Finding the best central midfielders from Primeira Liga – data analysis

In this data analysis piece, we will be looking out for the best central midfielders currently playing in the Primeira Liga 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. Passing is definitely 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 800 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 in this regard.

Samu Silva  The 26-year old central midfielder from Vizela. He recorded 3.34 successful attacking actions per game and 9.96 successful defensive actions per game in the league. He has also won his duels at the rate of 49.13%.

Manuel Ugarte  The 21-year old central midfielder from Sporting. He averaged 2.5 successful attacking actions per game and 10.9 successful defensive actions per game in the league. He has also won his duels at a below-average rate of 47.18%.