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Comparing the Premier League’s Top Playmakers

With all the money in the Premier League nowadays, all of the top teams are able to acquire top players in all positions.  Often when bigger teams go to smaller sides the smaller sides will know they can’t outplay these rich top teams, so they go to defend deep and make themselves hard to score against.  When this happens, the big clubs need show their class unlocking those defences with their classy creative players.  All top teams need top playmakers to unlock compact defences and make the difference in games where the rest of the team isn’t at it.

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We’ve seen over the course of the season that the top creative players make the difference.  Whether it was Mesut Ozil’s free kick at the weekend, Coutinho’s wonder goals, David Silva’s goals and assists, Juan Mata’s magical performance against Liverpool, or Oscar performing for Chelsea, those big time creative midfielders have the ability to change a game and change a season.

All the top teams have them and the performance of those top playmakers can often make a difference in where each team finishes and make the difference when the teams face off against each other.  Just in three of the latest three “big games” the playmakers have made huge differences.  When Liverpool played Manchester City, it was a Coutinho wonder strike that made the difference, when Manchester United traveled to Liverpool it was two Juan Mata goals that made the difference, and in Arsenal’s win against Liverpool Mesut Ozil scored the second goal and his cross field pass helped make the first goal.

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Obviously a Squawka comparison graphic doesn’t tell the whole story when comparing players, but, based on said graphic, you’d say that David Silva has been the playmaker with the most impact this season and, I’m not sure too many people would disagree.  With Yaya Toure being inconsistent, Vincent Kompany being awful, and Sergio Aguero being hurt, David Silva is the man that has kept the Manchester City team afloat this year.  He creates the most chances per 90 minutes among the group and only Mesut Ozil comes close to rivaling him in that category.  Mesut Ozil looks like the clear number two in this comparison because, despite only leading in one category, he comes in the top two in all of the categories.  Again, it’s hard to argue with that considering how good Ozil has been since coming back from injury.  Since he has come back he has been one of Arsenal’s best players and has arguably been the gunners best player in attack since the new year.  The last three are all very close and it’s hard to choose between them.  They are all slightly different players and that shows in the stats.  Coutinho is more of a dribbler than any of the others, while Mata is better at dictating play.  Oscar is slightly unlucky in these kind of comparisons because his creativity is often hindered by the system he plays in and his defensive contribution is fantastic.

The biggest gap between smaller sides and big sides is players like your David Silva’s and Meust Ozil’s that can make all the difference.  These are the players that can decide matches with one moment of magic and they are players that the top sides need to have performing and need to have performing better than their rivals big players.

thejerseyfitz
thejerseyfitz
Follow me on twitter @The_Jersey_Fitz.
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