A cross is a pass from the flank in the direction of the opponent’s penalty area or goal. The number of crosses helps to assess how actively the team uses the flanks and aerial balls.
What the number of crosses shows
A large number of crosses may indicate a wing-oriented style of play or difficulties progressing through the centre. However, not every cross reaches a teammate or leads to a shot, so the metric itself does not speak about the quality of created chances.
Relation to corners
Crosses can lead to corners if a defender blocks the pass and the ball goes behind the goal line. Therefore wing activity is sometimes accompanied by a large number of corners, but there is no direct dependence between the metrics.
Setting in the algorithm
The number of crosses can be set for the whole match or the first half. The condition is available separately for each team, for at least one team via the “Any” parameter or in total for both teams via the “Total” parameter.