Welcome back to the MLS data analysis series where I seek to find the statistically best players in the MLS 2019 Season. The first two instalments in this series have looked at the best goalkeeper, centre-backs, and full-backs in the MLS.
In this data analysis, I seek to find the best central defensive midfielders in MLS through the use of data and statistics. I’ll be comprehensively looking at statistics and exploring central defensive midfielders through the attacking, passing, and defensive lens.
Context
Before we get started, it is important to review contexts for the analysis. The first important context regards the style of the central defensive midfielders that I am looking out for. Due to the large variability within a league with a team, its tactics, and the style of each player, I have decided to layout two styles so that equality in the analysis is achieved.
Before anything, I filtered the players to those who had played more than 20 games to ensure consistency and reliability in statistics. I will be looking for a primarily attacking central defensive midfielder, one who is moulded in the figure as Barcelona’s Frenkie de Jong or Bayern Munich’s Thiago Alcantara. This midfielder is more involved in the attack and records impressive attacking and passing statistics.
Moreover, it should be regarded here that this is not a definitive analysis as to who are the best players. As always, the use of data is to be combined with the use of the “eye test”. The purpose of these articles is to find unpolished gems and pre-established crystals in MLS. As such, take this data analysis as an exploratory analysis for further scouting and tactical analysis.
In previous instalments, I often discussed the entire methodology showcasing every metric and every data visualisation used to come to my final listings and the eventual chosen one. I want to showcase a different approach which is to showcase my final listings, briefly list why, and analyse the chosen one. Without further adieu, let’s start analysing.
League analysis for the attacking central defensive midfielder
For many teams in the MLS, the attacking central defensive midfielder is quite possibly their most important player. From orchestrating build-up to continually recycling possession, attacking central defensive midfielders are a great asset to teams. In addition to that, these players also provide teams with deep-lying creativity, press-resistance, and a psychological calm that can often be the defining factor between winning and losing.
For that reason, it becomes apt to find the best central defensive midfielders in the MLS and just exactly how the best mark himself out.
After analysing various passing and attacking metrics, the final five best attacking central defensive midfielders in the MLS are Eduard Atuesta from LAFC, Haris Medunjanin from FC Cincinnati, Marc Rzatkowski from New York Red Bulls, Jackson Yueill from San Jose Earthquakes, and Lee Nguyen from LAFC.
Let’s take a look at why these players marked themselves out prominently out of a pool of 51 players.
The first analysis looks at forward passes of the defensive midfielders. This helps us separate the players from those who play more forward passes which relates to better chance creation and attacking play for the team.
Here we see our five highlighted players in red. Medunjanin and Atuesta are the clear outliers from the pack recording 65+ passes per 90 with 22 and more of them being directed forward. Highlighted in the size of the dot is the accuracy of the forward passes. Clearly, we can see that in addition to playing the most forward passes among central defensive midfielders, Medunjanin and Atuesta record some of the highest accuracy rate in their forward passing.
In addition, we see Nguyen and the other members, the last red dot being Rzatkowski, performing poorly in consideration to Medunjanin and Atuesta. However, as we’ll see in the next analyses, these players have a reason for getting near the top.
