By Opta Analyst | Created at 2025-03-21 12:16:36 | Updated at 2025-03-21 21:22:57
9 hours ago
We delve into Opta’s well of tracking data to look at the Premier League players who stand out in 2024-25 for their physical output.
It is a commonly held view among watchers of Premier League football that running a lot is inherently positive. Every time a team wins while having outrun the opposition it further cements the idea that effort is directly proportional to success.
And many fans also love the players who can run quickest, too. Run fast, run a lot, win.
But what about the players who don’t run very much? What about those who run slowest? What about the marathon men who are always on the move but never reach high speeds?
Here, we look at the Premier League players who stand out in a number of different running categories. From the players who run the furthest to those who have the highest and lowest top speeds; from the players who spend the most time walking to those who spend the most time sprinting, we take a deep dive into Opta’s well of tracking data.
Who Walks the Most?
Goalkeepers are always going to spend most of their time on the pitch doing very little, but it still may nonetheless come as a surprise to find out just how little action they face. Nottingham Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels has spent a pretty mind-boggling 95.5% of his game time in 2024-25 walking, the highest proportion of all players in the Premier League (200+ mins played).
The top 35 players are all goalkeepers, but when it comes to outfielders, some interesting names pop up. Lionel Messi would always walk around the pitch, allowing everyone else to run around while conserving his energy for the moments that matter, and it seems Wolves’ star player, Matheus Cunha, does something similar. Cunha has spent 77.6% of his game time this season walking – more than any other Premier League player. He comes to life when he needs to, having already scored 13 goals and provided four assists in the top flight this season.
Adama Traoré is the only other non-defender in the top five, alternating between walking pace and lightning-quick sprinting for Fulham. Virgil van Dijk, Cristian Romero and Ezri Konsa make up the top five, while Noni Madueke, Raúl Jiménez and Callum Hudson-Odoi rank the next-highest among non-defender outfielders.
Meanwhile, West Ham midfielder Tomás Soucek spends less time walking (54.2%) than any other player in the Premier League.
As for distance covered while walking, Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya leads the way, having walked 114.9 km this season, just ahead of Van Dijk, who has covered 112.1 km while walking in his 29 Premier League games this season. Must be those long legs of his.
Who Sprints the Most?
Who doesn’t love a player who runs a lot, and even better, one who runs a lot at thrilling high speed?
A sprint is defined as a player running over 25 km/h because there needs to be an objective measure of what constitutes a sprint. In other words, this is a category that favours players who can get up to speeds over 25 km/h with any regularity. There may be some slower players who feel like they are sprinting a lot, but they aren’t reaching fast enough speeds to qualify as sprinting.
Antonee Robinson has embarked on more sprints (702) than any other player in the Premier League this season, ahead of Anthony Gordon (666), Daniel Muñoz (658), Bryan Mbeumo (647) and Milos Kerkez (639).
But when looking at the amount of time on the pitch that players have been sprinting, Nottingham Forest winger Anthony Elanga comes out on top. He has spent a Premier League high of 1.17% of his game time sprinting, just ahead of Gordon (1.10%) and Darwin Núñez (1.07%). Muñoz (1.05%) and Robinson (1.04%) make up the top five, meaning three of the top five players for proportion of the time they spend sprinting have a first name which is a version of ‘Anthony’.
Who Are the Quickest Players?
Looking at the top speed reached by each player, Tottenham centre-back Micky van de Ven leads the way as the only player in the Premier League this season to go above 37 km/h.
Matheus Nunes (36.7 km/h), Mbeumo (36.6 km/h), Yankuba Minteh (36.4 km/h) and Elanga (36.2 km/h) are the other of the Premier League’s fastest players.
The fastest goalkeeper in the Premier League is Raya, with a top speed of 32.7 km/h, reached during an impressive piece of recovery work in the recent game against West Ham.
Who Are the Slowest Players?
Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno has the lowest top speed of every player in the Premier League this season, hitting at most 23.6 km/h. That means, according to our definition of what makes a sprint (25 km/h), he has not sprinted even once despite playing every single minute in 2024-25.
Removing goalkeepers, who make up most of the slowest players in the league, we are left with an interesting list.
A six-time Premier League winner with Manchester City, Bernardo Silva has the lowest top speed in the top flight in 2024-25, with 29.4 km/h the fastest he has moved all season. Craig Dawson, Mikel Merino, Casemiro and Soucek make up the bottom five.
As we’ll soon see, though, speed isn’t everything. Slow and steady can also win the race.
Who Jogs the Furthest?
Soucek has jogged – defined as between 6-15 km/h – further than any other player in the Premier League this season, covering 140.1 km. He rarely hits high speed, but he is on the move more than anyone else, spending a Premier League high of 47.8% of his game time jogging. As already mentioned, he walks less than everyone else in the whole league
Fellow central midfielders Bruno Guimarães, Youri Tielemans, Bruno Fernandes and Moisés Caicedo make up the top five for distance covered while jogging.
When it comes to the proportion of time players spend jogging, Soucek is still top having spent 34.7% of his game time jogging at a speed between 6-15 km/h, but he is joined in the top five by three Man City midfielders, in Ilkay Gündogan (33.3%), Mateo Kovacic (32.6%) and Phil Foden (32.1%), as well as Bournemouth’s Ryan Christie (32.7%). These are the players constantly on the move, always looking for space to receive a pass.
Who Covers the Most Ground?
Newcastle midfielder Guimarães has covered more ground than anyone else in the Premier League this season, but with the top of this list largely made up of players who play every single game, it is more interesting to adjust for minutes played.
Of players to play at least 600 minutes of football this season, Brentford’s Yehor Yarmoliuk runs the furthest in each game, covering 12.9 km per 90.
However, of regular starters – those with 1,500+ minutes to their name – Tottenham’s Dejan Kulusevski is the Premier League’s marathon man, covering 12.3 km per 90. Soucek and Bernardo Silva are also up there, along with Sandro Tonali and Southampton’s Flynn Downes.
Who Covers the Least Ground?
Of outfielders to play at least 1,500 minutes this season, Nottingham Forest centre-back Murillo boasts the lowest distance run per 90 minutes played, with an average of 8.5 km. He is joined at the top of the list by centre-back partner Nikola Milenkovic (8.9 km) and Liverpool’s first-choice centre-backs Van Dijk (8.8 km) and Ibrahima Konaté (9.0 km).
The only non-centre-back in the top five is still a Forest player, though, in winger Hudson-Odoi, who runs just 8.9 km per 90. Forest clearly don’t run much under Nuno Espírito Santo, but the league table shows just effective they are.
Maybe running a lot isn’t necessary, after all.
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