Chris Willock and Ilias Chair should be in the Premier League... and here is why

QPR's progression has been immense. Rangers finished 11th last season and did not spend any money on transfers this season. However, the additions of fullbacks Kenneth Paal and Ethan Laird (on loan from Manchester United) have added much-needed creativity and defensive solidity in wide areas. Jake Clarke-Salter, formerly of Chelsea, and Leon Balogun have added depth in both numbers and playstyles for the centre-backs. Tim Iroegbunam put in an amazing shift within the heart of QPR's midfield against Norwich at Carrow Road, leading to the Aston Villa loanee winning the MOTM. Tyler Roberts, again, has added depth.

However, maybe the best piece of Hoop's summer business may have been keeping their creative magicians, Ilias Chair and Chris Willock.

Chris Willock has scored six goals in the Championship this season, only three behind current Championship top scorer Jerry Yates. What makes Willock's shooting more impressive is that he has a 90% accuracy of hitting the target, the most out of the top 25 goalscorers this season.

Ilias Chair has the joint most assists this season, racking up six in 17 games. Chair has also created the most chance this season (34) and the most chances per 90 (2.00) out of the top 25 assisters in the Championship.

Let's go into detail on these two astonishing central-attacking midfielders...

The untold brilliance of the Moroccan Magician

Ilias Chair is a talent, and TransferLab back this up. When sized up against every attacking playmaker within the 'second tier' of football (the second tier includes; Championship, Eredivisie, Russian Premier League, Liga NOS, Süper Lig, Argentina Superliga, Brazil Série A and Belgian Jupiler Pro League), Chair finished second, only behind Rafa Silva. Even then, Silva has only played 674 minutes this season compared to Chair's 1166.

That is all well and good, but what does this mean? What does TransferLab classify as an attacking playmaker?

The key areas for TransferLab's ranking of this position include; expected assists, quality of through passes, quality of key passes and forward passes received quality. These metrics fit the definition of an attacking playmaker mentioned previously.

It is safe to say Chair is exceptional in these areas. 0.1 expected assists per 90 minutes places him in the 74th percentile. His quality of through passes sits him in the 83rd percentile. The Moroccan international also places in the 72nd percentile for key passes quality and 53rd for forward passes received quality.

Chair is underwhelming when it comes to receiving forward passes, which may have something to do with his 5'2 (158cm) frame, which leaves very little in the physicality department, meaning that he can get outmuscled easily.

But what he lacks in the strength and the more physical aspects of football, he makes up for in the technical. He is the joint-best in terms of the quality of touches in the final third, which makes sense. The diminutive attacking midfielder has a low centre of gravity, and so, he can change direction quickly in small spaces, such as the final third.

The former Lierse S.K midfielder can still contribute when QPR's other forwards are struggling. 0.19 expected goals per 90 minutes puts him third for QPR players with over 500 minutes in the Championship. Having scored three times in this Championship season, Chair is slightly under his xG this season, but when he is scoring goals like that against Sunderland, it is hard to complain.

What is Chair's strong point? Well, it would have to be his link-up play as well as his dribbling qualities. The only player better than Chair is, of course, Chris Willock.

As we can see, Chair has been amazing for QPR this season, and not much is known about the tricky attacking midfielder outside of the Championship. But what about Chris Willock? Is he much better than Chair?

Chris Willock - the best creative player in the Championship?

What I find most interesting about Chris Willock is that not only can he play across the front four, but he can be better than most whilst doing so. Willock, 24, is undoubtedly the biggest gem that Beale has available going forward.

First, I must clarify that Willock's talents don't fit into a TransferLab default profile, so I made a custom profile to highlight his strong points and maybe one area where he could do better.

Let's get the areas of improvement out of the way first. Willock's key pass numbers (0.55 per 90 minutes) are low for a player of such quality and creativity. His underwhelming key passes could be due to the burden he has off progressing the ball and the lack of pace in QPR's front line, except for Tyler Roberts and Sinclair Armstrong. A team lacking pace means that space is harder to exploit. Willock can be let off in this aspect because of how QPR's forward line is set up.

Now, onto the positives.

Being the best for finishing quality in the Championship is outrageous for a young attacking midfielder. Willock scores a goal every 110 minutes, which is exceptional when is projected to only do so every 450. He is lethal from long-range, having scored three goals from outside the box this season.

Willock knows when to use a first-time pass to full effect, being in the 93rd percentile, as well as when to take more touches which is indicated by him having the joint-highest quality touches in the final third.

To top it off, Willock is well above average in terms of his progressive passes and his line-breaking carries. Both of these are important indicators as to how successful a player is at getting the ball towards the opposition as well as then being able to break down defensive low blocks.

Willock and Chair are both creative geniuses for QPR and the Championship as a whole. Michael Beale will need to keep both men fit if they are to achieve an elusive top-six finish this season.

Credit

Big thank you to TransferLab for making this article possible. TransferLab is an online in-depth data analysis recruitment platform specifically for football, with versions for both the men's and women's games. It allows for clubs to see how well over 100,000 players have been performing in a vast quantity of metrics and having a user-friendly website with easy-to-use tools to allow for comparisons, scattergraphs, or even finding similar players. If you want to check out their website to see more information, just?click this link.