Welcome to another instalment of our budget-friendly series.
Last week, we released a list of four budget-friendly strikers who could join middle- or low-level clubs in Europe’s top-five leagues.
Now, we’re moving on to midfielders.
The idea is the same: to find affordable midfielders with decent attributes, numbers or qualities for clubs with limited budgets.
Generally speaking, this summer is not the summer of the midfielder.
Midfielder transfers don’t generate as much hype as striker transfers.
Yes, there have been notable transfers involving midfielders like Florian Wirtz to Liverpool, Tijjani Reijnders to Manchester City, Martin Zubimendi to Arsenal, and Jobe Bellingham to Borussia Dortmund.
However, this scouting report won’t focus on football transfers of that calibre.
Instead, it will focus on relatively cheap midfielders (anything less than €20m) who are also valuable.
As with the striker list, this one is also not only for young, promising players because, again, that’s perhaps what the club needs, and there’s nothing wrong with that; the transfer market should be as broad as possible.
Caspar Jander Scout Report
Last season was only the first season of Caspar Jander‘s career in 2. Bundesliga.
Before moving to FC Nürnberg, he spent his career in the 3. Liga team MSV Duisburg.
However, last season is enough to prove the German U21 midfielder’s potential.
Jander played 34 games, scored three goals, and recorded seven assists last season.
That sounds really promising.
For context, Jander is mainly played as a central midfielder in the 3-5-2 formation.
He does not handle the most offensive duties, but mostly takes on deep and defensive ones.
Caspar Jander Pizza Chart
It is also important to note that the 22-year-old does not operate as a deep-lying playmaker.
He shows that he can do that, too—he can send smart passes to the final third and create chances from deep.
However, his game shows that he is at his best when operating as a connector.
He always moves closer to where the ball is to provide a body as a passing option and ensure that his team’s possessions continue.
Then, when his team is already in the final third with the ball, Jander can help by sending key passes to his teammates.
His assists often came from the moment when he moved to provide an option to help the team progress to the final third.
His assists are not the ‘beautiful‘ or ‘complicated‘ ones, but that is what makes him valuable.
He can ensure that possession continues.
Last season, his overall pass accuracy was 90.82%, placing him in the top five among 2 Bundesliga midfielders who played at least 1000 minutes.
Jander’s accuracy with forward passes is also above 80%, as is his accuracy with passes into the final third.
His accuracy with progressive passes is slightly below that at 75%, but that’s still a decent number.
These passing numbers demonstrate that he is not the type of player to give up the ball easily; instead, he ensures that everything is connected and working correctly.
However, Jander sometimes struggles when playing under pressure and needing to make swift decisions.
He can protect the ball well, but needs to develop his ability to make quick decisions in chaotic situations.
He has also demonstrated his strength as a defensive midfielder.
Last season, he won 58.8% of his defensive duels and 51.1% of loose-ball duels.
However, he can be a little too aggressive when using his feet in defensive situations.
He needs to control his momentum because that style of defending could lead to more fouls than recoveries.
Regarding price, Caspar Jander’s market value is only €7m, so he could be bought for less than €10m—that’s good value.
However, we’d expect the price could rise to around €15m.
Michel Vlap Scout Report
This is the one who is already 28 years old.
Michel Vlap has played in the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium.
He has played for FC Twente for the past four seasons.
Last term was a remarkable one in his career, as he scored seven goals and provided nine assists in the Eredivisie—a solid achievement.
Vlap is a flexible player.
He can play as an attacking midfielder in a 4-2-3-1 formation, as one of the double pivots, or as a left winger.
At Twente last season, he mainly played as a central midfielder and a left winger.
Michel Vlap Pizza Chart
This versatility is one of Vlap’s strengths.
It also demonstrates his intelligence as a player, since playing in the centre of midfield and on the wing requires different attributes.
When playing as a central midfielder, Vlap is a typical box-to-box player who is excellent at finding pockets of space.
Whether he needs to drop deep between the centre-backs to help with the build-up or find space to shoot in front of the opponent’s penalty box, Vlap knows where to run.
He is also a decent distributor.
Last season, he made 7.71 passes to the final third per 90 minutes with an accuracy rate of over 78% and 8.19 progressive passes per 90 minutes with an accuracy rate of over 84%.
In defence, he made 7.71 successful defensive actions per 90 minutes, won 64.55% of his defensive duels, and made 3.74 interceptions per 90 minutes.
Another aspect of his game that deserves to be highlighted is how quickly he makes decisions.
He’s not the fastest, which is one of his flaws, but he can quickly decide whether to pass, dribble, or shoot under pressure.
This is one of the reasons why he also plays as a winger.
Aside from being smart enough to find free spaces, he is also quick to make decisions, which enables him to set up his teammates or take his own shot in the final third.
However, I don’t like his gestures when he plays as a winger during the out-of-possession phase when the ball is on the opposite side of his area.
It shows that he is not responsive enough to track the opponent’s full-back or cover the free space.
If he plays for a team outside the top five or six in the league, he needs to put in more effort to move back.
But in close defence, when opponents play in his area or come towards him, he knows how to use his body or feet to win duels and win the ball back.
Questions remain over how Michel Vlap will adapt to a more intense league and whether he can survive in a team that is less dominant and more chaotic than Twente in the context of the Eredivisie.
However, he has experience in European football and is versatile, able to score and set up teammates.
Most importantly, he’s cheap.
Spartak Moscow reportedly offered only €3.5m, so he could be really affordable.
