In this data analysis piece, we will be looking out for the best central midfielders currently playing in the 2021/22 Austrian Bundesliga using statistics.
The best central midfielders are the most complete ones as modern managers are hugely dependent on their central midfielders for the team’s successful tactics.
In our analysis, we will be considering both the attacking as well as defensive attributes. Definitely passing is 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 900 minutes of football in the current league season. 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. In this piece, we look into the players who might make the jump to the 1st tier soon. Let’s dive deep into the analysis.
Profiling the players
The most important thing for any player or position in football is probably 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 with this regard.
Alexander Prass – The 20-year old midfielder from Sturm Graz. He records 4.76 successful attacking actions per game and 11.84 successful defensive actions per game in the league this season. He has also won his duels at the rate of 54%.
Matthäus Taferner – The 21-year old midfielder from Wolfsberger AC. He records 2.95 successful attacking actions per game and 10.94 successful defensive actions per game in the league this season. He has also won his duels at the rate of 43%.
Matthias Braunöder – The 19-year old midfielder from Austria Wien. He averages 2.63 successful attacking actions per game and 11.35 successful defensive actions per game in the league this season and also won his duels at the rate of 52.6%.
Nicolas Seiwald – The 20-year old midfielder from RB Salzburg. He averages 2.5 successful attacking actions per game and 11.04 successful defensive actions per game in the league this season and also won his duels at the rate of 51%.
Eliel Peretz – The 25-year old midfielder from Wolfsberger AC. So far, he has recorded 4.29 successful attacking actions per game and 9.06 successful defensive actions per game in the league this season. He has also won his duels at the rate of 44%.
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 interceptions stats that they have recorded per game over the course of this season.
Alexander Prass – The Sturm Graz midfielder has contributed defensively with 8.7 defensive duels per 90 and with a duels success rate of 54%. He has also won 7.86 PAdj interceptions per 90 in the league.
Matthias Braunöder – The Austria Wien midfielder records 10.97 defensive duels per 90 with a 52.6% winning rate and has also made 5.6 PAdj interceptions per game in the league.
Srđan Grahovac – The 29-year old midfielder from Rapid Wien. He has contributed defensively with 7.5 defensive duels per 90 and with a duels success rate of 52.46%. He has also won 10 PAdj interceptions per 90 in the league.
Nicolas Seiwald – The 20-year old has recorded 7.34 defensive duels per 90 with a duels success rate of 51%. He has also won 11.37 PAdj interceptions per 90 in the league, which is the highest.
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, Thiago, etc.
James Holland – The 32-year old midfielder from LASK. He has recorded 11.5 progressive passes per 90 with an accuracy of 79.6%. He also averages 2.35 progressive passes for every 10 passes he makes.
Peter Michorl – The 26-year old midfielder from LASK. He has recorded 9.23 progressive passes per 90 with an accuracy of 79.6%. He also averages 2 progressive passes for every 10 passes he makes.
Alexander Prass – The Sturm Graz midfielder has contributed 8.71 progressive passes per 90 with an accuracy of 73%. He also averages 2.2 progressive passes for every 10 passes he makes.
Andreas Kuen – The 27-year old midfielder from Sturm Graz. He has recorded 8.69 progressive passes per 90 with an accuracy of 73.5%. He also averages 2.2 progressive passes for every 10 passes he makes.
Daniel Offenbacher – The 30-year old experienced midfielder from Ried. He has averaged 8.25 progressive passes per 90 with an accuracy of 70.5%. He also averages 2.2 progressive passes for every 10 passes he makes.
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 CMs having a very good ability to carry the ball are very valuable and play a similar impact to those who play progressive passes.
Eliel Peretz – The 25-year old midfielder has recorded 3.94 dribbles per 90 with a success rate of 59.7%. He has also recorded 1.59 progressive runs per 90.
