just 6.4% of the time. The difference of 17.5 percentage points between those 2 figures is the largest in the league, Omari Hutchinson in 2nd is 2 percentage points lower at 15.5.
This introduction of Receiving on the Turn metrics provides valuable insight into how players manipulate their body positioning to maximize their impact on the game. The data highlights clear positional trends, identifies standout performers like Cole Palmer and Lewis Hall, and even sheds light on tactical influences, such as Tottenham’s struggles without Romero and Van de Ven. While body orientation alone doesn’t dictate success, it is a crucial aspect of a player’s ability to control tempo, break lines, and create attacking opportunities. As teams continue to prioritize data-driven decision-making, these metrics could play a key role in player development, scouting, and tactical analysis moving forward.
This article was crafted using PFF FC data. If you're affiliated with a club, media outlet, or agency and would like to explore its capabilities, feel free to contact us at sales-fc@pff.com to arrange a demo.