The top-5 European leagues are relatively saturated in terms of content and interest from around the footballing world and this saturation extends to recruitment departments within football. That does not mean, however, that there are not players in those leagues who we can consider under the radar or less well known than some of their counterparts. Part of working in recruitment within a professional club is having the ability to identify and then track players that fit into this category. In this article, I have picked out three midfield players who I consider to be less well known than some others who are currently playing in their respective leagues.
The process for this is relatively simple and my dataset includes all midfielders in those leagues who are 23-years-old or under and who have played at least 500 games this season. All of the data is from Wyscout and I use Python to convert the raw per 90 data into percentile rankings. These percentile rankings can then be used to create pizza charts that visualise the players performances across key metrics that I have selected as part of my midfield player profile.
If any of you are reading this and want further information into the methodology and process behind this then feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @FMAnalysis.
Last week I wrote a similar piece although this time looking at strikers. If you want to read that piece then you can find it here.
Before we start I should make it clear that the purpose of this piece is not to pick the best players in these positions and instead to find the ones that will be interesting to track going forward.
#1 Jon Moncayola, 23-years-old, Osasuna and Spain
The first player that I have picked out is the 23-year-old Spaniard Jon Moncayola who is contracted to Osasuna in La Liga. He is a product of the youth academy at the club and has firmly established himself over the course of recent seasons as a key first-team figure. While Moncayola has not yet managed to get selected for what is an incredibly talented Spanish national team he was previously a regular member of the u21 setup. Interestingly in recent weeks, there have been several media reports linking the Spanish midfielder with a summer move to the English Premier League with the likes of Arsenal and West Ham reported to have an interest in his signature.
Moncayola is comfortable playing in the midfield unit as either a 6 or as an 8 and he is a tall and athletic player who is listed at 184cm | 623.
The Spaniard is such an interesting player because of his vers
