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The Premier League has had an exceptional roster of midfielders over the years, but the current crop of elite stars has brought a technical level that England’s top flight has never seen before.
The likes of Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, and Michael Carrick were fantastic players in the early 2000s, but their midfield styles had been replicated before in previous generations.
There were also fantastic personalities around that time, such as Roy Keane, Patrick Vieira and Paul Scholes, all of whom exuded guts, passion and defensive cunning to complement their aggressive temperament.
Paul Pogba and Kevin De Bruyne are two of the best midfielders in the Premier League
Although midfielders like David Silva, Cesc Fabregas and company have led the Premier League towards a more technical and stylish type of midfielder, England’s top flight can now boast three of the best midfielders in the world.
Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne and Manchester United’s Paul Pogba were the two high-profile midfielders in the top flight before this summer.
Entering from the right on the stage Thiago Alcantara, who completed a £ 25 million move to champion Liverpool from Bayern Munich earlier this month.
Thiago Alcantara’s arrival at Liverpool means England’s top flight has the best midfielders
The three players clearly have very different styles. De Bruyne is the classic modern ‘number eight’ and has a more offensive emphasis on Pep Guardiola’s side.
Meanwhile, Thiago is expected to be one of Liverpool’s deepest midfielders due to his status as one of the best ball progesters in world football, and Paul Pogba has more of a ‘free role’ in United’s lineup, already that shares creativity. load with Bruno Fernandes.
Featuring three of England’s biggest clubs with their independent star midfielder, Sportsmail Analyze Opta’s stats to see which of the three is the best intermediary in the Premier League …
ATTACK STATISTICS
There is no doubt who is the best player in front of goal of the three.
Kevin De Bruyne has a Premier League record of 14 goals and 21 assists since the start of last season, while Thiago (in the Bundesliga) and Pogba haven’t even scored five in either tally.
Since the start of last season, the Manchester City star has also provided a goal or an assist every 88 minutes, which is on a completely different level compared to Pogba (357 minutes) and Thiago (605 minutes).
While he played more than 1,000 minutes longer than his Premier League rivals, De Bruyne also managed to create more than 140 clear chances, with Thiago and Pogba barely surpassing 50 together.
Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne averages one goal or one assist every 88 minutes
Although one area where the Belgian master is weaker than his rivals is in the dribbling department.
Both Thiago and Pogba managed to carry the ball better than De Bruyne last season despite playing fewer games.
Thiago even managed to complete more dribbles than the City man and managed 83.5 percent of his shots, compared to just 55 for De Bruyne.
Even Pogba, who is often criticized by his own fans for being too passive, tapping or giving the ball away, had a 64.4 hit rate on dribbling.
Liverpool’s new signing Thiago has shown he has the best dribbling stats of the three
Thiago and Pogba also have better shooting accuracy than De Bruyne, although the Belgian had almost ten times as many shots as his two rivals last season due to his attacking role in Guardiola’s team.
So De Bruyne is the clear winner in the final third and while Thiago is not far behind the Manchester City player from an offensive point of view, the former Bayern player is disappointed in his deeper role in midfield.
Attack rates: Thiago (7/10), De Bruyne (9/10), Pogba (6/10)
DEFENSIVE STATISTICS
Usually the deepest of the three, Liverpool’s Thiago is the best defensive player having shown follow-up skills for Bayern Munich last season.
Since the start of the 2019-20 campaign, the Spaniard has led the way in interceptions, tackles and recoveries against his two rivals. Liverpool’s new number six also averages more successful tackles (1.84) per game than De Bruyne (1.44) and Pogba (1.31).
That said, De Bruyne has still shown that he has good defensive deeds in terms of pressure.
As the Belgian is often on the upper end of the field, it must be part of Guardiola’s intense pressure style that was discovered when the Spanish coach was in Barcelona in the early 2010s.
Thiago (right) also has the best defensive stats in terms of interceptions and tackles.
Since last August, De Bruyne won the ball in the last third on 37 occasions, twice as Thiago, while Pogba only did it five times.
While the Manchester United man has weaker stats than the other two players due to his long-term injury problems and growing transfer speculation last season, one area Pogba excels in is not allowing his opponents to dribble him. .
Since last August, the French World Cup winner has been defeated only 10 times, with an average of 0.52 times per game. De Bruyne and Thiago were dribbled twice per game, proving that the 6-foot-2 frame is a useful asset for United.
Defensive ratings: Thiago 9/10, De Bruyne 8/10, Pogba 7/10
One area in which Pogba excels is not allowing his opponents to easily dribble him.
PASSING STATISTICS
Once again, Thiago is imposed from the point of view of passage.
Liverpool’s new star has a passing accuracy of 90.5 percent, having played just 106 fewer passes than De Bruyne in the past 12 months, who is accurate 81.3 percent of the time.
Thiago also averages more passes per game (75) than Pogba (61) and De Bruyne (53). His desire to get on the ball and give it to other teammates was clearly seen in his debut for Jurgen Klopp’s team, as he outscored every Chelsea player on the pitch despite only playing 45 minutes.
Thiago’s Liverpool debut showed why he is one of the best progressors and passers
However, De Bruyne attempts harder passes, so his passing success rate is lower.
The Spanish midfielder has also managed to make roughly the same number of passes in the last third (256) as Manchester City’s (276) despite playing fewer games than De Bruyne and also taking a deeper position in midfield.
This implies that Thiago is as good at finding attacking players from his more defensive position than De Bruyne, who plays higher up the field.
One possible reason for De Bruyne’s inferiority in this department is due to the type of passes he makes. The Belgian is much more ambitious in this regard thanks to his slightly longer, elevated and floating balls, while Thiago likes to play with his feet.
Pogba can boast that he has a better passing success rate than Manchester City’s De Bruyne
The Belgian has made a whopping 447 passes to the penalty area since last August, a figure that includes crosses that are naturally riskier to make. On the other hand, Thiago made only 53 of these passes while Pogba managed 52.
The passing statistics of the Manchester United midfielder are more difficult to analyze given that he only played 19 games. That said, he did achieve a better passing success rate (84 percent) than De Bruyne.
Passing Ratings: Thiago 9/10, De Bruyne 9/10, Pogba 7/10
TOTAL: Thiago 25/30, De Bruyne 26/30, Pogba: 20/30
