Why This Midfielder Is Impossible To Stop

Nobody can get near Elliot Anderson at the moment. He is dominating Premier League midfield in a way that very few players can. I'm going to be breaking down how he's so good under immense pressure, why he is a monster at winning duels, and why his chance creation looks a lot like, yeah, I'm going to say it, De Bruyne's. So how has he suddenly become one of the Premier League's best midfielders? To understand this, let's begin by looking at his role at Nottingham Forest. So, in their 4-2-3-1 under Sean Dyche, Anderson is the left central midfielder within the double pivot, which is a position that generally is seen as somewhat defensive, maybe a touch conservative at the very least. And this is the touch map against Liverpool, where you can see he's popping up all over the pitch, even pushing into the opposition's box. From the passing network, you truly begin to see his influence on this team, with a lot of the play running through him. As shown by the stats, he completed the most passes in this game by some distance. So how exactly is he dominating in this area? Well, since Sean Dyche became the Nottingham Forest manager, they're averaging the most long passes per 90 in the Premier League, and Anderson is able to thrive in this setup. The goal kick is played long and Anderson latches onto the second ball, something he's fantastic at. Suddenly he's in possession, surrounded by five Liverpool players, and he's got to bring the ball down under control pretty quickly. But he's aware, he's aware of Isak applying pressure, and so he turns away and finds a safe pass to Murillo behind. He's so aware, he's so switched on, and his ability under pressure has given Forest control of possession on the halfway line, without having to play short from the goal kick to achieve it. But Anderson doesn't stop there. This lad is all action. He demands for the ball, allowing Forest to progress into Liverpool's half, and with one superb touch, he turns away from Jones, looks forward, and is now threatening Liverpool's final third. He finds this pass to Gibbs White, and while, look, the attack does fizzle out, the move only exists because of Anderson. The thing I love about Anderson is he demands and he dictates. He dictates the tempo of play extremely well, and he does this by understanding the game state. A loose ball falls to Anderson here, and with the speed of thought that he's got, he quickly realises that Liverpool aren't set in a defensive structure, with six players in the middle of the pitch. And so, without hesitation, he feels the game, and he plays a lovely cross-field pass, on the half-volley, by the way, to Ndoye. And it's thanks to the accuracy and tempo of the pass that it bypasses Liverpool's midfield, who are yet to work back, giving Kerkes no option but to foul Ndoye. Anderson's awareness and passing quality allows the team to establish dominance in the opposition's half. And in recent weeks, Anderson has also formed quite a reliable partnership with Ibrahim Sangare. And despite playing together as part of the same double pivot, they're almost opposites in every single way. Anderson had the most touches of any Forest player, with 59. Meanwhile, Sangare had the fewest touches of any Forest player to play the whole game. Anderson made five passes into the final third, while Sangare only made two. So how is Sangare allowing Anderson to flourish? Well, we spoke about Anderson not being that conservative. Well, Sangare rarely ventures too far forward, usually either in his own half or just to the right of his double pivot. And Sangare's positioning then allows Anderson to give him that freedom to venture forward and to link the play. Don't believe me? Take a look at his passes received map against Bournemouth. You can see that he receives the ball all over the pitch. His own defensive third, the middle of the park or even in the attacking third. He's such a good player. He's one of those players that I like to call see him and give it player. If you see him, just give it to him. And he typically receives his short passes. But on occasions, he's one of the most attacking Forest players receiving long balls like this, even winning the aerial duel, which led to a goal scoring chance for our need. Not only does he dominate midfield on the ball, his work out of possession is what's making him one of the Premier League's best. We can see from his defensive actions map this season that he defends a huge space of the pitch, and this has led to him being one of the most effective off the ball midfielders in the league. His natural defensive positioning is frankly excellent. In this area, he's defending quite a large space because this is the exact lane teams look to play cutback crosses into. When the cutback doesn't come, he adjusts to defend the six yard box, cutting out the cross. It falls to Alexis McAllister and Anderson reacts exceptionally quickly, getting on the line to prevent a certain goal. So many teams struggle in this exact situation. Curtis Jones is in possession, and Dominguez applies