Eric Martel Scout Report
Sorry, but this is another German player who shone in the 2. Bundesliga last season.
Eric Martel was instrumental in FC Köln‘s success in gaining promotion to the Bundesliga.
He was also captain of the German team at the U21 Euros this summer, leading his team to the final before losing to England, the eventual champions.
Although he is only 23 years old, he has played in more than 100 first-division games.
He played in the Bundesliga with RB Leipzig and Köln before they were relegated, as well as in the Austrian Bundesliga with Austria Vienna.
He is young but has a lot of experience.
He is on this list because he is one of the most promising defensive midfielders in Europe.
Yes, please note the word ‘defensive’—it is actually the key to his game.
Martel is a pure defensive midfielder who can perform a variety of defensive duties effectively.
Last season, he won an impressive 11.66 defensive duels per 90 minutes.
That is a considerable amount.
He contested 7.66 defensive duels per 90 minutes and won 62.42% of them.
He made an average of 1.02 tackles per 90 minutes, and his 5.86 interceptions per 90 minutes demonstrate his ability to read the game and disrupt or stop an opponent’s attack.
Looking into his game, Martel has a good understanding in how to use his body to stop the opponent.
Usually, rather than just using his feet, he uses the whole body to block the opponent’s move.
However, there is still room for improvement in his defensive aspect.
He needs to work on his momentum to improve his decision-making, such as when to jump to press the opponent or wait in his position.
Sometimes, due to bad timing, he is still caught in a moment when the opponent is way faster and knows that Martel will jump, so they can escape and move forward.
His passing game was also limited.
Last season, his passing accuracy reached 85.73%, his forward pass accuracy reached 73%, and his progressive pass accuracy reached 60%.
Those aren‘t bad numbers, but context matters.
Martel is not a midfielder who progresses or moves the ball forward with smart or beautiful passes.
He tends to perform just simple passes.
When it comes to helping his team progress to the final third, he mainly uses short combinations and his movement as a passing option rather than passes that can directly create chances.
This also limits him.
Martel would benefit from playing in the double pivot system, especially with a partner whose best attribute is controlling the game with passes.
In addition, he can also play as a centre-back, and this versatility is also a good point for him.
He is tall enough (1.88m) to play as a centre-back.
Eric Martel Pizza Chart
Most importantly, he is cheap.
His market value is €6m, but reports stated Fiorentina was interested in paying around €10m, so it seems Eric Martel could indeed be bought for €5-10m.
Badredine Bouanani Scout Report
Now let’s move on to the offensive member of our list.
Here is Badredine Bouanani.
Despite being just 20 years old, he has already played more than 2500 minutes in Ligue 1.
Last season, he played 26 games for OGC Nice in Ligue 1, primarily as a wide attacking midfielder in formations such as 3-4-2-1, 4-3-1-2 and 3-5-2.
He also performed well, contributing three goals and three assists.
Overall, Bouanani is still developing.
However, he shows potential as a creative attacking midfielder who can create chances for his teammates.
Badredine Bouanani Pizza Chart
Last season, he averaged 0.66 smart passes, 0.73 key passes and 0.95 through passes per 90 minutes, according to the Wyscout definitions.
These figures aren’t spectacular, but are still decent for a 20-year-old in a top-five league.
While he still needs to improve the accuracy of his creative passes, Bouanani has demonstrated that he already possesses the necessary vision.
He knows how to use his passes to find his teammate’s right run and how to manipulate the opponent’s defence.
He may look lean and small, leading many to believe he is still weak.
However, in certain moments of his game, he demonstrates his ability to play under pressure, evade opponents and deliver passes.
He also has experience in European football.
Nevertheless, he will need to put in a lot of work if he wants to play in a more physical league than Ligue 1, but it still seems possible.
Another part of his game still needs improvement, though.
His shooting selection as an attacking midfielder is a cause for concern.
Even though he has good shooting accuracy, he tends to shoot at less valuable moments and in less valuable spaces.
The Algerian has intelligent movement off the ball and is already showing a real knack for finding space.
However, he still needs to work on his dribbling.
Thanks to his intelligent movement, he may always receive the ball in space, but when a defender approaches him and he needs to win a 1-v-1 duel with his dribbling, he is quite likely to lose.
Bouanani needs to learn the right angles to move in order to win 1-v-1 situations against opponents when dribbling, because he has the skill to escape.
Overall, Badredine Bouanani is very promising.
He knows how to make runs, reads his teammates’ off-the-ball movement well, and has decent skills.
He just needs to improve his decision-making and reading of momentum.
As he plays for Nice, a strong Ligue 1 team, over the next two or three years, his value could skyrocket.
That’s why it’s a good idea to secure his talent now.
His current market value is only €7m.
His real price could lead to a tag of between €10 to €15m.
While that money might not immediately translate into talent, it could be a good long-term investment.
Conclusion
The midfielder market isn’t as exciting this summer as the striker market.
There were some big transfers for midfielders, including some big clubs, but the hype just isn’t as big as that.
But the demand is still there, and the transfer market isn’t just for the rich or big clubs.
Some mid-lower table clubs also need midfielders, and four names on this list are good options budget-wise.
Anyway, the gap for them to move to big clubs is way higher, so it makes sense for them to move step-by-step to the mid-lower tier clubs in Europe’s top-five leagues.
We’ll just have to wait and see where the rest of the summer takes them or if they decide to stay with their current club.
So, now’s the time for any clubs that are interested to make a move.
