Fejsa, the king of tackles and interceptions in the Liga NOS

The benfiquista Fejsa is the midfielder of the Liga NOS who does more tackles and interceptions. The Serbian seem to have the gift of omnipresence in the way he predicts where the ball will fall, what the opponent will do…

He is the defensive apex of the midfield triangle – now completed with Pizzi and  Zivkovic – and a real plug in the moment of clearing the opposing attacks towards the Benfica goals. The more defensive positions of the field are not always correctly valued by the public or by the pundits, but the opponents of Benfica go against that rule.

Fejsa is adored by the stands of Luz and responds on the pitch providing security and balance to the team led by Rui Vitória. How? Doing what he does best: tackles and interceptions.

According to the data collected by the site sofascore.com, the Serbian international is the midfielder with more tackles in the Liga NOS. He has 77, he is the only player of the position with more than 70 and he is followed by the midfielders Lucas Evangelista (Estoril), with 67 and Cláudio Simão (CD Aves), with 65. Indeed, in this aspect, and expanding the analysis to all field positions, only the defender Bebeto, from Marítimo, did more (100).

In the interceptions, and according to the same source, the eagles’ number 5 is also the best midfielder of the National Championship. After 26 rounds, he has 51 (around two interceptions per game), he is the only midfielder that exceeds the fifty-barrier and is followed by Fábio Pacheco (Marítimo), with 47 and Pedro Sá (Portimonense), with 44.

But the work of Fejsa is not just defending. In modern football, the holding midfielder is often the starting points of the attacking plays and the benfiquista does that role perfectly. Among all the players of the Benfica squad, he is the second with more accurate passes: 1034, being exceeded only by Pizzi. These two players are the only who have more than a thousand accurate passes in Liga NOS. 

Technically evolved, the Serbian – who has the world cup on the horizon-  does not only pass a lot, but he also passes well. With 90% accuracy, Fejsa is the player from the reds with the best accurate passes percentage.

Text: Marco Rebelo

Pics: Archive / SL Benfica