Arsenal’s new signing Thomas Partey is one of the much-discussed names in a conversation involving the best midfield destroyers in the world, but his stats circulating on Twitter suggest that he is much more than just that.
Though the Ghanaian is revered and acknowledged mostly for winning the ball back for his team, his stats in the Champions League from last season for show that he is also adept at dictating the game from midfield.
Partey ranked first in multiple parameters playing in midfield for his previous employers Atletico Madrid: he made the most number of tackles for the Rojiblancos in Europe but also had the most number of touches, which shows that he is a lot more than just an elite tackler.
An underrated part of his repertoire includes his ball progressing and creative ability: as he completed the highest number of passes made into the final third and created the most number of chances from open play for his team.
Partey is also not shy to take a chance at finding the goal, as he ranked third highest amongst Diego Simeone’s squad for number of shots taken last season. To sum it all up, the 27-year old is not only exceptionally good at what he does the best: but offers a lot more than just that.
Mikel Arteta was looking to add some steel in midfield for the North London outfit, and league stats from last season suggest that he might have found the man with the perfect repertoire to boost his side to a different dimension.
Partey is seen to be easily outclassing his new competitors in midfield in plenty of parameters including goals, tackles, interceptions, recoveries, duels won and dribbles completed based on last season.
Compared to statistically the most efficient dribbler in England last season in Mateo Kovacic, he has a 86.5% dribbling success rate in the league last season: 0.2% more than Kovacic who attempted and completed a greater number of dribbles.
Amongst all the other high-profile signings in midfield completed by a lot of teams in the Premier League this season, Thomas Partey’s £45m acquisition might prove to be one of the more influential ones throughout the course of the season.
Arsenal have longed for someone who can screen the defence and break down attacks for them for a number of years now, and it looks like they now have one of the very best in the world when it comes to doing that: keeping aside his very underrated ability to dictate the game from midfield.