pressure. Meanwhile, Nico Williams is cautious of Salah, and he's sort of half moved out to him, creating a big gap between himself and Murillo. And opposition teams always look to exploit this space. Sabo's line moves into it, and usually the centre back would be forced to go with him, which would leave Isak 1v1 in the box. But Anderson is just so aware of this, and he tracks Sabo's line all the way, ensuring that the operating spaces remain really tight for Liverpool. And by plugging this gap, Anderson ends up intercepting a through ball that would have gone straight to Salah. And it's his understanding of when to track those runs that bails Forrest out of trouble all the time. Nico Williams has gone to press Amad Diallo here, but in doing so, he's left a huge space for Brian Mbumo to move into. Guess who tracks the run? Yeah, Anderson tracks the run, meaning it delays the pass from Amad. Not only that, Anderson remains switched on and stays on the half turn in case a ball in behind is played to Mbumo. And that open body shape allows him to intercept the pass. Whilst Anderson is excellent at cutting up passing lanes, he's also an excellent presser in the midfield third. James Ward-Prowse here is in possession and looking to play the ball forward. And he plays it to Paquita, who receives it on the half turn. But before Paquita is even able to breathe, think, take a second touch, Anderson is on him and picks his pocket. And suddenly Anderson's got Forrest on the attack. He evades a tackle, plays it to Morgan Gibbs-White and continues his run forward. And Anderson's aggressiveness in this sense is something that is crucially undervalued. Leeds left-back Goodmanson is about to receive the ball. But Anderson is one step ahead here as he anticipates it. And he begins to press Ethan Ampadu before the ball has even arrived at his feet, resulting in Ampadu having to turn away and look to play backwards, all the way back to the goalkeeper, preventing Leeds from being able to settle in possession. And that aggressiveness, it lasts from minute one to minute 90 or 95, depending on your preference, because that was in the 18th minute of the match. This one is in the 86th minute of the match with the score 2-1 to Forrest. Roden plays it to Joel Perrault, but Anderson is once again being aggressive out of possession. And that forces Perrault to play a hurried and loose pass back to Roden, which now means that Leeds are even further away from Forrest's goal. And with the score at 2-1, preventing Leeds from even coming into your own half is such an important yet unnoticed part of Anderson's game. And to top it off, Anderson scored in this game too. It was a penalty, but in the 90th minute to make it 3-1 and effectively seal the points. It topped off what was a highly influential game for him, both defensively and offensively. Now, despite these defensive qualities that he clearly possesses, there's a case to be made that he's Forrest's best creator simultaneously. In the Forrest squad, Anderson ranks first for total key passes. First for passes into the final third by a mile, more than double second place. First for progressive passes and first for chances created. And this is how he's able to be so dangerous, despite not really being an out-and-out attacking midfielder. Here we can see a combination of all the good things that we've talked about in reference to Elliot Anderson so far. He's picked up a spot that allows him to cut up a passing lane, but he's also extremely quick to react to the ball. But he combines his quick reactions with quick thinking here by playing a first-time ball to Chris Wood. And then you see the quality of Elliot Anderson to be able to wait a first-time pass perfectly into Chris Wood. It's outrageous. Anderson's ability to wait passes perfectly make him a winger's dream, with Callum Hudson-Odoi able to combine with Anderson, who is stood in the half space here. And with what was a simple yet perfectly executed one-two, seeing Hudson-Odoi penetrate the Brentford box. And there's a really nice diversity to his chance creation. Kalli Mwendo is on the ball here in a wide area. Anderson shows that desire, that aggressiveness, that assertiveness to always be on the ball and comes across to receive it, before being positive, getting the ball out of his feet and delivering a cross Kevin De Bruyne would have been proud of. And in the process, almost replicating KDB's technique. No, seriously, look, we went back and checked and it's the exact same technique. Against Burnley though, Anderson popped up in a few different areas. After delivering the ball previously from deep in the right side half space, this time he's popped over to left half space, making an underlapping run, looking to play a chipped cutback. And this chance also almost results in a goal, as does this one two minutes later. Elliot Anderson is tactically intelligent, has exceptional defensive awareness and with his match IQ, what can't he do? Another player dominating midfield is Declan Rice. To see how he's become the Premier League's perfect midfielder, click here.