In this data analysis piece, we will be looking out for the best central midfielders currently playing in the Allsvenskan using statistics.
The best central midfielders are the most complete ones as modern managers are hugely dependent on these for the team’s tactics to be successful.
In our analysis, we will be considering both the attacking as well as defensive attributes. Passing is definitely the most important trait for a midfielder so that won’t be missed for sure. We will be looking at players who have registered at least 700 minutes of football in the current league season as only 13 game weeks have been completed thus far. Also, only proper central midfielders are taken into consideration i.e. no makeshift options included.
We will shortlist the best options according to the statistics and data analysis. Let’s dive deep into the analysis.
Profiling the players
The most important thing for any player or position in football is to identify their best-suited abilities. Different players playing in the same position will have different abilities both offensively and defensively. Likewise, a central midfielder will show both defensive as well as offensive capabilities. In order to account for the profile of the CMs that we are looking into, we compare them with respect to how well they perform their attacking and defensive actions. We can see the plot in the image below that compares the CMs in the top division in this regard.
Sergio Fernando Peña – The 26-year-old central midfielder from Malmo. He has recorded 4.16 successful attacking actions per 90, the most in the league so far, and 8.7 successful defensive actions per 90 in the league. He has also won his duels at the rate of 47.13%.
Darijan Bojanić – The 27-year-old central midfielder from Hammarby. He has recorded 2.87 successful attacking actions per 90 and 8.84 successful defensive actions per 90 in the league. He has also won his duels at the rate of 46.38%.
Daniel Stensson – The 25-year-old central midfielder from Sundsvall. He has averaged 2.24 successful attacking actions per 90 and 13.11 successful defensive actions per 90 in the league, the most in the league so far. He has also won his duels at the rate of 49%.
Otto Rosengren – The 19-year-old central midfielder from Hammarby. He has recorded 2.25 successful attacking actions per 90 and 8.48 successful defensive actions per 90 in the league. He has also won his duels at the rate of 41%.
Gustav Berggren – The 24-year-old central midfielder from Hacken. He has recorded 3.3 successful attacking actions per 90 and 5.6 successful defensive actions per 90 in the league. He has also won his duels at the rate of 42.2%.
Defensive Abilities
The next thing we look at is how the players perform in the defensive aspect of the game. We compare the players with respect to their defensive duels and interception stats that they have recorded per game over the course of this season.
Adam Carlén – The 22-year-old central midfielder from Degerfors. He has recorded 8.7 defensive duels per 90 with a success rate of 63.4%. He also recorded 4.13 PAdj interceptions per game in the league this season.
Gustav Johan Svensson – The 35-year-old central midfielder from Goteborg. He has averaged 8.11 defensive duels per 90 with a success rate of 62.7%. He also recorded 7.34 PAdj interceptions per game in the league this season.
Lucas Lingman – The 24-year-old central midfielder from Helsingborg. He has averaged 7.08 defensive duels per 90 with a success rate of 62.07%. He also recorded 4.24 PAdj interceptions per game in the league this season.
Romarinho – The 36-year-old central midfielder from Kalmar. He has recorded 7 defensive duels per 90 with a success rate of 69.7%. He also recorded 5.69 PAdj interceptions per game in the league this season.
Jamie Roche – The 21-year-old central midfielder from Helsingborg. He has averaged 6.99 defensive duels per 90 with a success rate of 59%. He also recorded 6.91 PAdj interceptions per game in the league this season, which is amongst the highest in the league this season and shows his ability to read the game very well.
Progressive passing
Midfielders these days are expected to be very expansive on the ball and also help the team to progress the ball over the different thirds of the pitch. CMs these days are also tasked with this and are expected to be very direct and technically sound on the ball like Toni Kroos for Real Madrid, or Thiago during his time with Liverpool and Bayern Munich.
Sergio Fernando Peña – The Malmo midfielder has averaged a league-high 15.38 progressive passes per 90, completing it at a rate of 92%. While making 1.95 progressive passes for every 10 passes he attempted.
Bilal Hussein – The 22-year-old central midfielder from AIK. He recorded 11.84 progressive passes per 90, completing it at a rate of 85.3%. While making 1.75 progressive passes for every 10 passes he attempted.
Darijan Bojanić – The Hammarby central midfielder has averaged 10.52 progressive passes per 90, completing it at a rate of 89.77%. While making 1.7 progressive passes for every 10 passes he attempted.
Christos Gravius – The 24-year-old central midfielder from Degerfors. He recorded 8.67 progressive passes per 90, completing it at a rate of 74.11%. While making 1.8 progressive passes for every 10 passes he attempted.
Pontus Silfwer – The 24-year-old central midfielder from Sundsvall. He recorded 10.55 progressive passes per 90, completing it at a rate of 83.61%. While making 1.91 progressive passes for every 10 passes he attempted.