Alexander Prass – The Sturm Graz midfielder has contributed 5.39 dribbles per 90 with a success rate of 58.14%. He has also recorded 1.07 progressive runs per 90.
Andreas Kuen – The 27-year old midfielder from Sturm Graz has recorded 3.04 dribbles per 90 with a success rate of 41.46%. He has also recorded 1.63 progressive runs per 90.
Matthias Braunöder – The Austria Wien midfielder records 3.08 dribbles per 90 with a success rate of 58.33%. He has also recorded 1.22 progressive runs per 90.
Nicolas Seiwald – The 20-year old has recorded 3.02 dribbles per 90 with a success rate of 58.73%. He has also recorded 1.15 progressive runs per 90.
Nicolás Capaldo – The 23-year old Argentine midfielder from RB Salzburg. He has recorded 1.05 progressive runs per 90 and 2.9 dribbles per game with a success rate of 65%.
Playmaking
CMs 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.
Peter Michorl – The 26-year old LASK midfielder has recorded 10.13 passes into the final third and 1.49 smart passes per 90 with an accuracy of 40%.
Robert Ljubičić – The 22-year old Austrian midfielder from Rapid Wien. He has averaged 8 passes into the final third and 1.24 smart passes per 90 with an accuracy of 40%.
Alexander Prass – The Sturm Graz midfielder has recorded 8.2 passes into the final third and 1 smart pass per 90 with an accuracy of 44%.
James Holland – The veteran midfielder has recorded 12.5 passes into the final third and 0.64 smart passes per 90 with an accuracy of 33.3%.
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 CMs, especially the attacking ones are judged based on their ability to consistently create chances.
Eliel Peretz – The 25-year old midfielder averages 0.88 key passes per 90 with an xA of 0.18 per 90 in the league this season. He also makes 1.71 shot-assist for his teammates on average per 90 in the league.
Hyun-Seok Hong – The 22-year old midfielder from LASK. He averages 0.79 key passes per 90. He has also recorded 0.17 xA per 90 and 1.41 shot-assists per 90 in the league.
Andreas Kuen – The 27-year old midfielder from Sturm Graz averages 0.59 key passes per 90. He has also recorded 0.17 xA per 90 and 1.19 shot-assists per 90 in the league.
Peter Michorl – The 26-year old LASK midfielder has recorded 0.4 key passes per 90. He has also recorded 0.2 xA per 90 and 1.68 shot-assists per 90 in the league.
Alexander Prass – The Sturm Graz youngster has recorded 0.56 key passes per 90. He has also recorded 0.1 xA per 90 and 1.36 shot-assists per 90 in the league.
Players to watch out for
Alexander Prass
The Sturm Graz youngster is statistically the best young central midfielder in the league this season. He has been tremendous for his side and has done really well in the minutes that he has played. His strengths include in almost everything where we saw him feature in almost every section. He has good progressive passing, ball-carrying and defensive abilities. He also creates good chances for his team but compared to others his xA value is slightly low but still he is among the most creative player in the league.
Hyun-Seok Hong
The LASK midfielder has done really well for his side and is one of their main creative players in the team. Though they haven’t had a great domestic season, the 22-year old has done sufficiently well for them. Apart from creation he also excels in making more progressive passes with very less passing attempts. He can go to the next level if he improves his defensive contribution and ball-carrying ability, which he isn’t particularly bad at.
Nicolas Seiwald
The Salzburg midfielder could be the next big thing coming out of the Red Bull project. He has had a good season for his club which are leading the league this time too. He has excelled in ball-carrying and in defensive scenarios, both of which are hallmarks of Red Bull’s high intensity and aggressive teams. If he can improve his passing ability he will definitely be bound to qualify to play for Leipzig in German Bundesliga and also be a target for other top European clubs like Bayern Munich and Liverpool.
Conclusion
In this piece, in the form of data analysis, we saw some of the best performing CMs from the 2021/22 Austrian Bundesliga and are currently geared to impress even more in the next 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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