Some More Midfielders
I created a way of ranking players based on their stats. I boil it down to one number for attacking and defensive, then one combined score.
Defensive Midfield
Florentino Luis - 23 - Benfica
Defensive Score: 0.59964 (#3)
Attacking Score: 0.26433 (#310)
Combined Score: 0.46552 (#11)
Manuel Ugarte - 21 - Sporting CP
Defensive Score: 0.53251 (#6)
Attacking Score: 0.32302 (#219)
Combined Score: 0.44871 (#17)
Mohamed Camara - 22 - Monaco
Defensive Score: 0.48812 (#27)
Attacking Score: 0.38443 (#138)
Combined Score: 0.44665 (#20)
Edson Alvarez - 25 - Ajax
Defensive Score: 0.48258 (#29)
Attacking Score: 0.37350 (#150)
Combined Score: 0.43895 (#24)
Ruben Neves - 25 - Wolverhampton Wanderers
Defensive Score: 0.49513 (#20)
Attacking Score: 0.34484 (#191)
Combined Score: 0.43501 (#25)
Tom Krauss - 21 - Schalke
Defensive Score: 0.52783 (#8)
Attacking Score: 0.29486 (#278)
Combined Score: 0.43464 (#27)
Santiago Ascacibar - 25 - Cremonese
Defensive Score: 0.48042 (#31)
Attacking Score: 0.36569 (#161)
Combined Score: 0.43453 (#28)
Tyler Adams - 23 - Leeds United
Defensive Score: 0.53017 (#7)
Attacking Score: 0.28236 (#293)
Combined Score: 0.43105 (#32)
Central Midfielders
Joey Veerman - 23 - PSV
Defensive Score: 0.38576 (#144)
Attacking Score: 0.63236 (#8)
Combined Score: 0.48440 (#3)
Enzo Le Fee - 22 - Lorient
Defensive Score: 0.42080 (#83)
Attacking Score: 0.56392 (#16)
Combined Score: 0.47805 (#6)
Sebastian Szymanski - 23 - Feyenoord
Defensive Score: 0.33177 (#227)
Attacking Score: 0.65643 (#7)
Combined Score: 0.46163 (#12)
Mikel Merino - 26 - Real Sociedad
Defensive Score: 0.43655 (#63)
Attacking Score: 0.48563 (#40)
Combined Score: 0.45618 (#14)
Dominik Szoboszlai - 22 - RB Leipzig
Defensive Score: 0.30444 (#272)
Attacking Score: 0.66016 (#5)
Combined Score: 0.44673 (#19)
Mees Hoedemakers - 24 - Cambuur
Defensive Score: 0.42305 (#79)
Attacking Score: 0.46676 (#56)
Combined Score: 0.44054 (#23)
Stephen Eustaquio - 25 - Porto
Defensive Score: 0.37482 (#152)
Attacking Score: 0.51874 (#25)
Combined Score: 0.43239 (#29)
Basically I grabbed a list of all midfielders in Europe who have enough statistical information to breakdown. This is the top 5 leagues + a sporadic handful of players from Portugal and the Netherlands. Narrowed down the search to just 2022/2023 and input their scores through a variety of Key Performance Indicators for defensive, attacking and possession contributions. Then I converted those numbers into a 0-100 grade in comparison to the other players on the list. Defensive score includes an average of those grades on defensive stats. Attacking is an average of attacking and possession based stats. Combined is everything together.
In order to make the list you have to have played 540 minutes prior to this weekend (I pulled the data last week).
My scale is weighted slightly more to the defensive side of the ball than the attacking one.
The highest scoring player was Casemiro (0.53547).
Combined score of some other interesting names…
Bellingham (#7)
Guimaraes (#15)
Musiala (#16)
de Jong (#26)
de Bruyne (#37 - but #2 in attacking)
Rice (#38)
Caicedo (#45)
Tielemans (#48)
Fabinho (#87)
Henderson (#195)
Elliott (#286)
The other Liverpool midfielders didn’t make the list due to not playing enough minutes but this is where they would be in they were on it…
Thiago (#67)
Milner (#81)
There were a number of players who currently score very highly but do not qualify due to playing less than 540 minutes. If I were to replicate these results in a few weeks we would likely see these players appear. Here they are listed with their theoretical current positions on the board - Jens Cajuste (#3), Exequiel Palacios (#5), Jeff Reine-Adelaide (#10).
Bear in mind the ratings favour defensive actions over attacking ones and only being counted for 2022/2023.