Premier League 2018-19: 5 Best Central Midfielders This Season

#2 Fernandinho

The engine behind Manchester City's success

Pep Guardiola has built a trademark, exquisite setup at Manchester City. However, the key to its success lies at hands of a Brazilian midfielder in whose absence their season stumbled to quite an extent. Fernandinho carries out the role right in front of the central defensive duo to utmost perfection.

He is quite literally the man whose presence is directly detrimental to how City would perform on that given day. Firstly, like most of the midfielders on this list, Fernandinho has an exceptional acumen of the game.

His sense of positioning is accurate almost every time and he does not refrain from resorting to tactical fouls whenever he is caught off-guard too.

He screens City’s defensive line by breaking down the opposition’s offensive moves and is a tireless worker, covering every blade of grass to ensure that his adversaries never have a free run at the backline.

From an offensive perspective, he is quite able to initiate attacks on his own, by either moving it swiftly to the wings or playing some sumptuous through-balls, which needles past the midfield to reach the required person.

Fernandinho has scored once and assisted thrice this season, but his importance to City is beyond these numbers. He is the focal point around whom the whole team functions so beautifully.