Do the stats back up popular opinion on Leeds United’s best midfielder?

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Leeds have become a strong midfield unit and many of their Player of the Year contenders are from the engine room, so do the facts back up opinion?

Teenagers Lewis Cook and Alex Mowatt have been lauded as the breakthrough players in this season’s Sky Bet Championship, with both receiving the plaudits for hauling Leeds away from the bottom of the table. In truth, it is the formation change made by head coach Neil Redfearn in January that has been responsible for Leeds’ 2015 upturn in form.

This created two holding midfielders and three more attacking midfielders in a 4-2-3-1 formation that also added more width to Leeds’ play. However, while Cook and Mowatt have shone, and Sam Byram and Luke Murphy have been influential, the remaining two midfielders utilised at length this season – Rodolph Austin and Tommaso Bianchi – have also made telling contributions.

Both Austin and Bianchi have been criticised at times, but the stats show their passing accuracy (80% and 82% respectively) and tackles won percentages (81% and 83% respectively) are up their with the younger quartet of Murphy, Mowatt, Cook and Byram.

Cook has been praised for his tigerish tackling, but a tackles won percentage of 69 is the lowest of the six midfielders and shows that he needs to improve on that. Leeds fans will be wary of the stats in this case, as Cook’s desire and combative spirit have warmed the hearts this season and fans will certainly be sympathetic to the raw nature of Cook’s game in his first season of professional football.

Earlier in the season, however, Bianchi in particular was widely discussed as having fantastic Opta stats, which didn’t necessarily lead to materially effective performances on the pitch. Bianchi’s absence through injury in recent weeks has not adversely affected Leeds, which appears to bear that out.

Where the stats probably do back up popular opinion is that Rodolph Austin is frequently wayward in his shooting (shooting accuracy of 28%), albeit he attempts a shot a lot more often than anybody else. Also, Tommaso Bianchi and Lewis Cook are considerably more shot shy. Meanwhile, Sam Byram and Alex Mowatt should perhaps be encouraged to shoot more often as they have the best shooting accuracy (38% and 39% respectively).

Overall, the stats probably favour Alex Mowatt as the most all-round performer in midfield, and although his tackles attempted stats are the lowest of the group, it could be argued his game is based on other factors and that element of the team is best left to others. In this case the stats certainly skew the argument a little as the best midfield units have players with different attributes that compliment each other.

Certainly, the stats do show that Leeds have a very effective midfield unit that if kept together next season, and added to with more of a cutting edge in wide and forward areas, promises much for the West Yorkshire side.