A big sprint count usually means your team spent the night chasing

Distance graphics are shown as evidence of effort when they are frequently evidence that the game was happening to you.

Sixty-two sprints. Eleven point four kilometres. The graphic goes up at full time, the co-commentator says you cannot fault the effort, and everyone nods at a number that has just told them the opposite of what they think it did.

Sprints have direction. A forward sprint is usually a choice, made because a gap appeared and the player thought it was worth attacking. A backward sprint is almost never a choice. It happens because the ball went past you, or over you, or because a runner you were meant to be with left. Add both together into one figure, put it next to a player's name, and you have built a statistic that rewards the team that lost control of the match.

I would separate them and I suspect a lot of received wisdom would not survive the split. The hardest running teams in most leagues are not the best teams. They are the ones defending a lead with a deep block against a side that keeps switching play, or a promoted team who spend eighty minutes reacting. The champions often look leisurely, because possession is a labour saving device and the whole point of controlling the ball is to make the other team do the running.

None of this means recovery running is unimportant. It is the difference between conceding a chance and conceding a shot from twenty-five yards, and there are players whose entire professional value sits in the ten seconds after their team loses the ball. But the value is in where the run goes, not how far or how fast. Sprinting straight back to your own six yard box while a runner is arriving unmarked at the penalty spot is a maximal effort that achieves nothing and will be filed as commitment.

The version of the graphic I want has three bars. Distance covered with the ball, distance covered without it while the team is set, and distance covered recovering. That third bar is a shame indicator for the collective, not a badge of honour for the individual.

Nobody will show it, because a broadcaster cannot put a number on screen that quietly accuses one of the teams of being second best all night. Even when it is true, and it is often true.