In this article, L’Ultimo Uomo uses Hudl Physical Data to look out at some of Serie A’s top athletes.
And so, with a final matchday where everything was still up in the air, another Serie A season has come to an end. It was a campaign that proved difficult to interpret, with tight odds both in the title race and the relegation battle.
While each team naturally has its own unique characteristics from a tactical perspective, this year more than ever there seemed to be a common thread running through Italian football: the importance of physical duels and impact.
Serie A is a league that likes to keep the tempo under control, relying on players who can cover the pitch well and make life uncomfortable for their opponents. At the same time, the pitch being littered with individual battles means that sometimes it doesn’t take much — a second ball or a won tackle — to create space for a burst forward that potentially catches the opposition off guard.
From this point of view, then, certain physical metrics can be useful not only for assessing players’ individual characteristics, but also for identifying trends within certain teams. In particular, this article focuses on running data: from the more general, quantitative figures, to the more specific ones (running intensity), all the way to changes in speed (accelerations and decelerations).
So, leveraging Hudl Physical Data available on the Wyscout platform, we cast our eye over some of the league’s top physical standouts. Let’s get started!
Who runs the most?
The term traditionally used in Italy to describe players with strong aerobic qualities—those always willing to cover every blade of grass—was “giocatori di quantità” (“quantity players”). This label harks back to an earlier era of football, when there was a clear divide between the stars, tasked with making the difference on the ball, and the workhorses, who were expected to toil for their more talented teammates.
Today, we know that such a dichotomy is more blurred than ever. Modern football demands more well-rounded players, and Serie A coaches now tend to favour expressions like “giocatore di gamba” (literally “player with legs”) to refer to those with notable athleticism.
Still, when analysing something like running performance, the natural first step is to look at quantity—in other words, the distance covered per 90 minutes (or alternatively, metres per minute)
Topping the list is a winger/attacking midfielder like Tchaouna, while the presence of Tommaso Baldanzi also stands out, even if he’s in ninth place. Among a group of players known for their athleticism, the Roma man is something of an outlier—a playmaker/second striker who barely reaches 1.70 metres in height. Yet Baldanzi is a player who, despite his physical stature, never shies away from hard work. What’s more, he made 26 appearances off the bench, often in situations where Roma were sitting deep and looking to attack on the break—helping to explain his average of over 11 km per 90 minutes.
Beyond that, the ranking is dominated by midfielders. The fact that Serie A places such a strong emphasis on duels and the dynamism required to break through man-marking systems—used by nearly every team—has led in recent years to the rise of energetic, fast-paced midfielders. This explains the presence of players who all fall under the category of surging, box-to-box midfielders or so-called “giocatori di gamba”, including the league’s MVP, Scott McTominay.
Worth noting is the presence of three Genoa midfielders—Masini, Thorsby, and Miretti. As we highlighted a few weeks ago, Genoa are a team marked by high defensive intensity. These players are tasked not only with staying aggressive out of possession, but also with supporting attacking moves—reflecting the dual demands placed on modern midfielders.
Who runs the fastest?
A more meaningful metric than simple distance covered is the intensity at which players run, as it already starts to reveal more about individuals and, as the speed increases, the data begins to show a wider variety of names across different positions and playing styles.
If we look at the distance covered at speeds between 15 and 20 km/h (running distance per 90 minutes), midfielders still dominate the rankings
However, once we raise the threshold to 20 km/h to look at High Intensity distance, a new picture begins to emerge, and midfielders almost disappear from the rankings (with only Gineitis, a regular feature in these lists, and Busio remaining).
This brings us to the ranking of distances covered in sprints (over 25 km/h), the domain of wide players. Among the top ten, we find only full-backs (Alex Valle, Nuno Tavares, Gallo), wing-backs (Bellanova, Pedersen, Jimenez, Tchatchoua), and wingers (Pierotti, Fadera, Neres).
This is perfectly natural, given that high speed is a prerequisite for playing on the flanks at any area of the pitch: some unleash that power with the ball at their feet, while others use it to make runs in behind.
When instead of distance we look at the number of times a player runs at over 20 km/h per 90 minutes, the presence of Alex Valle and Fadera invites us to make some observations about Como: it’s true that Fábregas places great emphasis on ball possession, but this is also a team with strong physical qualities, which knows how to exploit the spaces it creates once it has the ball.
This is further demonstrated by Cutrone’s eighth place among the players who make the most high-speed accelerations (over 3 m/s²).
The Brazilian was often Napoli’s supersub. The squad was particularly thin, and Neres was sometimes the only player capable of providing a change of pace—especially since he was the only dribbler left after Kvaratskhelia’s departure to PSG. The data on accelerations, in short, reflects just how valuable he was to Napoli’s squad, despite injuries preventing him from playing regularly.
In terms of athletic impact, Napoli boasted a squad of excellent quality across many physical metrics. With a coach like Antonio Conte, who knew how to get the very best out of his players—including those who seemed to have already peaked—Napoli maximised their physical potential on their way to the Serie A title.
