Which Players Provide the Most Threat in the PSL

The 2025/26 PSL is heading for its lowest-scoring season on record. Defenses have tightened, goals have dried up, and players who can create chances and provide threat are in high demand. Six teams have double-digit clean sheets after 22 games, something that has happened only once before in the 30-game era (in 2011/12). In a defensively dominant season, teams have to find new ways to break down low blocks and opponent defensive lines. Expected Threat helps us identify players who do just that. It is a metric used to measure possession value. Players are credited for their creativity for moving the ball from one zone to another (more dangerous) zone, and not just through assists. It is not just about which players are “creative” in the regular sense, but who has been able to provide the threat in a defensive iteration of the PSL.

The Leaderboard

The chart below shows the xT per game that the most valuable ball progressors have added from their passes, carries and dribbles. The most threatening progressor this season (on a per 90 basis) has been Stellenbosch’s Asekho Tiwani. The young left back was brought into the club in January, seemingly as a replacement for the departing Turan Manafov. Manafov himself led this chart when he was still in the league, and has since been replaced by Tiwani at the top – a seamless transition that suggests Stellies’ left-back position is set up to provide creative threat regardless of who plays. Siyabonga Ndlozi, Ronaldo Maarman & Deon Hotto round up the top five.

The presence of high-minute players like Hotto, Matuludi, Ndlovu, Makgalwa, and Rapoo is even more impressive, given that this metric can sometimes favour players with fewer minutes. It shows that these players have been key throughout the season, regardless of their exact ranking here. Anyone following the PSL this season will immediately recognise these names, with or without data.

The rise of the left back

While the traditional “creators” like Keletso Makgalwa and Siyanda Ndlovu continue to dominate this chart, we are seeing a new profile of player – the more aggressive full-backs, climbing into the top. The leaderboard is dominated by full backs. Four of the top five (Tiwani, Manafov, Ndlovu, Hotto) have been deployed somewhat as left or right-backs but seem to carry the creative burden. Indeed, seven of the top 10 spent the majority of their time at full-back. Is this a tactical evolution we’re witnessing in the PSL, where lower blocks and congested central areas force creativity to come from elsewhere?

As we move into the business end of the season, these are the players opposition managers will be planning to stop. These are also the players that the big clubs will be following closely when the transfer window opens. Players like Tiwani and Matuludi may have new homes this time next year.