Heirs to Modrić & Busquets: U24 La Liga midfielders to watch out for in 2021/22 – data analysis

Were just weeks away from the official start of the 2021/22 La Liga season. The last campaign ended in incredible fashion with many twists and turns and while the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid showed inconsistent form, some of their players still managed to shine.

In the second part of our data analysis series, well be diving into the statistics of midfielders, trying to find the best young players to keep an eye on in the upcoming season. So, who can take up the torch from veterans like Luka Modrić and Sergio Busquets whose retirements edge ever closer? Lets find out.

Setting the filters

Before jumping straight into our analysis, its very important to first set the filters so we know what were working with. Despite my best attempts to only include U23 players in this series, the sample for U23 midfielders who have played at least 500 minutes in La Liga last season is incredibly small. So, to make our pool somewhat bigger, this analysis will include U24 midfielders as well.

Once again, for the defensive metrics, I’ve calculated the possession-adjusted (PAdj) metrics myself wherever needed and have taken all data provided by Wyscout. Other categories include attacking output, creativity, progressiveness, press resistance and final third presence.

Note that only centre and wide midfielders were used for this data analysis as attacking midfielders will be dissected in part three of this series.

Initial data check

The first graph we’ll look at in this analysis concerns the attacking output. This is measured by four specific categories: successful attacking actions, shots, offensive duels and expected goals (xG) per 90 minutes. The top-right quadrant is where you generally want to be as that represents highly attacking-minded players.

Barcelona’s Ilaix Moriba tops this category easily as the most attacking-minded midfielder in our pool of players. The 18-year-old’s 11.92 offensive duels, 1.99 shots per 90 and 3.36 successful attacking actions are ahead of the rest of the competition, similarly as his 0.34 xG per 90 is the highest among all analysed midfielders.

A small caveat, however, is the fact he’s played just enough minutes to squeeze into the analysis, 589. Getafe’s new permanent addition, Carles Aleñá, is also very impressive with his 7.14 offensive duels, 1.74 shots, 2.64 successful attacking actions and 0.14 xG per 90 minutes. Other players worth mentioning here are Real Madrid’s Federico Valverde (5.27, 1.46, 2.67 & 0.17), Edu Expósito who just turned 25 on 1 August (6.56, 1.34, 2.51 & 0.11) and Mikel Merino (7.97, 1.26, 2.53 & 0.21).

Of course, there are other