Player Analysis: What Can High Speed Runs Tell Us?

Let's start 2025 with one of our new tools: Physical Data. Ah, you're still finding out. You should know this: Driblab continues to revolutionise data analysis in football.

We have a vast array of metrics related to the physical performance of players. From total distance covered to sprints performed per match. Several of them are old classics: who hasn't heard the phrase ‘the winning team out-run their opponents’ or ‘the losing team lacked intensity’?

With our Physical Data, you can answer these questions easily, and also do a more in-depth analysis because we have other metrics that people are not so familiar with, and are certainly of wider interest. Today we focus on one of them: High Speed Runs (HSR), which are movements in which a player moves at a speed that is equal to or greater than 5.5 m/s (19.8 km/h) and less than 7 m/s (25.2 km/h).

For HSR, we have two other metrics: HSR distance and HSR quantity. Let's look at this in more depth using the example of several footballers.

If we look at the Premier League, Curtis Jones averages the most High Speed Runs per game (55.9). His role, more often than not, is that of a support player, appearing in different areas of the pitch. He is a compensator player, which means he moves around a lot on the pitch. He does not have a fixed position and his minutes are distributed as follows: 32% as a defensive midfielder, 7% as an interior and 57% as an advanced or attacking midfielder.

Not only does he average the most High Speed Runs (HSR) among players with at least 700 minutes played, he also has the most distance covered in HSR. Compared to other midfielders in Europe's big five leagues, Jones averages the 10th most distance covered per game, but also the 2nd most HSR and the most distance covered in HSR per game.

Every footballer is different: Atletico de Madrid's Koke travels a further 400 meters on average than Jones. However their High Speed Runs number are clearly the opposite. LaLiga's slower pace benefits Koke, who at 33 no longer has the capacity to repeat such prolonged and intense efforts. HSR's share of the total distance covered is 6.93% for Koke and 8.89% for Jones. Yet, Koke averages a larger distance covered per game: the largest in Europe's top 5 leagues.

There are plenty of reasons that could explain this. One could be that Koke moves at a more constant speed than Jones, who's more of a irregular player in terms of the speed at which he's moving. His movement varies between moments of rest in which he barely moves from his position and moment of high intensity, which in turn require longer rests.

We clearly see this contrast in regards to the number of sprints each of them completes per game: Jones performs more than twice as many as Koke.

Curtis Jones is the Premier League most intense player. His percentage of HSR distance accounts for 8.89% of the total distance he travels during a match, the 2nd highest number in the league. On top of that his share of Sprint distance accounts for 7.41% of the total distance. Sprints are movements in which the player travels at a speed that is greater than or equal to 7 m/s (25.2 km/h). So, most of Jones’ total distance covered is made of high-speed, high-intensity movements. Some players, like Soumaré or Tonali, find it hard to reach full speed. This means that they mostly cover distance by moving at a moderate pace or through HSR, but not by sprinting.

It's really hard to keep running at top speed. That's why we mostly see attackers in the top left corner of the Scatter Plot below. Players like Diallo, Gakpo, Garnacho and Mavididi need to be quick when they're one-on-one with their opponents, and they often use high-speed runs to get the upper hand. As a consequence, they usually travel fewer distance than most players because of the intensity those actions demand. Curtis Jones, on the other hand, is able to cover so much ground while still making high-intensity running. His stamina levels are massive.

We keep banging the drum on Curtis Jones because he is quite a unique profile. He’s the Premier League player with the highest total distance travelled per game (11.2km). He also averages the longest distance travelled through sprinting. Curtis Jones: the ultimate intensity player.

Founded in 2017 as a consultancy, Driblab has driven innovation through data in all aspects of professional football. Thanks to a transversal model, its database collects and models statistics in all directions. From converting matches and videos into bespoke data for training academies to developing cutting-edge technology, helping clubs, federations and representative agencies in talent scouting and transfer markets. Driblab’s smart data is used by clubs all over the world, with success stories such as Dinamo Zagreb, Real Betis and Girondins Bordeaux among others. Here you can find out more about how we work and what we offer.