Barella the best midfielder in Serie A 2020/2021

Nicolò Barella was the best midfielder in Serie A in 2020/2021. The award, the winner of which was announced by the Lega Serie A today, came after a campaign to remember for our number 23. Barella was key in the Nerazzurri winning Scudetto number 19.

Barella (1997) has just completed his second season with Inter, and made 36 appearances in Serie A and scored three goals: against Cagliari, Juventus and Fiorentina.

Lega Serie A cited some stats as part of the announcement:

• Barella was an incredibly consistent performer both in Technical (94.2%) and Physical (94.8%) Efficiency.

• He was the Serie A player with the highest pressing value (95.5%) - a testament to his tenacity.

• He is always among the players with the most distance covered; Barella completed 3.4km per game at a high intensity, 27 spirints and 65 sharp accelerations.

• Barella registered excellent ratings for both ball retention (K-Pass 93%) and choices in-game (K-Solution 93%).

• Furthermore, Barella completed over 60% of the passes that were rated as medium to high difficulty.

Barella will receive his award on the pitch ahead of matchday 1 of Serie A TIM 2021/22. He will also wear a special MVP patch on his shirt for league games next season.

(The classifications were drawn up using analysis provided by Stats Perform, which were created via data tracking recorded by Netco Sports. The rating system, patented in 2010 to K-Sport and scientifically validated, does not just consider statistics and technical prowess, but also positional data. As such, it provides analysis of crucial aspects of a player's performance - such as movement off the ball and therefore optimal movement - and their contribution to the technical and physical efficiency, which allows for an objective and qualitative evaluation of the performance. All games in Serie A TIM, the TIMVISION Cup and PS5 Supercup were factored into the final calculations.)