The best players in La Liga so far according to stats

The La Liga season is heading towards its business end and it has already thrown up plenty of surprises and new performers. As always, there are also the usual consistent performers like Luis Suarez, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi who find themselves near the top for goals scored and assists.

While goal scoring and the assist leaderboard is predictably dominated by the Real Madrid and Barcelona players, the tackles leaderboard does not feature even a single player from the two Spanish giants. Without much ado, let us take a look into the top scorers, assist leaderboard, highest pass % accuracy and the tackles leaderboard of La Liga at the end of February.

Top Scorers

The La Liga is heading towards the business end with 24 matches being played already (23 in the case of Real Madrid). Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Cristiano Ronaldo are predictably the frontrunners in the race for the pichichi award.

What makes this list interesting is the fact that unfancied players like Iago Aspas, Sergi Enrich and Gerard Moreno also make the top 10. Some big names also miss out on the top 10. Players like Neymar, Bale, Benzema and Morata who are expected to be on the list have not made it. While Bale has been injured for a large part of the campaign, Neymar, Benzema and Morata have not had their shooting boots on so far this season.

While Kevin Gameiro has not had the kind of impact expected from him, his 9 goals still sees him make it to the top 10. Here are the top 10 goalscorers in La Liga so far:

Rank	Player	Team	Number of goals
1	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	20
2	Luis Suarez	Barcelona	18
3	Cristiano Ronaldo	Real Madrid	16
4	Iago Aspas	Celta Vigo	13
5	Sergi Enrich	Eibar	10
6	Willian Jose	Real Sociedad	9
6	Antoine Griezmann	Atletico Madrid	9
6	Kevin Gameiro	Atletico Madrid	9
6	Gerard Moreno	Espanyol	9
10	Ruben Castro	Real Betis	8

Assist Leaderboard

While the goalscorers run away with all the plaudits, the ones who set up the goals also deserve a lot of credit. Luis Suarez and Toni Kroos head the list while other famous players on this list are Neymar and Antoine Griezmann.

Suarez and Griezmann are the only 2 players who are in the top 10 of both the goal scorers and assist leaderboard. Some surprising names on this list are Isco and Nani. Isco has struggled for playtime in the League this season, but he has still managed to bag 5 assists. Valencia, on the other hand, have really struggled this season but Nani has been his usual creative self and makes it to the top 10.

Here are the top 10 players with most assists so far in the La Liga.

Rank	Player	Club	Assists
1	Luis Suarez	Barcelona	9
1	Toni Kroos	Real Madrid	9
3	Pablo Piatti	Valencia	7
3	Neymar	Barcelona	7
5	Antoine Griezmann	Atletico Madrid	6
5	Nani	Valencia	6
5	Marcelo	Real Madrid	6
8	Isco	Real Madrid	5
8	Mikel Oyarzabal	Real Sociedad	5
10	Angel Correa	Atletico Madrid	5

Highest pass accuracy %

Unsurprisingly not many of the assists leaderboard make it to this list as they would have attempted certain risky passes in order to set up their team-mates. Most of the players on this list are either defensive midfielders or centre-backs whose main job is to circulate the ball and keep possession.

This can be seen from the fact that Sevilla’s defensive midfielder Matias Kranevitter is on top of this list. The 23-year-old is on loan from Atletico Madrid and has done a tidy job whenever he has got the chance for Sevilla.

This list is dominated by Real Madrid and Barcelona players with Barcelona having 3 representatives and Real Madrid having 4. From Real Madrid, Toni Kroos, Mateo Kovacic, Isco and Nacho make it while from Barcelona, Umtiti, Mascherano and Rafinha feature.

Here are the top 10 players with the highest percentage of pass accuracy:

Rank	Player	Team	Pass accuracy %
1	Matias Kranevitter	Sevilla	93
1	Samuel Umtiti	Barcelona	93
3	Rafinha	Barcelona	92
3	Nacho	Real Madrid	92
3	Toni Kroos	Real Madrid	92
6	Javier Mascherano	Barcelona	91
6	Roque Mesa	Las Palmas	91
6	Mateo Kovacic	Real Madrid	91
9	Bruno Soriano	Villarreal	90
9	Isco	Real Madrid	90

Top Tacklers

Tackling is one of the most important parts of the game and these players have not been afraid to put their foot in and win the ball back for their respective teams. A peculiar aspect of this list is the fact that not even a single Real Madrid and Barcelona player make it to the top 10.

Real Betis’ Petros is on top of the tackler’s list while promising Real Madrid youngster Marcos Llorente who is on loan at Deportivo Alaves is at number 2. Other famous footballers on this list are Atletico Madrid’s Filipe Luis and Real Sociedad’s Asier Illaramendi.

Here are the top 10 tacklers in La Liga so far:

Rank	Player	Team	Number of Tackles
1	Petros	Real Betis	67
2	Marcos Llorente	Deportivo Alaves	61
3	Ignacio Camacho	Malaga	57
4	Roberto Rosales	Malaga	55
5	Gabi	Atletico Madrid	53
5	Filipe Luis	Atletico Madrid	53
5	Asier Illaramendi	Real Sociedad	53
8	Oier Mate	Osasuna	52
9	Dani Garcia	Eibar	51
10	Sergio Alvarez Diaz	Sporting Gijon	49