Pablo Fornals

Key strength: Work rate

Box-to-box midfielder

In a Real Betis side navigating a challenging La Liga campaign from 11th place, Pablo Fornals has quietly become Manuel Pellegrini's most trusted lieutenant. The 30-year-old Spanish midfielder may not dominate headlines like the club's flashier talents, but his numbers reveal a player utterly indispensable to the green-and-whites' ambitions. With 6 goals and 6 assists from 39 appearances this season, Fornals delivers meaningful end-product while anchoring the midfield. Yet it's his staggering 2,794 minutes—more than any other Betis player—that tells the true story. In an era of squad rotation and managed workloads, Fornals is the ever-present, box-to-box engine that makes Betis purr. While teammates like Fábio Carvalho and Abde Ezzalzouli paint attacking masterpieces, Fornals provides the canvas: shuttling intelligently between thirds, linking play with vision and precision passing, doing the dirty work others won't. His disciplinary record borders on miraculous: zero cards across an entire season of relentless midfield combat. Valued at €8 million, this former West Ham man isn't the star—he's the structural integrity that allows stars to shine. As Betis ride their current unbeaten streak, Fornals' metronomic presence remains the quiet heartbeat of their revival.