Yegor Yarmolyuk

Key strength: Work rate

Box-to-box midfielder

In a Brentford side defying expectations from 8th place, 22-year-old Ukrainian Yegor Yarmolyuk has emerged as Thomas Frank's unglamorous engine room general. While the Bees navigate a patchy run of form (DDLWL), their £32m-rated midfielder remains virtually ever-present with 38 appearances and 2,519 minutes — earning his manager's absolute trust. Though his modest return of 1 goal and 2 assists won't grab back pages, Yarmolyuk's valuation tells the real story. Operating as a box-to-box dynamo with 68-rated passing ability, the number 18 transforms Brentford's build-up play, threading precision balls to attacking talents like Mikkel Damsgaard and Kevin Schade. Those seven yellow cards betray the defensive grit Frank demands from his Ukrainian heartbeat. In a league obsessed with statistics, Yarmolyuk proves that vision, work rate and positional intelligence remain football's most undervalued currencies. With Brentford just points adrift of European contention, their midfield metronome may prove the difference between mid-table respectability and a genuine assault on the continental places.