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EPL Beyond his silky feet, glistening hair and beaming smile, Tijjani Reijnders’ Premier League debut against Wolverhampton Wanderers was notable for another attribute. The Dutchman appears to love a one-two. Operating on the right of Manchester City’s midfield trio, Reijnders glided around the pitch in search of connections with his new team-mates, often linking with right-winger Oscar Bobb to puncture Wolves’ back line in their 4-0 win. Advertisement City’s lack of penetration was a theme of their struggles last season, with Pep Guardiola’s side appearing reluctant to make runs ahead of the ball for fear of being vulnerable on the counter-attack. Reijnders’ purposeful darts forward from midfield provided early signs that City might attack with greater speed this campaign — and one-twos could be the key to unlocking defences. A neat example is highlighted in City’s third goal, which Reijnders assisted. Carrying the ball beyond the halfway line, the 27-year-old finds Bobb on the touchline with a simple pass before making an underlapping run to receive a returned ball, leaving Reijnders with a simple cutback for Erling Haaland to finish. It is an archetypal one-two, and an action worth digging into further. Using data from Opta and a strict set of criteria, we can see that Reijnders initiated four one-twos with Bobb in City’s victory at Molineux. For context, that is the most within a single Premier League game since 2018-19. We all know what a one-two is by now — some might refer to it as a give-and-go — but let’s get our criteria straight in the data before diving in further. Building on previous research on the topic, The Athletic has defined a one-two as a pair of completed passes where Player A collects a return ball from Player B within three seconds of receiving the initial pass. However, we are not interested in simple sideways, back-and-forth passes between two centre-backs here, but rather combinations that accelerate their team into advanced areas. Therefore, the return pass from Player B must progress the ball 20 per cent closer to the centre of the opponents’ goal to fit with our definition. In a ‘pass-run-receive’ framework like the one outlined above, we want to see some triangles. With the above in mind, which Premier League sides engaged in one-twos most often when given equal opportunity? As illustrated below, Liverpool showed just how strong their combinations were during their title-winning season, playing 5. 1 one-twos per 1, 000 passes, the highest in the division. Advertisement Naturally, these give-and-go passes are skewed towards the wide areas, with Mohamed Salah leading the pack in terms of the total involvements (ie, the initial or returned pass) in one-twos last campaign. Perhaps it is unsurprising that Liverpool looked to bring Milos Kerkez to the club this summer, given how often Bournemouth engaged in wide link-ups last season (4. 3 one-twos per 1, 000 passes) — Antoine Semenyo (24) and Kerkez (23) were among the top-10 most-active players. For those interested, no Bundesliga player was involved in more one-twos than Florian Wirtz (30) last season, which only serves to reinforce the argument that head coach Arne Slot is keen to instil more hubs of creativity as he asks his new lads to zip the ball across the pitch at speed. Meanwhile, Manchester City sat at about league average last season (3. 0 per 1, 000 passes), but there is every chance those higher-risk actions will be deployed more often this season. “We punished Wolves in transition because we have incredible pace, ” Guardiola said after City’s opening game. “With Tijjani, Oscar, Erling, Omar (Marmoush), we have good pace — it’s a weapon we want to use this season. When we regain the ball, attack quicker than maybe before. ” City were a hair’s breadth ahead of Arsenal in the graphic above, with Mikel Arteta’s men providing an interesting case study. Their 2. 9 per 1, 000 opponent passes were notably lower than previous campaigns, but it is no coincidence that injuries plagued Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka. With full-back Ben White often making overlapping runs, Arsenal’s right-sided combinations have been a staple of their success in recent years. So well-established are the patterns they have formed that you could close your eyes and envisage the sequence — with Saka facing up two defenders, releasing it back to Odegaard before darting behind the opposition line to receive a return pass. Advertisement For those wishing to keep their eyes open, here is an example against West Ham United at the beginning of last season. The case above is a pertinent one, given Saka arrived onto the received pass in the penalty area after initially starting near the touchline. It is a feature of his game that is so common that only Raheem Sterling has eclipsed his tally of one-twos received in the box in recent years (largely due to a greater share of minutes). Remove those darting runs and returned passes, and you can understand why Arsenal grew increasingly blunt in the absence of Saka and Odegaard last year. In such a congested area, a simple give-and-go serves as an efficient way to find space unmarked, and is often reserved for wingers or full-backs who can accelerate quickly across 10 yards — including Marcus Rashford, Bernardo Silva, and (as The Athletic’s Michael Cox previously analysed) Harvey Barnes. Given that it takes two to tango in completing these give-and-go actions, it is worth exploring which team-mates have been on the same wavelength most often in recent years. Since 2018-19, two pairs have pulled away from the pack, and they are hardly surprising. Saka and Odegaard’s choreography is up there, but they are just edged out by another right-sided duo — Salah’s link-up with former Liverpool right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold tops the list. Every player needs to feel the love of their team-mates, but Salah has been especially fond of a quick exchange with his friends over the past seven seasons, as his combinations with Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Dominik Szoboszlai in the list show below. In fact, no Premier League player has engaged in more one-twos since 2018-19, with the 33-year-old (191) ahead of Liverpool team-mate Andrew Robertson (154) and Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes (148). Advertisement So, as Salah looks to forge new friendships on the right flank with the arrival of Jeremie Frimpong at right-back plus Hugo Ekitike, Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak in attack, you can forgive him for looking a little more isolated this season — as indeed he has done in the opening three games. Salah thrives in the arrangement of these routines, and without Alexander-Arnold to take his hand, he is on the lookout for a new dance partner. Looking across Europe, it is interesting to see how the profusion of the humble one-two differs across the major leagues. As shown below, there is a discernible uptick in these actions in the Bundesliga and Premier League since the 2020-21 season — a season plagued by Covid-19, during which fans were largely not allowed in the stadiums. The difference may be small, but it is difficult to reliably answer why England and Germany edge out Serie A and La Liga in the volume of these actions in the past two seasons. The Athletic has previously outlined how the Premier League and Bundesliga are increasingly converging in style, with a greater inclination to lean into the more transitional parts of the game compared with Spain and Italy. More teams are engaging in player-for-player pressing out of possession in the Premier League, so perhaps we will continue to see a rise in one-twos as attackers look to wriggle away from their marker, who is tasked with shadowing their opposite number across the pitch. A move towards more ball carriers and dynamic dribblers has been a theme of this summer’s transfer window, with a simple give-and-go acting as a perfect tool to unlock an opposition defence — just ask Tijjani Reijnders. Not only is it an aesthetically pleasing action, but it is an effective one too. (Top photo: Darren Staples/AFP via Getty Images) Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle Mark Carey is a Data Analyst for The Athletic. With his background in research and analytics, he will look to provide data-driven insight across the football world. Follow Mark on Twitter @Mark Carey93