We’ve been taking another look through the FotMob stats for Europe’s top five leagues. This time, we’ve focused on the search for this season’s flair players, the guys who get the fans going and love to run at opposition defences with the ball at their feet.
?? Bundesliga
First up, it’s maybe the surprising discovery that Bayern München’s mercurial midfielder, Thiago completes the most dribbles per match, on average in the whole Bundesliga.
To temper that, he actually shares the same average as his Canadian teammate, Alphonso Davies – who’s marauding performances from left-back have lit up a number of big games this season. Thiago however, is supposedly playing a more reserved role in midfield. But then, he was once described by Pep Guardiola as having three, four or five best positions. It seems he can just do it all!
?? Serie A
In Italy, Sassuolo’s Jeremie Boga stands head and shoulders above all comers – successfully completing at least one more run than anyone else, per match.
Despite his side sitting 11th in Serie A, the French-born, Ivorian international has been in such eye-catching form that Premier League club Chelsea – where Boga was an academy product are rumoured to be interesting in taking him back to London.
??????? Premier League
Back in January, Wolverhampton Wanderer’s star winger, Adama Traoré claimed he doesn’t do any weight training but anyone who’s seen the way he bullies opponents when he’s running down the wing may call that in to question.
The Spaniard has provided 7 assists and scored 4 himself in the English Premier League, whilst also producing more dribbles, per game than Wilfried Zaha, perhaps the best known flair player in the division.
?? La Liga
This one shouldn’t be a surprise, after all we dedicated a whole article to Messi’s outrageous La Liga stats from the 2019/20 season – right here!
No one else has come close to taking on defences as many times a game as arguably, the league’s best ever player. Nabil Fekir, in his first season with Real Betis perhaps deserves a mention – he has the second best average, whilst Eibar’s Fabián Orellana is next best, despite the Chilean’s near-veteran status.
?? Ligue 1
We often see arguments online about the relative merits of the top flight in France, but that’s not something we’re going to touch here. The statistics show that Neymar not only successfully completes the most dribbles, per match than any other player in Ligue 1 but also across any of Europe’s top leagues.
Does that make him the best dribbler on the continent this season? We’ll let you debate that one amongst yourselves but an average of 6 completed runs per game is pretty healthy, whatever league you play in.
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