#TalentRadar Top 10 Young Midfielders // As part of our Talent Radar feature, we will regularly publish Player Rankings of Young Players divided across the four primary positions (goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders & forwards) and focusing on the 6 big leagues of Europe (Bundesliga, La Liga, Premier League, Serie A, Ligue 1 & Eredivisie).
Some FAQs worth reading just to clarify any doubts about this.
What is Talent Radar? Read this for complete details on the feature.
What is the eligibility criteria? Players that were aged 21 years and below on June 1st 2014, are eligible for Talent Radar.
How often will these be published? The rankings will be updated and published every fortnight, along with our Talent Radar Team of the Week.
On what basis are these rankings made? These rankings are purely based on our opinion of the players and their performances. Our opinions are based on various factors; if you do have a question/criticism/feedback about the inclusion/exclusion of a player, then do leave a comment below.
What’s the point of all this? Good question. Well for one thing, it’s fun (isn’t it?). Secondly, we always track the progress and performances of youngsters under our Talent Radar feature. Those who are featured here and in our weekly, monthly pieces, will also be recognised in our end of season Talent Radar Young Player Awards and ofcourse will also influence our hugely popular 100 Best Young Players to Watch list (at the end of the calendar year).
After taking it into consideration, we finally decided that wingers would be included in this list of midfielders rather than the list of forwards. It was under consideration because wingers/forwards are almost interchangeable often these days with their type of football. But we’ve gone with the traditional mode for the list of Young Midfielders. The problem with the midfielders listed is that most of them are rather inconsistent with their performances, making listing a Top 10 rather difficult.
More Talent Radar Player Rankings → // Goalkeepers // Defenders // Forwards
Some of the players above have had spectacular moments or even entire ninety minutes; the strange part though is that none of them have really been consistent and this fact is reflected in the lack of Team of the Week appearances from these young midfielders. More than one-of spectacular games, we are looking at consistency.
It is with that in mind that Marco Verratti has been put at top spot. He’s been the most solid midfielder with a proper assured game. He did have one glorious assist to Cavani’s goal in the second gameweek, clever work that but otherwise he has been rather consistent, providing balance to the side, something crucially needed as it has allowed the likes of Javier Pastore to just flourish in advanced areas.
Hakim Ziyech has either assisted, or scored, in each of the three Eredivisie games so far. Like the man at No.1, he has been consistent with his performances from his season starting at Heereveen to the new challenge at Twente. Diego Rolan had a quality two goal haul and he makes the Top 3 of this list. Raheem Sterling had quite a superb game against Southampton, finishing off Henderson’s lovely through ball but was well dealt with against Manchester City.
Zakaria Labyad too had one good game, getting on the scoresheet twice while the likes of Gianluca Gaudino have been impressive as well. It’s quite astonishing to note that Iker Munian is still eligible for Talent Radar, seems like he’s been around for ages. James Ward-Prowse’ crosses have been up to a peach, but he too hasn’t been overly spectacular or consistent.
This makes our first young midfielders’ list, admittedly there are flaws in this position but we’ll get better as we move forward. Very few games and thus lack of gametime/options for us.
| # | PLAYER | AGE | CLUB | NATIONALITY | TOTW |
| 1 | Marco Verratti | 21 | Paris Saint-Germain | Italy | 1 |
| 2 | Hakim Ziyech | 21 | Twente | Netherlands | 0 |
| 3 | Diego Rolan | 21 | Bordeaux | Uruguay | 1 |
| 4 | Raheem Sterling | 19 | Liverpool | England | 1 |
| 5 | Zakaria Labyad | 21 | Vitesse | Morocco | 1 |
| 6 | Gianelli Imbula | 21 | Marseille | France | 0 |
| 7 | Gianluca Gaudino | 17 | Bayern Munich | Germany | 1 |
| 8 | Iker Muniain | 21 | Athletic Bilbao | Spain | 0 |
| 9 | James Ward-Prowse | 19 | Southampton | England | 1 |
| 10 | Jordan Veretout | 21 | Nantes | France | 0 |
Next Week →
Written by Sami Faizullah. Chief Editor of this website.
