How good has Zusi been for Sporting KC this season? Let’s take a look at the numbers

Let’s just get this out of the way before you read any further: Graham Zusi is having his best year in a Sporting Kansas City jersey since his All-Star campaign in 2018.

Suffering a season-ending injury at the end of the 2020 season that ultimately kept him on the sidelines for the better part of seven months, it could have been easy for the veteran to call it a day and bring to a close his fantastic career.

After all, he was a 34-year-old fullback with five major trophies and seven MLS All-Star selections to his name. Why not just hang up his boots for good, or perhaps just return for a mostly ceremonial swan song during the 2021 season?

“Just proving to myself and my club, and the fans as well, that I can come back from something like this,” Zusi said Tuesday when asked why he was adamant about playing full-time post-injury in 2021.

Instead of calling it quits, Zusi has produced one of the best seasons by a fullback in MLS this year. And he has somehow flown under the radar of league-wide recognition despite his contributions to Sporting KC this season.

On a base level, Zusi has made 24 appearances in 2021, starting 22 games, and has played a part in eight clean sheets. While keeping things tight at the back, he’s also provided five assists — second-most by a fullback this season.

Let’s take a look at some advanced stats that tell a more complete story of Zusi’s impressive 2021.

Without going into every single stat here, the amount of green on your screen indicates that Zusi’s at least doing something right.

He ranks in the 75th percentile or higher for wingbacks — meaning he’s better than 75% of the wingbacks in the league. That’s true for every passing stat, with the exception of short-pass completion. For that he’s in the 61st percentile, completing 89.9% of his passes.

Zusi also ranks in the 99th percentile — better than every fullback in the league — in multiple passing stats, including but not limited to medium and long passes completed, passes into the final third and across-field switches.

Now a 35-year-old wingback (a more attack-minded type of fullback), Zusi can certainly ascribe his success to playing in Sporting KC’s system, in which outside defenders operate further up the field — as wingbacks, as opposed to classic fullbacks.

But Kansas City is far from the only team in the league to use that system, meaning Zusi isn’t an anomaly in the league position-wise. He’s just really good at what he does.

As a result of his positioning on the field, Zusi’s defensive stats aren’t as impressive when compared to the rest of the league.

He still ranks impressively high in stats such as dribbles contested (75th percentile), and tackles won in the defensive third and shots blocked (both 78th percentile).

But he falls behind the pack in stats such as pressures and the number of times he’s dribbled past, which all fall in the 38th percentile or lower.

But that’s probably to be expected, considering his regularity in participating in attacks further upfield. It’s no coincidence that he pressures players in the middle third (4.67 per game) almost as much as he does in the defensive third (5.17 per game).

His lighter defensive stats when compared to the rest of the league can’t be completely pinned on Zusi, either. No player in the league can lead the rankings in both offensive and defensive stats; Zusi is asked to be an attack-minded wingback, and he’s one of the best in the league at doing so.

Sporting KC coach Peter Vermes praised Zusi’s career-long dedication to keeping his body in top form and thinks that’s a factor in the veteran’s ability to come back from injury and perform as well as he has.

“What Graham has been is he’s been a constant professional,” Vermes said. “He’s always taken care of himself, and I think his longevity is due to the fact of his commitment to making sure that he takes care of probably the most important thing when you’re a professional athlete, and that is your body.”

Zusi said he doesn’t care much for these stats. If he clicked on this story, he probably got bored halfway through and quit reading.

“It’s just not something that I look at too much, those kinds of stats,” he said. “I’m much more interested in trying to win trophies and continuing to be able to do what I love.”

This story was originally published November 2, 2021 at 5:43 PM with the headline "How good has Zusi been for Sporting KC this season? Let’s take a look at the numbers."