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#3 Mateo Kovacic – Chelsea
From being a fringe player at Real Madrid to establishing himself as an indispensable star for Chelsea, Mateo Kovacic has surely come a long way.
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Having won three Champions League titles with Los Blancos, the Croat first signed for Chelsea on loan in 2018. He produced scintillating football in his debut season at Stamford Bridge, which compelled the Blues to make his transfer permanent in 2019.
Since 2018, Kovacic has played 170 games for the west London outfit, scoring only four times. The numbers look mediocre even for a defender, let alone a central midfielder. Yet, Chelsea fans cannot seem to have enough of their midfield maestro.
Kovacic’s game is not about goals and assists. It is about connecting midfield with attack. He spends his time closing down channels, opening up new ones, and carrying the ball from midfield to attack.
Without him, the Blues have a hard time dominating the midfield and struggle to create clear-cut goalscoring opportunities.
#2 Toni Kroos – Real Madrid
Arguably the most consistent player on our list today, Toni Kroos is the unchallenged metronome of Real Madrid. While Luka Modric acts as a box-to-box midfielder, Kroos varies the team's tempo, making sure the opposition do not get the opportunity to dominate proceedings.
Nicknamed “The Sniper,” Kroos is an immaculate passer of the ball. Even on a bad day, he tends to attain 90 percent passing accuracy, finding his teammates with unimaginable ease.
While many criticize the German for not being adventurous enough in the final third, we believe their expectations are misguided.
For the 2014 World Cup winner, it has never been about eye-catching football, it has always been about taking an efficient and grounded approach.
Kroos has always taken comfort in simplicity, and the five-time Champions League winner has been aptly rewarded for it.
#1 Roberto Firmino – Liverpool
Liverpool forward Roberto Firmino has often been criticized for not scoring enough.
Since his €41million switch to Anfield from Hoffenheim in 2015, the Brazilian has scored 95 times in 316 games, which is hardly a satisfactory return for a striker. However, as always, there’s more to the story than meets the eye.
At Liverpool, Firmino has rarely been the primary goal-getter. Yes, he tends to take up a central role, but Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah have easily been more trigger-happy than the Brazil international.
The forward has put his goalscoring on the back burner, focusing on linking up, drawing defenders away, and bringing the wingers into play.
Of course, this selfless approach does not always work, especially when the wingers are heavily marked. To solve the conundrum, Liverpool have brought in Diogo Jota, who is the definition of a one-track-minded centre-forward.
Firmino may not feature as regularly as in his early days at Liverpool anymore, but he remains an integral part of Klopp’s well-oiled title-challenging machine.
