We were curious as to who were Europe's most well-rounded CMs and ended up doing a data-centric deep dive.

I looked at 4 phases; Defending, Build-Up, Creativity and Final Third impact, as well as their ability to transition from one phase to another.

Cant stress this enough:
1) This doesn't mean that Player x is better than Player y.
2) These stats won't tell the whole story as one needs to consider the role they play for their team and how that would limit a player in a certain phase.

1) Defending:

Casemiro
Joaquin Fernandez
Marco Verratti

- Casemiro dominant in Def Actions.
- Verratti excels in PAdj Tkls.
- Joaquin Fernandez benefits from having played CB at times.

2) Build-Up Play:

Thiago
Verratti
Kovacic

- Difference between Thiago and Verratti negligible and skewed by Offensive Duels Succ.
- Marco Verratti Succ Fwd Pss
- Kovacic excels in his Offensive Duels.

Comparing both of the previous metrics would give us an idea each players style as a Deep Lying Midfielder.

- Most of the usual names towards the top.
- Idrissa Gueye one of the more surprising names.
- Arthur very high in Build-Up but extremely low when looking at defending.

3) Creativity & Chance Creation:

KDB
Luis Alberto
Pellegrini

- KDB & Luis Alberto are monsters.
- Silva & Cazorla showing they still got it.

Next up, we look at how each midfielder would fare in a slightly more advanced role and how they would transition between Build-Up and Chance Creation.

- KDB takes a small hit as he's not as involved in BU.
- Luis Alberto combines both the best.

4) Final Third Impact:

KDB
Silva
Alberto

- KDB & Alberto again.
- Silva comes in second, partially helped by his reduced minutes & selective involvement.
- As expected, most names in Top 10 play in slightly more advanced roles.

Next, we looked at how each midfielder would fare in a more advanced midfield role. Notice how correlated both phases are.

As an extra, we were curious to see which player had the highest composite score of all 4 phases:

1) Locatelli
2) Alberto
3) Busquets
4) Milinkovic-Savic
5) Kroos

(This of course doesn't mean much due to the differing roles, it was more out of interest)

Thoughts & Suggestions on how to improve this model would be greatly appreciated!