The Tier Lists - Midfielder Edition - GDS Football

Welcome to the third of our positional tier lists for GDS’ Football platform. In these tier lists we’ll rank the GDS options suitable to build your lineups for the 2025/26 season. The third edition is on midfielders.

The Midfielder Tier List

SUPERSTARS

Shockingly, the only four midfielders who finished last season in the top 20 GDS scorers make their way into the superstar tier along with an out of sorts Phil Foden, who was the Premier League’s 2023/24 player of the year. Foden is the first we’ll look at.

In his 20 starts (in 28 total games) Foden looked like a ghost of his 2023/24 self. Still only 24, going into last season, his star was expected to continue to rise, however fitness concerns along with other personal reasons resulted in heavy rotation and preference for others to him. Foden still put together solid numbers in attack with his seven goals, as he finished equal 22nd for crosses with 32. While he didn’t feature in the top 25 of other key statistics his 41 key passes, 16 shots on target and 35 fouls drawn were highlights. Expect a return to form in 2025/26 as he continues to perform early on in pre-season.

Bruno Fernandes (=21st), Cole Palmer (3rd), Bryan Mbeumo (=7th) and Erebechi Eze (=21st) displayed their attacking prowess with their shots on target, and also their goals scored with Fernandes (8), Palmer (15), Mbeumo (20) and Enzo Fernandez (6), Eze (8) each scoring over five goals. All five also assisted more than five times each with 10, 8, 7, 7 and 8 respectively.

Palmer, Mbeumo and Eze were the best dribblers of the group with Palmer finishing equal 18th with 43 successful dribbles, Mbeumo 13th with 50, while Eze was 8th with 60. Palmer was also 8th for fouls drawn with 60. Enzo (=14th with 54) and Eze (=20th with 51) were also amongst the fouls drawn.

All five players were among the league's best passers as they all finished in the top 25 for key passes with 81 for Fernandes (1st), 78 for Palmer (2nd), 68 for Enzo (4th), 63 for Mbeumo (5th) and 51 for Eze (=14th), while Fernandes (=5th), Palmer (=18th) and Mbeumo (3rd) also supplied the crosses.

On the defensive end, Fernandes was ranked equal 16th for tackles with 52, while Enzo had 43 blocks to finish equal 26th

BALLERS 

There’s intrigue around new teammates Kudus and Maddison this season after a stop start season for both as Kudus played 32 games, mainly due to a red card suspension, while Maddison fell out of favour with former manager Postecoglu in his 21 starts in 31 appearances. Kudus led the dribbling for the league (with Jeremy Doku) while playing for West Ham and drew the 5th most fouls. Maddison on the other hand still managed to hit seven assists and equalled Kudus for fouls drawn.

Three of these ballers stood out from the rest, and arguably deserve to be in the superstar tier and they are Damsgaard, Tielemans and Caicedo. Caicedo impressed the most defensively with his 58 fouls drawn (=9th), 74 tackles (4th), 47 interceptions (9th) and 49 blocks (=13th) making him a defensive colossus capable of big scores. Damsgaard and Tielemans were the enablers of their teams as their work set up the likes of Mbeumo, Wissa, Rogers and Watkins last season. They were both in the top 20 for assists (=4th and =17th) and key passes (both 11th). Damsgaard finished 15th for successful dribbles and 16th for successful crosses, while Tielemans preferred to tackle (7th) and draw fouls (12th).

The best of the rest were Guimaraes (=22nd for key passes, 1st for fouls drawn), Anderson (11th for fouls drawn, =11th for tackles, =15th for blocks), Mitoma (=15th for blocks, 14th for successful dribbles, =20th for goals) and Odegaard (=10th for assists, 8th for key passes).

UNIQUES

Rather than individually go through all of the 12 unique options in this tier we’ll assess a few. The majority of this group do have one to two standout statistics, which provide them with a chance to score well in GDS, particularly when in a favourable fixture.

Alexis Mac Allister ran the midfield for Liverpool last season, as he and Ryan Gravenberch played in deeper roles to anchor Liverpool’s title winning season. Unexpectedly, Mac Allister stood out in the tackles and blocks categories with 59 (6th) and 61 (7th) respectively. Capable of impacting on the attacking side of the game, Mac Allister still achieved that with his five goals and five assists. He’s now one of the leading central midfielders in the game.

Limited to 25 starts in 2024/25 having been the subject of transfer speculation throughout, Pereira finished the season as one of the best passing midfielders of the league. While he only had two goals and four assists, he impacted through his key passes, with 53 (9th), and his successful crossing, 52 (2nd).

Declan Rice’s evolution from a defensive midfielder into an all round central midfielder materialized as showcased by his attacking potential. While his goalscoring performances in the Champion League took Arsenal to the semi-finals, his impact in the league came through his passing (14th), crossing (4th) and assists (7th). A return of his defensive performances in 2025/26 coupled with his new attacking ones could cause a rise in the ranks for Rice.

RISING STARS

The majority of the list are yet to find a spot in their teams starting XI’s and are likely to continue to struggle for minutes in 2025/26. Of the list Baleba and Lewis Skelley the only consistent starters, while Gray, Nwaneri, Miley, Bergvall, Dominguez, Bobb and Ayari are thereabouts. Miley does look like the likely one to make that step up in the upcoming season.

NEWBIES

There’s a reasonable mix of defensive and attacking midfielders among the new boys to the league. Cherki could catch fire and impress if he avoids Pep’s roulette with their other many attacking weapons, Sunderland has several new pieces who could impact GDS in their early favourable fixtures, while Zubimendi has the attributes to step into the Arsenal lineup and perform in the key statistical areas.

The player likely to have the most impact, however, is attacking midfielder Florian Wirtz. Wirtz had 10 goals and 12 assists, while also managing 44 key passes (=15th), 39 shots on target (=3rd), and a league-leading 84 successful dribbles all in the Bundesliga. He comes to the reigning Champions having played a starring role in an invincible season in Germany in 2023/24. He is capable of playing in multiple roles for Liverpool whether that be as a centre forward, winger or attacking midfielder all of which are likely to result in high numbers in most attacking statistics relevant to GDS.

That’s my tier list of midfielders! A mix of opinion, stats and logic go into these tier lists. There’ll be differing opinions out there and other suitable stats I haven’t included, which could argue alternative rankings, however hopefully these lists help all GDS coaches of all experience levels build their teams on the new Football platform.