The most effective midfield passers in Premier League

We've all heard of midfield crabs and sideways pass masters, but it's not often we enthuse over the other side of the game, those players that make every pass count.

With the help of FBref.com, we're able to take their stats on forward passes, key passes and assists and compare them to players' total passes, to work out which midfielders use the ball most progressively and efficiently across the Premier League.

It’s no surprise that Marcelo Bielsa’s boys love getting the ball forward, with 26.2% of Ian Carlo Poveda’s passes progressive, followed by Pablo Hernandez (20.7%) and Raphinha (20.5%).

When it comes to more central midfielders who receive the ball more often, Davy Propper impresses with 19.4%, while Kevin De Bruyne unsurprisingly sits sixth on 16.5%, but perhaps more shocking is John McGinn just behind on an eye-catching 16.4%.

Moving things onto key passes per pass, Jack Grealish steals the show with 9.7% of his passes leading to a shot, while Raphinha is once again close behind on 8.7%, interestingly followed by Newcastle’s Joe Willock on 8.1%.

And when it comes to assists per pass, Said Benrahama leads the way as 1.62% of his passes are an assist, closely followed by Allan Saint-Maximin 1.58%, and then Leeds feature heavily again with Helder Costa on 1.58% and Tyler Roberts on 1.43%.

Bielsa has divided opinion between some this season, but it's fair to say his high intensity football is undoubtedly fun to watch, with a raft of classy midfielders using the ball in a superbly efficient fashion.