Progressive Carry
A progressive carry is a player moving the ball forward with it at his feet past a distance threshold, measured towards the opponent's goal rather than along the path travelled.
What it means
It credits the ball-carrying act rather than the pass, which is the part of progression that possession-style metrics historically ignored.
Why it matters
Carrying the ball forward compresses the opponent's shape in a way that passing does not, because the carrier draws defenders towards him, so the action is genuinely different from a progressive pass.
Where it is used
Winger and midfielder profiling, and the description of sides that attack through individual ball progression rather than through passing patterns.
Where it misleads
It rewards players who receive the ball in space and are permitted to advance it, which is role-dependent. A carry that ends in a turnover scores the same as one that ends in a shot.
Key points
- Carries depend on role and team style as much as on skill.
- The threshold is a convention and varies between providers.
- A carry carries no information about the outcome of the sequence.
- Report the rate per ninety minutes and the number of attempts.
- Pair it with expected threat to value where the carry ended.
- It is not a measure of dribbling past opponents.
Read the value, then read the trap: the failure mode is the part of the entry that stays true no matter how the number is used.