Footballscience.net
In many cases the midfield of a team plays a vital role in football competition and the quality of players might have a decisive role.
Below are the passing statistics of the top 20 out or the top 100 midfield distributors who played at least 450 domestic leagues minutes during the current season.
An index was created taking into account the number of successful passes per match, the percentage of successful passes, the ratio of passes compared to teammates, as well as the average level of matches played.
The top three are Rodri Hernandez (Manchester City), Frankie de Jong (Barcelona) and Toni Kroos (Real Madrid).
Bayer Leverkusen presents two members inside the top10 players, Exequiel Palacios and Granit Xhaka.
The top-ranked players outside the European big-5 are Aschraf El Mahdioui (Al-Taawoun, 6th), Álvaro Fidalgo (CF América, 8th) and Yahya Jabrane (Wydad AC, 10th).
Three players who have not yet celebrated their 21st birthday rank in the top 100: João Neves of Benfica (34nd) and Eduardo Camavinga of Real Madrid (71th).
Despite the index, ranking in accordance to percentage of successful passes only shows a slightly different picture.
However, three players from CF America are sitting inside the top 20, i.e. Jonathan dos Santos, Alvaro Fidalgo and Richard Sanchez are still present.
Reference:
https://football-observatory.com/WeeklyPost435
