u down with obv: defensive midfielders

We’re finally done with defenders (well, sort of) so it’s time to take a step higher up the pitch and look at 2023’s deep-lying midfielders. StatsBomb categorizes them all as ‘defensive midfielders’, but some teams played a single pivot, some played a double pivot, some prioritized defense, some playmaking, some both, and some just kinda vibed out and fielded these players in several other positions.

So we’re gonna broaden it off top because there’s a ton of variety in the list. And like we’ve seen with other positional OBV rankings, variety is fun to dissect, and the data can hint at whether a tradeoff between certain skills was worth it or not.