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Midfield is such a big category, but even us stat nerds sometimes do a pretty poor job of divvying it up.
My site of reference, FBRef, dumps all midfielders into one category. That can really suck when it comes to sorting data and trying to do things like ranking players and determining just how much of a standout someone is (or isn’t).
But even those of us who try to go another step farther don’t always get it fully right. Coming into this writing, I’d generally divided my midfielder ranks into either attacking or central midfield, but that’s clearly not enough.
Something I’m pretty glad to do moving forward from today is divide yet again, to three categories! This is still not enough, but I’m hoping this will give us better like-for-like rankings and help us identify particular standouts in certain areas.
We start today in the farthest category forward, the **attacking midfielders**. Of course, not all AMs are the same. Some are goalscorers, some are creators by nature, some are hybrids. Some do things that 10s do while also bearing responsibilities of 8s (like Ødegaard) or even 6s (like Ødegaard, at least in possession). But generally speaking, these guys are the ones who are primarily attackers in central roles. They stand out for their incisive and efficient carrying and passing, their creativity, and yes, their goalscoring. They can be counted on with the ball. They are consistent.
As always, some points to keep in mind for the newbies:
* This list is created relying fully on statistics from this season. Players are rated using a whole bunch of data points of varying weights.
* Minimum for inclusion was 5.0 90s, or 450 minutes. Players with more starts were weighted favorably.
* I don’t follow a hard-and-fast age limit, but I do prioritize players on the younger side of the “peak age” spectrum.
* All scores are subject to an adjustment according to league strength, so you shouldn’t have to mentally raise or lower rankings to make it more “fair.”
* **Reminder:** Opta unfortunately has decided to shut off some of its advanced stats for certain leagues for a bit while they evaluate whether it’s worth their investment, so our ability to provide more detailed looks at guys from the Eredivisie, Primeira Liga, Belgian Pro League and other similarly-ranked leagues is gone. So while I can’t give you radars on every target, I’ll still call some guys out below from those leagues and give you radars where I can. There will be fewer radars but just as many writeups.
* **New feature:** I’m going to tack on a top-of-mind valuation for players. This isn’t meant to be permanent, nor is it the result of hours of research (I would for instance treat anything you see in a film study as far more authoritative), but hopefully it gives a ballpark idea of what I think a guy is worth at a certain point in time.
* **Last but not least:** I always encourage a healthy dose of the eye test before forming a final opinion on any player, so please consume this list responsibly.
**Alright, let’s get into it.**
First, let’s benchmark with Arsenal players, starting with the scapegoat of the month.