5 midfielders who have outscored forwards this season in Europe's Top 5 leagues
If there’s one thing a manager with an attacking philosophy loves more than a goalscoring forward, it is a goalscoring midfielder. While forwards continue to break goalscoring records and earn all the plaudits, most midfielders are reduced to either supplying the final ball or doing the dirty work in midfield.
Just look at the two La Liga giants this season. Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez have scored 27 and 24 league goals respectively but no midfielder has scored more than six. At Real Madrid, only Isco has seven goals – the same as Sergio Ramos. Stars such as Neymar and Karim Benzema have struggled and scored just nine goals each.
However, a few teams have seen their midfielders score more goals than most strikers or forwards have done this season. We take a look at the top five goalscoring midfielders.
#5 Serge Gnabry (Werder Bremen): 10 goals
Although Gnabry has been deployed as a forward on more than one occasion in Werder Bremen’s ever-changing formation, he is technically an attacking midfielder. The 21-year-old can play across the midfield and generally plays on the left of midfield in a 4-1-4-1 or 4-4-2 formation.
The former Arsenal youngster was one player Arsene Wenger did not want to let go. But competition with Alexis Sanchez for the same position effectively ended Gnabry’s hopes of starting games and he rejected a contract extension to sign with Bremen.
The River Islanders had a terrible start to the season and looked consigned to relegation but have slowly clawed their way back up the table. And it is Gnabry they have to thank for their improved performances. He has regularly been on the scoresheet and has scored 10 goals this season – the last two in a brace in a 2-1 win over Wolfsburg.
Among the top 10 goalscorers in the Bundesliga, Gnabry is the only midfielder among the likes of Robert Lewandowski, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and Anthony Modeste. What’s more, he has scored the same number of goals as Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez.
With the pace to get in behind the defence and also score from long range, Arsenal fans will be left to rue what could have been had he still been at the club.