Going to drift into the middle of the pitch now and take a look at what's become the most important position on just about every MLS team - The Central Midfielder.
First up, a couple housekeeping items:
1. These lists were created July 24th and do not include games after that. It wouldn't move needles that much but does impact any stats you might see.
2. This is my third positional evaluation. Right Mids HERE and Left Backs HERE.
3. Ages are rounded. So if you are 33.6 then it's 34. Just ease of use.
4. Rank is determined by the average of the Helltown Player Rank and WhoScored.
TOP CENTRAL MIDS
Modern metrics and stats are built around these players. They do a little bit of everything so spreadsheets absolutely love them. In year's gone by, stats loved forwards because it was easy to track. Goals, assists. These days is dozens of measurements in Aerials Won, Dribbles, Key Passes, Dispossessed's. So, congratulations central mids, you're getting paid.
As mentioned in previous posts, you can see a couple from the same team because the position assigned to them is the one they play most often, not necessarily the one they are pegged to play. Almost all the top players here are in the Helltown and WhoScored top 50.
28: Median Age of all Central Mids on this list
$1,013,551: Median salary of the players on this list
NOTABLES
Mark-Anthony Kaye Bob Bradley has found a solid player in this Canadian. There's nothing spectacular on his resume. No youth career in Spain or Argentina. He was with Toronto for a bit, collect for a couple years. Played for Louisville in the USL. Along with Eduard Atuesta (who plays more central a bit with Kaye to the left of him), he works. He salary being ridiculously low puts him top of my list.
Eduard Atuesta 5th on WhoScored list, 6th on mine. This 22-year-old is likely not going to be in MLS for much longer. His formative years were with Independiente Medellín, then straight to MLS. LAFC signed him at a great wage.
Alejandro Pozuelo Neat pickup for Toronto from Seville, Andalusia with loads of experience in top leagues. Opta loves him and I'm sure his teammates do too. His salary is steep, but players like him (known) come at that price.
WHOSCORED RATING
Here's their average rating on the season. Anything over 7.25 is outstanding. Important to remember that there are 24 teams in MLS and 20 players here.
Final note: Paxton Pomykal is in some pretty good company and having an outstanding season with Dallas. He's 19 and played at every US National team age group (pretty much). I'm sure he's getting attention from overseas.
