Are Lerma and Billing the best central midfield choices for AFCB?

The season quickly got away from AFCB. The injuries have limited the choices that Eddie Howe has had, but Lerma has played 24 games and Philip Billing has racked up 27 appearances this season. Are these two players the best two central midfielders or the best combination for AFCB?
Lerma and Billing have been central pillars for AFCB in Howe's thinking.I'd like to think that Eddie Howe knows his best team. He clearly has indicated by his selections that he values Jefferson Lerma and Philip Billing as his best two central midfielders. But how good are these two players? Billing has had one goal and one assist, having had 29 shots, creating 12 crosses, four blocked shots, 88 clearances with 49 headed clearances and 59 interceptions, according to the Premier League stats.

Advertisement Eddie Had a Dream -now just 9.99!Compare this with Jefferson Lerma's record. He has one goal and two assists, with 21 shots, creating nine crosses, four blocked shots, 34 clearances, 22 headed clearances and 44 interceptions, according to his Premier League stats. It would appear by this that Billing is the stronger player in what he offers the team in performance stats and as a pair we might assume they are the top choices that Howe could make.

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But other players like Dan Gosling, Lewis Cook and Andrew Surman might have been hard done by. Dan Gosling, for example, has made just 16 appearances this season and yet he has two goals from his nine shots, although he has made just one cross. But his 20 clearances and eight headed clearances certainly start to rival Jefferson Lerma, although his interceptions are less than one a game at 12. Andrew Surman may have only made five appearances but three of those games AFCB have won, and he made three crosses in those five games, while his clearances are minimal at four and three headed clearances.

Advertisement Coastal Garden BuildingsLewis Cook is an interesting one as may fans favour his attacking play. He has 20 appearances with 6 shots and one on target, but managed eight crosses and 14 clearances, eight clearances were headed and interceptions were at 15 which is well below the rate of Lerma and Billing. 

Advertisement Eddie Had a Dream eBook version -£7.99!Passing ratio and tackling are also big stats to look at but out on top come Lerma and Billing for passes per game Gosling makes 22.75 passes a game, Billing 37.7, Lerma 43.13, Cook 26.8 and Surman 25.4. On the tackling form, Gosling has a success rate of 34 per cent, Lerma 59 per cent, Billing a majestic 65 per cent, Lewis Cook 53 per cent, and Surman 50 per cent.
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It's striking to me that Billing has perhaps been a stronger player than I would have believed in 2019-20, and that the tackling of Dan Gosling, low clearances of Lewis Cook and passing ratio of Andrew Surman have perhaps held them back from being more front line choices ahead of Lerma and Billing.

There are many more stats you could look at and this is just a quick observation, but it also tells me that Lerma might not be as dominant a player as I would have expected him to be, even if his passing ratio is higher than most.

In other news, the replay of AFCB 4 v 3 Liverpool last night was joyous just to see Steve Cook's turn and volley to bring the scores level - does he every score ordinary goals? 

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