Josh Dasilva

How did it happen? How did Arsenal let Josh Dasilva go last summer? The London-born midfield starlet and England U20 player refused to sign a new contract and went across town to Brentford in the Championship, perhaps seeing that opportunities for first-team football would be limited with the Gunners. And yes, he is getting senior minutes now, and boy, is he taking advantage.

Very few players in our database receive our three most coveted badges (available to Premium and Pro users): high performer, young prospect, and breakout season. Dasilva is one. So far at Brentford, he's had average attacking output at CM by a Premier League standard, with excellent defending bolstered by fine skill in the tackle. He's a big lad but doesn't go up for aerials much – that's not Brentford's style – preferring to use a variety of passing and take the ball forward on the ground. His ball retention is a little low for the Premier League so far, but that could easily improve as he matures and refines his game.

In style, Dasilva bears a passing similarity to CMs like Nice's Pierre Lees-Melou (last season, anyway) and Maximilian Eggestein at Werder Bremen. But our Search by similar player function also matched him to none other than Luka Modric. Like Modric, Dasilva has a balanced style that gives him plenty of options on the ball. But Dasilva also covers much more ground; Modric is more regimented in his positioning. Regardless, if this is where Dasilva stands at age 21, imagine where he's going!

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[Photo: via twitter.com]