From Hasebe and Sung-yueng Ki to Wataru Endo: finding the next top central midfielder in Asia – data analysis

In the third section of a data analysis series looking at the best players in Asia, we’ll focus on central midfielders.

The leagues selected for this analysis are the following: Qatar Stars League, United Arab Emirates Pro League, Saudi Professional League, Japanese J1 League, South Korean K League and Chinese Super League. The Iranian Gulf Pro League would have been an interesting one to include but it lacks complete data on Wyscout and others like the Indian and Australian leagues missed out as their level is considered slightly lower. We have considered players whose main position was central midfielder and who played at least 900 minutes in the aforementioned leagues in the last calendar year so the statistics are significant and representative. We have decided not to include attacking midfielders as their numbers were closer to the forwards’.

The players whose circles are filled are those who made the final shortlist. We provide this information beforehand so readers can see how they performed and why they were selected as they read the data analysis. A deeper analysis of them is available at the end of the piece.

Style overview

In the first section of the data analysis, we’ll have a look at the successful defensive and offensive actions to find those players who influence a lot on both ends and also some complete profiles. The colour of the dots shows the success rate in all duels.

Starting with the most offensive players, we find Mousa Dembélé (34, Belgium) of Guangzhou City. The former Tottenham star has the most successful attacking actions with 7.63 per 90. In defence, he has some involvement but still falls into the lowest quartile with just 6.95 successful defensive actions per 90. He’s very good in all kinds of duels too, winning 55.13% of them. Almost three years after leaving the EPL, Dembélé still looks class. He has played over 575 club games for Beerschot, Willem II, AZ Alkmaar, Fulham, Tottenham and his current club and has been capped 82 times. At 34, he’s likely to retire in China but if someone has the financial power to attract him, he could still be useful at any level.

Close to Dembélé, we find another former EPL star: Oscar (30, Brazil) of Shanghai Port. Oscar has the second-most successful attacking actions with 7.4 per 90 but his defensive involvement is poor with just 5.39 successful defensive actions per 90. Oscar left Chelsea almost five years ago but he’s not too old yet at 30. Despite his superior quality, the 48-times Brazilian international has only won a league and a cup in China, which add to his two Premier Leagues, one Europa League and one League Cup with Chelsea and his Copa Libertadores and Recopa Sudamericana with Internacional. Many consider Oscar’s career to have been wasted in China but he has become a legend and captain there and it’s unlikely that he wants to return to European football.