Ball carrying abilities
The ability to carry the ball has always been very crucial to every player and has been seen as an important trait for a very long time. So central midfielders having a very good ability to carry the ball is extremely valuable and plays a similar impact to those who play progressive passes.
Sergio Fernando Peña – The Malmo midfielder has averaged a league-high 2.65 progressive runs per 90 in the league this season. He also made 2 dribbles per 90, with a success rate of 81.25%.
Darijan Bojanić – The Hammarby central midfielder has recorded 2.27 progressive runs per 90 in the league this season, which is amongst the highest in the league for a central midfielder. He also made 2.15 dribbles per 90, with a success rate of 66.67%.
Nahom Girmai – The 27-year-old central midfielder from Kalmar. He has recorded 2.33 progressive runs per 90 in the league this season. He also made 3.97 dribbles per 90 with a success rate of 46.34%.
Jamie Roche – The Helsingborg youngster has averaged 0.54 progressive runs per 90 in the league this season. He also made 2.69 dribbles per 90 with a success rate of 63.33%.
Gustav Berggren – The Hacken midfielder has recorded 1.54 progressive runs per 90 in the league this season. He also made 3.48 dribbles per 90 with a success rate of 58.5%.
Playmaking
Central midfielders are also tasked with moving the ball to the final third and helping the team to ensure that they can go to the final phase of the play.
Darijan Bojanić – The Hammarby central midfielder has recorded 8.96 passes into the final third and 1.67 smart passes per 90 in the league this season, which was best among the central midfielders in the league. He also completed his final third passes at a rate of 77.33%.
Sergio Fernando Peña – The Malmo midfielder has averaged a league-high 17.14 passes into the final third with an accuracy of 70.5% and 1.67 smart passes per 90 in the league this season.
Christos Gravius – The Degerfors midfielder has averaged 8.6 passes into the final third with an accuracy of 69.37% and 1.08 smart passes per game.
Bilal Hussein – The AIK central midfielder has recorded 11.94 passes into the final third with an accuracy of 87.18% and 0.61 smart passes per game.
Mikkel Rygaard – The 31-year-old midfielder from Hacken has averaged 8.7 passes into the final third with an accuracy of 70.3% and 0.91 smart passes per game.
Chance creation
The final phase of play and potentially the most crucial aspect from an attacking sense is the creation of chances for their team’s forwards. This is where a lot of central midfielders, especially the attacking ones, are judged based on their ability to consistently create chances for their respective sides.
Nahir Besara – The 31-year-old central midfielder from Hammarby has averaged league-high 0.93 key passes per 90 and 0.41 xA per game, which is also the most in the league for a CM. He also made 2.88 shot-assists per game in the league this season, which is again the best in the league for a central midfielder. He is currently the best among CMs for chance creation.
Mikkel Rygaard – The Hacken midfielder has recorded 0.61 key passes per 90 and 0.35 xA per game. He also made 2.53 shot-assists per game in the league this season.
Sergio Fernando Peña – The Malmo midfielder has averaged 0.63 key passes per 90 and 0.27 xA per game. He also made 1.89 shot-assists per game in the league this season.
Magnus Lennart Eriksson – The 32-year-old midfielder from the defending champions Djurgardens has recorded 0.78 key passes per 90 and 0.18 xA per game. He also made 1.48 shot-assists per game in the league this season.
Players to watch out for
Sergio Fernando Peña
The Malmo midfielder as seen in the image above is probably one of the best midfielders in the league and is in very good form for the most successful Swedish team. He is really complete and ranks highly in almost all of the statistical measures that we discussed in this article. Although he is just above 25 years, he is still yet to enter his peak years and many top clubs should be monitoring him and look to sign him in the near future.
Christos Gravius
Another very good young U-25 midfielder in the league has been in very good form for his club this season. He has been brilliant for his side, especially in terms of progressing the ball via passing and also does play a key role in playmaking for his side. He could probably improve his ability to make more progressive runs on the ball and also create chances for his side that would then see him be one of the sought-after talents from the league.
Bilal Hussein
The 22-year-old has had a very good season for his club up to now and will be hoping to build on it further. He seems to be excelling in making defensive actions and also is very good at progressing the ball as well. He is not very much of an attacking third presence where his role is mostly involved in moving the ball into the final third while chance creation for his team seems to be not his responsibility. Overall, Hussein is another good player to watch out for this season.
Conclusion
In this piece, in the form of data analysis, we saw some of the best performing central midfielders playing in the 2022 Allsvenskan based on their performances last season. We also saw some important talents to watch out for in the league who could very well impress and soon be scouted by top clubs in Europe.
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