The Player Analyst

Lucas Da Cunha

Cesc Fabregas’ Como side have been a huge success this season, already cementing European football and even having the chance of Champion’s League qualification, with the inconsistencies of the giants above them. Coverage of this success however, has been largely limited to Cesc’s versatile tactics or Madridista wonderkid Nico Paz’s outstanding displays, leaving many players in the shadows. Most of all, their club captain Lucas Da Cunha.

An ex-winger, transformed into one of the best dictators in the league, Da Cunha operates as part of Como’s double pivot. Using the ‘Gradient’ grading metrics, Da Cunha has the 10th highest ball-control grade of all Serie A midfielders and some of the quickest feet too. He completes 90% of his passes per 90’, whilst constantly looking to start attacks from deep. An elegant footballer, diminutive but impossible to press, he’s the one that makes his Como side tick over.

James Hill

Eli Kroupi, Alex Scott, Adrien Truffert, Marcos Senesi, Rayan and many, many more. Bournemouth have had a season full of emerging excellence, crediting towards their superb scouting network and transfer strategy. The player in question today, has been a late-bloomer for the season, but fundamental to his club in their current 16-game unbeaten run in the Premier League.

On Gradient, Hill ranks as the 5th highest defender for 50/50 duels in the league, with a grading of 82.9. He excels in his reading of the game, dispossessing opponents before they even attempt to get past him. His decision making is elite at only 24, both defensively and offensively, having made 137 interceptions, 19 blocks and providing 3 assists. A defender ahead of his years, unfortunate not to be considered more for a spot on England’s plane to the U.S this summer.

Serge Gnabry

Bayern’s acquisitions of Michael Olise and Luis Diaz on either wing take the headlines immediately. After years of rotation with the likes of Leroy Sane and Kingsley Coman, it was fresh faces for Gnabry to compete with. However, Musiala’s season-ending injury and Thomas Muller’s inevitable exit left a central gap in the Bayern squad. Lennart Karl emerged, but Serge Gnabry stepped up as the senior man to glue his team’s attacks together.

Ranking as the 3rd best ball-carrying midfielder in the league this season (via Gradient), Gnabry has been deployed more often as a second-man to Kane to compliment the Englishman’s rotational playstyle. Kane drops, Gnabry drives. Diaz cuts in, Gnabry pushes wide. Whilst this sounds simple, it proves incredibly effective for Bayern, who broke their league-goalscoring record this season, currently tallying 117 with a single game to go. The German international has only made 21 appearances this season, but with 14 G+A, he has been clinical. If it wasn’t for many knocks and injuries, Bayern’s longest-serving current forward would have gained the media attention he still deserves.