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Football London
Football London
Sport
Josh Williams

Chelsea are set to lose player with one of football's most underrated qualities

There are various footballing qualities that are highly rated inside the game.

If a player is good at shooting like Frank Lampard, if he's fast like Willian or if he's a leader like John Terry, for example - those traits tend to receive plenty of publicity.

N'Golo Kante's ball-winning quality is often spoken about, while Eden Hazard developed a reputation at Stamford Bridge for his dribbling ability.

And Hazard's underrated quality that is often overlooked, though, was his ability to drive past defenders using both feet, a commodity rare at the top level in a player but that can mark out the best from the rest.

Two-footedness can allow players to problem solve and approach situations without limitation. If the most suitable foot to use to play a pass in a certain scenario is the left foot, then use it, and vice-versa - but players are often restricted due to their strict preference to use their favoured foot.

So who from Chelsea's squad is the most two-footed passer?

To capture the two-footedness of each player, the squad has been ranked below from the most two-footed passer at the top, to least two-footed passer at the bottom.

Each player has been judged according to the number of touches per left-footed pass and number of touches per right-footed pass.

(@DistanceCovered)

For perspective - receiving a pass, then dribbling, then sending a pass counts as one touch.

Pedro is Lampard's most two-footed passer, averaging a right-footed pass every two touches, and a left-footed pass every 4.2. He's one of the most two-footed passers in England, which is a skill of his that tends to drift under the radar.

The Spaniard isn't forced into a mistake using his weaker foot as easily as others, which is often the case when pressing traps materialise as planned. Whatever foot is best to use based on the situation, Pedro seems to opt for it, whereas most of his teammates clearly favour their right, especially Mateo Kovacic.

The Croatian midfielder is Chelsea's least two-footed passer, averaging a total of 27.4 touches before he's made a pass with both his left and right foot.

However, once compared to the rest of the division, Kovacic's numbers aren't too concerning.

Overall, of every player who's accumulated over 300 touches in England's top-flight so far this season, of which there are around 300, Pedro places fifth in the entire division.

The attacker is very ambidextrous, listed behind only Fabian Delph, Ilkay Gundogan, Andre Gomes and Fred.

Chelsea also have other players who place inside the top 30, including Fiyako Tomori who's seventh, Antonio Rudiger who's 28th and Kurt Zouma who's 30th - signalling that the Blues' defence is very flexible.

Ultimately, Pedro doesn't assume much of the spotlight, but his two-footedness is a skill that he deserves plenty of credit for mastering.

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