PPDA — Passes Allowed Per Defensive Action
Definition
Passes Allowed Per Defensive Action (PPDA) is a metric that measures pressing intensity by calculating how many passes a team allows the opponent to complete before making a defensive action (tackle, interception, or foul) in the opponent's half or a defined zone of the pitch.
A lower PPDA indicates more intense pressing (the team intervenes quickly). A higher PPDA indicates a more passive approach (the team allows the opponent to pass freely before engaging).
History & Origins
PPDA was popularized by Colin Trainor on the StatsBomb blog (the blog predating the company) around 2014–2015. It emerged from the need to quantify the pressing game that was becoming tactically dominant, particularly through teams like Jürgen Klopp's Borussia Dortmund and later Liverpool, Marcelo Bielsa's teams, and Pep Guardiola's Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
Before PPDA, pressing was discussed qualitatively — "they press high" — but there was no widely accepted way to measure it from event data. PPDA filled that gap with a simple, interpretable number.
The metric was adopted and refined by analytics platforms. Opta and StatsBomb include defensive action data that enables PPDA computation. The website Understat displays PPDA for top European leagues.
How It Works
- Define a pressing zone — typically the opponent's half, or the opponent's defensive and middle thirds
- Count the opponent's passes completed in that zone during the match
- Count the team's defensive actions (tackles, interceptions, fouls) in that zone
- PPDA = opponent passes / defensive actions
Example
If the opponent completed 200 passes in their own half, and the pressing team made 25 defensive actions there:
PPDA = 200 / 25 = 8.0
For context, typical PPDA values in the top European leagues range from ~6 (very aggressive pressing, e.g., peak Klopp Liverpool) to ~15+ (deep block, low pressing).
What It Reveals
- Team pressing style: teams with consistently low PPDA play a high-press game
- Tactical adaptation: a team's PPDA can shift dramatically between matches depending on the opponent
- Pressing sustainability: tracking PPDA over time reveals whether a team maintains pressing intensity across a season or fades
- Correlates with success: research has shown moderate correlation between low PPDA and chance creation, particularly in transitions
Limitations & Debates
- Zone dependency: the choice of pressing zone significantly affects the number. Some analysts use the opponent's half, others use only the final third, and there's no universal standard
- Doesn't measure pressing success: PPDA counts defensive actions but doesn't distinguish between successful and failed ones. A team might have a low PPDA because they foul frequently, not because they win the ball effectively
- Doesn't account for pressing triggers: PPDA treats all defensive actions equally, missing the sophistication of when and where a team chooses to engage (pressing after a bad touch vs. pressing every pass)
- No off-ball component: a brilliant press that forces a long ball forward involves coordinated off-ball movement that PPDA doesn't capture — it only sees the final defensive action
- PPDA vs. high turnovers: some analysts prefer counting high turnovers (possessions won in the final third) as a more outcome-focused pressing metric
- Influenced by opponent style: a team's PPDA will be lower against a short-passing team (more passes to intercept) and higher against a direct team (fewer passes before clearances)
Alternatives & Related Metrics
- High turnovers — possessions won in the attacking third
- Counterpressing recovery time — how quickly a team wins the ball back after losing it
- Challenge intensity — tackles + interceptions per minute of opponent possession
- Field tilt — percentage of total touches in the final third, an indirect measure of territorial dominance linked to pressing
- Convex Hulls - Team Shape — team compactness complements pressing intensity (compact + low PPDA = effective press)
Related Visualizations
- Pressing Maps — the spatial visualization of PPDA and pressing activity
- Heat Maps — pressing maps are often implemented as filtered heat maps
Key People
- Colin Trainor — popularized PPDA on the StatsBomb blog
- Jürgen Klopp — manager most associated with the pressing revolution that drove demand for pressing metrics
- Marcelo Bielsa — tactical pioneer of coordinated pressing systems
Resources
- StatsBomb blog — original PPDA articles by Colin Trainor
- Understat (understat.com) — displays PPDA per team per season
- FBref — pressing statistics section
Tags: #football #analytics #pressing #PPDA #metrics #defensive