Forget the MOTM: These are the Premier League’s clumsiest players
Premier League football players have undoubtedly reached the apex of their sport. However, despite their physical excellence, many are still prone to mistakes – but who is the clumsiest player?
The football experts at Ticketgum have created an index study to determine which players are the most and least reliable with the ball. Over 1,900 players from across the globe were analysed for their number of mistakes while attempting to gain control of the ball, passes missed, and dispossessions following a tackle, and ranked to reveal the most fumble-prone players.
Highlights from the research:
- Luton Town provides four of the Premier League’s clumsiest players
- Alfie Doughty is Luton’s clumsiest Premier League player (and the clumsiest in the Premier League)
Bournemouth forward Dominic Solanke failed to get control of the ball and lost the ball after a tackle the most out of all players - Kyle Walker is Manchester City’s most clumsy player
- Thiago Silva has the best ball control in the league
- European leagues ranked from least to most clumsy: Ligue 1: (44.95), Serie A (52.95) Premier League: (54.33), La Liga: (54.55), Bundesliga: (54.59 /100).
The clumsiest football players in the Premier League
| Rank | Player | Club | Number of failed attempts to get control of the ball (per carry) | Number of times control of ball was lost after a tackle (per carry) | Clumsy Score / 100 |
| 1 | Alfie Doughty | Luton Town | 18 | 6 | 100.00 |
| 2 | Dominic Calvert-Lewin | Everton | 33 | 15 | 98.30 |
| 3 | Carlton Morris | Luton Town | 25 | 29 | 98.18 |
| 4 | Dominic Solanke | Bournemouth | 74 | 53 | 97.76 |
| 5 | Jacob Brown | Luton Town | 24 | 23 | 94.12 |
| 6 | Jack Harrison | Everton | 40 | 19 | 92.42 |
| 7 | Jean-Philippe Mateta | Crystal Palace | 40 | 30 | 91.39 |
| 8 | Morgan Gibbs-White | Nottingham Forest | 45 | 18 | 91.31 |
| 9 | Elijah Adebayo | Luton Town | 40 | 17 | 90.85 |
| 10 | Beto | Everton | 28 | 14 | 90.60 |
The average clumsy score for players across the Premier League is 54.33, making England’s top footballers the third least clumsy of the five leagues analysed, behind Italy’s Serie A (52.95/100) and France’s Ligue 1 (44.95/100).
Alfie Doughty (100/100) is the clumsiest player in the Premier League, and eighth most mistake-prone across the five European leagues analysed. In Doughty’s 1,314 minutes of playing, he has failed to get control of the ball 18 times. The Luton Town player isn’t alone in the undesirable ranking; three of his clubmates also feature in the top ten least reliable players.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin (98.3/100) takes second place for clumsiest player in the Premier League, ranking ninth overall. The Everton player has missed 43.6% of passes.
The clumsiest player on the current England national team is Morgan Gibbs-White, a midfielder and forward for Nottingham Forest. With a clumsy score of 91.3/100, Gibbs-White is the eighth most fumble-prone player in the league and 33rd overall. In his 1,683 minutes of playing, he has missed 34.2% of passes.
The most in-control football players in the Premier League
| Rank | Player | Club | Number of failed attempts to get control of the ball (per carry) | Number of times control of ball was lost following a tackle (per carry) | Clumsy score /100 |
| 409 | Thiago Silva | Chelsea | 2 | 0 | 4.94 |
| 408 | William Saliba | Arsenal | 5 | 1 | 11.53 |
| 407 | Manuel Akanji | Manchester City | 2 | 2 | 11.99 |
| 406 | Rodri | Manchester City | 6 | 4 | 12.58 |
| 405 | Micky van de Ven | Tottenham | 5 | 1 | 14.79 |
Ticketgum can reveal that Chelsea’s Thiago Silva is the most reliable player in the Premier League. The Brazilian footballer scores just 4.94/100 for clumsiness, making him the fourth least clumsy player across all five European leagues analysed.
Methodology:
- To uncover football’s clumsiest players, Ticketgum obtained data on 1,903 players from FBREF. Players were from the top leagues in England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. This data was collated by player.
- An overall clumsiness score was created using a weighted sum of several metrics (failed attempts to gain control of the ball, loss of the ball following a tackle, passes missed and tackled during take-ons) that account for “clumsiness” with each variable being normalised by carries. (Note: Collated data was cleaned and filtered to exclude any players with 0 minutes played and any player with incomplete records).
- A further normalised score was created on a scale of 0 to 100 for readability. Higher scores indicated a player tends to make more mistakes per minute played.
- Data was collected on 18 January 2024 and is correct as of then.