Finding the best central midfielders from Austrian Bundesliga – data analysis

In this data analysis piece, we will be looking out for the best central midfielders currently playing in the 2021/22 Austrian Bundesliga using statistics.

The best central midfielders are the most complete ones as modern managers are hugely dependent on their central midfielders for the team’s successful tactics.

In our analysis, we will be considering both the attacking as well as defensive attributes. Definitely passing is the most important trait for a midfielder so that won’t be missed for sure. We will be looking at players who have registered at least 900 minutes of football in the current league season. Also, only proper central midfielders are taken into consideration i.e. no makeshift options included.

We will shortlist the best options according to the statistics and data analysis. In this piece, we look into the players who might make the jump to the 1st tier soon. Let’s dive deep into the analysis.

Profiling the players

The most important thing for any player or position in football is probably to identify their best-suited abilities. Different players playing in the same position will have different abilities both offensively and defensively. Likewise, a central midfielder will show both defensive as well as offensive capabilities. In order to account for the profile of the CMs that we are looking into we compare them with respect to how well they perform their attacking and defensive actions. We can see the plot in the image below that compares the CMs in the top division with this regard.

Alexander Prass  The 20-year old midfielder from Sturm Graz. He records 4.76 successful attacking actions per game and 11.84 successful defensive actions per game in the league this season. He has also won his duels at the rate of 54%.

Matthäus Taferner  The 21-year old midfielder from Wolfsberger AC. He records 2.95 successful attacking actions per game and 10.94 successful defensive actions per game in the league this season. He has also won his duels at the rate of 43%.