Is there anyone in the room who doesn't know Adam Wharton?
I can see there isn't, but just in case, let me introduce him: Adam Wharton is The Next Big Thing in England. That is, if we still consider him a promising player.
Soon enough, Crystal Palace will cash in on him and the Englishman will sign with Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, or any other team at the top of the mountain where the snow never melts. In other words, he's heading straight to football's elite, the crème de la crème.
Therefore, it's my duty to inform you that Adam Wharton is already more expensive than 98% of clubs could afford.
But don't worry, it's not all bad news. There's a chance there are others very similar to him (maybe even better!). That's why today we're looking for those players who could either replace the Englishman at Crystal Palace or become the Wharton of other clubs.
Our first goal is to choose the competitions where we'll search for players most similar to Wharton. To do this, we compare the pace and intensity of Premier League football with the other four top European leagues and their respective second divisions.
Wharton came through at Blackburn Rovers, so it's useful to consider which players could follow a similar path.
The Bundesliga, Ligue 1, and the Championship are, alongside the Premier League, the leagues with the most high-intensity efforts and where players move at higher speeds. These similarities allow us to predict that, on average, the adjustment time to the Premier League will be shorter compared to players from other competitions.
In physical terms, Wharton isn't an exceptional athlete, but he handles the Premier League whirlwind well. It's his technical quality —which opens up a range of passes of all types— and his passing ability to be decisive by breaking lines and finding teammates in advantageous positions that makes him so coveted.
For that reason, even though we're looking for players most similar to Adam Wharton, we're going to prioritize certain aspects of the game where the Englishman stands out. Some characteristics will carry more weight than others.
To carry out this similarity process, we've selected and grouped various metrics based on their relevance (from most to least important).
- Line-Breaking and Progression: includes metrics that directly measure the ability to break lines, beat opponents, and be progressive with passes. Metrics like Line-Breaking Passes, Forward Pass Percentage, or Progressive Passes.
- Attacking Influence: here we find metrics to measure the danger added by passes (Expected Threat Generated per 100 passes) and the responsibility assumed in different facets (Percentage of Ball Progressions in Opposition Half in Team or Percentage of OP Passes to Opposition Box in Team).
- Passing Fundamentals: positioning metrics (Passes to Final Third, Completed Passes into Space), pass-type metrics (Average Pass Distance), and success metrics (Completed Passes, Progressive Passes Completion Percentage).
We assign each group a weight to create a score from 0 to 1. The most relevant group, Line-Breaking and Progression, makes up 50% of the final score because it's composed of the metrics that best reflect the aspects of the game where Adam Wharton excels most.
The Englishman is exceptional at breaking lines and prioritizes offensive passing over safe options.
The Attacking Influence group accounts for 30% of the score. Finally, the third, Passing Fundamentals, which allows us to make subtle distinctions between midfielders based on locations from which they pass, the types of passes they make, and their success rate, carries a 20% weight.
One last clarification: since Wharton is a midfielder who can play as a 6 or an 8, we've only selected players who are midfielders or defensive midfielders and have played at least 800 minutes so far this season. And since Wharton is still only 20 years old (!!), we've decided to only look at players under 21.
🗣️ Finally, these are the 10 players from those three competitions we'd recommend as the most similar to the Englishman.
Valentín Barco - Strasbourg - 2004
The jump to Europe wasn't easy for the Boca Juniors academy product, but this season he's finally established himself in the Alsace region.
His performance has been so good that our Score system ranks him as the 9th best midfielder in Ligue 1 so far this season.
Although he also scores highly in the Line-Breaking and Progression group, Barco is most similar to Wharton in the Attacking Influence they assume within their teams. The Argentine is responsible for 14% of his team's ball progressions in the opposition half, while Wharton handles 14.1%.
They orchestrate their teams' attacks, both in moving the ball in the opposition half and getting it into the most dangerous areas.
The main difference between them is that the Argentine is a more mobile player who shows up in different zones and often receives in advanced positions.
The latter is partly because he's played minutes at fullback. While Wharton receives 4.77 progressive passes per match, Barco averages 9.31 progressive pass receptions.
They're opposite physical profiles. Barco covers more ground and is a more action-oriented midfielder. Wharton, while being super vertical in his actions, is a more positional midfielder who holds his position.
He's under contract until 2029 at Strasbourg, and we know the relationship between the French club and Chelsea, so despite being very similar in style and potential to Wharton, he won't be the most affordable player financially.
Kevin Danois - Auxerre - 2004
This French midfielder is about to reach the number of league minutes he played last season, meaning he's gaining importance in his team.
He's an interesting player who differs from Wharton in that he doesn't have the Englishman's ability to be as progressive and doesn't assume the same offensive weight that Wharton does at Crystal Palace.
Danois completes nearly 20 out of every 100 of his team's passes to the opposition box in open play, a figure far from Wharton's 28 out of 100.
We know that Auxerre, which averages 22% of its xG through crosses—the 7th highest figure in Ligue 1—prioritizes getting the ball into the box through wide channels, which minimizes the midfielders' role in that facet.
Despite this, when it comes to breaking lines —in our Line-Breaking and Progression group— Danois is the second player on the list most similar to Wharton, just behind Hugo Larsson.
Wharton and Danois are both clearly above average in line-breaking passes and players beaten per pass, although the Frenchman is below Wharton's current level.
Danois, however, frequently looks to break the last line.
Leon Avdullahu - Hoffenheim - 2004
The first clear difference between them is that Avdullahu is much more defensively involved than Wharton. The Englishman is protected by a three-center-back line at Crystal Palace that saves him a lot of dirty work.
This defensive influence prevents Avdullahu from assuming more Attacking Influence, which is why in terms of similarity, he's the 4th least similar to Wharton in that aspect.
One of Wharton's weak points is wanting to be too vertical at times. In contrast, Avdullahu is much safer: he completes 88.4% of the 51.6 passes he attempts and has a ball retention average of 90.4% (percentage of times you have possession and don't lose it).
Wharton sits at 79% pass completion and 84.9% ball retention, attempting only 36.9 passes.
Despite assuming less influence, Avdullahu is the midfielder on our list who comes closest to the number of line-breaking passes that Adam Wharton averages (6.14 vs 6.54).
However, the Kosovar averages more passes that bypass players, and his long balls allow his team to break the last defensive line more frequently through Line-Breaking Through Balls.
Plus, under pressure he's also a complete performer. He completes 4.04 out of every 4.2 passes under pressure—96.3% success rate. He's in the top 5% of midfielders from the five major leagues with over 450 minutes who average the best percentage.
The Kosovar has an estimated price of around 17 million euros. He performs well defensively and approaches Wharton in the aspects where the Englishman shines most. He should be one of the names to watch in the market.
These have been the standout names. If Crystal Palace chose to follow the same route that led them to Wharton, Alfie Devine and Sydie Peck are the two Championship midfielders who come closest to Adam Wharton. Two other options to follow.
This has been our attempt to find the potential new Adam Whartons, all being different players from each other. Keep in mind that there are players within these leagues, like Angelo Stiller, Rocco Reitz, or Hayden Hackney, who are more similar, but due to age we've decided not to include them.
With Driblab data, an immense range of possibilities opens up that allows us to search for players anywhere in the world, under any criteria, and following the necessary parameters.
