Serie B Midfielder Of The Season
2021/22: The fans had their say. It’s time for the stats.
Games are won or lost in midfield. We equally enjoy seeing a goal scored from long range as much as we do a crunching tackle. The give-and-go from a pacey Mezz’Ala can be the decisive factor in slicing through a defence.
Whether it’s a ball winner, deep-lying playmaker, mezz’ala, external or attacking midfielder, or box-to-box, there are plenty of roles that a Centrocampista must adapt to depending on the situation.
Ecco. It’s time to sift through the Italian second tier to find out which midfielders made the difference in 2021/22.
Before we begin, here is a link to the Lega B TOP XI as chosen by fans on Twitter. The three-man midfield consists of Nicolò Fagioli (Cremonese), Morten Hjulman (Lecce) in the double-pivot roles with Gianluca Gaetano (Cremonese) more advanced up the park.
This article is dedicated to choosing the best Midfielder in the Italian second division.
Criteria
Candidates must have played a minimum of 25 games (roughly two-thirds of the 38 games) in Serie B. Forwards and wingers are covered in the Best Forwards of Serie B edition.
Therefore, 74 midfielders qualified. Here’s a list of each club’s most influential midfielder in 2021/22.
Here are some data points for most minutes, goals, assists, shots, tackles and games.
Best Pivots
Coaches love a gritty central midfielder who can sit in front of the backline, win possession and initiate play. Morten Hjulmand was decisive for Lecce throughout the campaign and the data backs this up.
In terms of endurance, the Dane started on 36 occasions to become the division’s most played midfielder along with Como’s Alessandro Bellemo.
On the other hand, Bellemo excelled in his first full season of Serie B. The Lariani captain led the way at ground level with 57 ball-winning tackles — two ahead of Hjulmand and Cittadella’s Simone Branca.
Marius Marin of Pisa battered his opponents most often, committing the most fouls from midfield (78) while Lichtenstein international, Marcel Büchel of Ascoli completed the most intercepts (66) ahead of Adam Nagy (61), Hjulmand (59) and Bellemo (51).
Of the 29 players that qualified as Defensive Midfielders, 25 of those are Italians. Finland, Lichtenstein, Denmark, Switzerland and Hungary were also represented.
U23 DM/CM Contenders: Nicolò Fagioli (Cremonese), Filippo Ranocchia (Vicenza), Salvatore Esposito (SPAL), Jacopo Da Riva (SPAL), Simon Sohm (Parma), Marco Carraro (Cosenza), Andrea Colpani (Monza), Alessandro Cortinovis (Reggina).
Nicolò Fagioli was a big feature of Cremonese’s first promotion to Serie A in three decades. With 26 starts, the 20-year-old pumped out 2,186 minutes of high-intensity football, more than starlets Alessandro Cortinovis (1,463) and Andrea Colpani (1,677).
Overall, the Lega Football pivot of the year is Morten Hjulmand with 3,200 minutes of dogged determination and pure class. Into the Best XI he goes.
Best Mezz’Ala
Serie B is made for powerful runners that are decisively skillful on and off the ball and in this 4–2–3–1 formation we’re looking for an all-rounder that can slot in beside Hjulmand.
Let’s see if there’s a box-to-box or wider midfielder that’s suitable.
Another component that’s critical to locate the head of a big centre forward is crossing. Antonio Palumbo of Ternana led the way with 198 for the season, followed by Salvatore Burrai (167) of Perugia and Tomasso Arrigoni (153) of Como, although a fair few of these were set pieces.
Gianluca Gaetano was instrumental for Cremonese, playing mainly as a central or left-sided midfielder that could push up to create and supply, scoring 7 times and assisting on 5 occasions. There’s definitely a spot for Gaetano in this XI.
Then there’s Benevento’s talisman, Gennaro Acampora. Following his Serie A experience with Spezia the Neapolitan tore apart opponents with surging 30-metre-runs as La Strega’s protagonist from the middle with 2 goals and a whopping 8 assists thanks to his ability to assess situations and time incisive passes to perfection.
So it’s Acampora who edges out the likes of Fagioli, Bellemo, Palumbo, Bisoli and Barberis.
u23 Midfielder mentions: Tommaso Milanese (Alessandria), Massimo Bertagnoli (Brescia), Fabrizio Caligara (Ascoli), Tom van de Looi (Brescia), Daniel Boloca (Frosinone), Marius Marin (Pisa), Salvatore Esposito (SPAL).
u23 Mezz’Ala and Wide mentions: Gabriele Ferrarini (Perugia), Michele Collocolo (Ascoli), Alessio Tribuzzi (Frosinone), Aldo Florenzi (Cosenza), Mehdi Leris (Brescia) 2 goals, Pedro Pereira (Monza), Idrissa Touré (Pisa).
Midfielder of the Season 2021/22
Gianluca Gaetano wins the award after a breakout season that Cremonese fans will remember for years to come. Owned by Napoli, perhaps Luciano Spalletti may want to hang on to him for the 2022/23 season.
U23 Best Midfielder of Serie B
Nicolò Fagioli claims this one. The Juventus-owned prodigy was outstanding for Le Tigre across the year. Here are the selections for the U23 Best XI.
Most Goals from Midfield (as a club)
Brescia and Monza share the title with 16 collective goals. La Leonessa and the Brianzoli flourished with six contributors each as Dimitri Bisoli notched up 5 for Brescia while Andrea Colpani (5) and José Machín (4) conducted business for Monza.
SPAL did exceptionally well considering their final league standing as their midfielders — piloted by Marco Mancosu with 6 — tallied up 15 goals. Federico Viviani’s splendid free kick was a contender for the goal of the season.
Moving forward, we will examine the best attackers and coaches of Serie B 2021/22.
Read about the Serie B Goalkeeper of the Season 2021/22.
You can listen to the podcast dedicated to the Serie B Defender of the Season here.
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