Best Defensive Midfielders in the Scottish Premiership 2026/2027
The best defensive midfielders in the Scottish Premiership 2026/2027, ranked by FootyCabin's position-adjusted season Impact Score. 19 players meet the existing eligibility rules for this position; the top 19 are listed.
| Rank# | Player | Club | Minutes | Impact Score | Tackles / 90 | Interceptions / 90 | Pass accuracy | Duels won | Losses / 100 touches |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joe HodgeMotherwell | Motherwell | 589 | 68.1 | 3.06 | 1.22 | 90.8% | 49.1% | 11.4 |
| 2 | Aaron TshibolaKilmarnock | Kilmarnock | 443 | 63.9 | 1.22 | 1.02 | 88.3% | 30.9% | 16.6 |
| 3 | J. HoltSt. Johnstone | St. Johnstone | 716 | 62.4 | 0.75 | 1.76 | 92.5% | 67.3% | 10.3 |
| 4 | Mika Joel BaurCeltic | Celtic | 550 | 60.3 | 3.60 | 1.47 | 89.8% | 48.6% | 17.3 |
| 5 | Ryan George CarrSt. Mirren | St. Mirren | 745 | 60.3 | 3.14 | 1.69 | 85.3% | 52.8% | 17.2 |
| 6 | Callum McGregorCeltic | Celtic | 690 | 57.4 | 2.09 | 1.43 | 92.5% | 50.9% | 9.6 |
| 7 | Lukas FadingerMotherwell | Motherwell | 764 | 55.9 | 2.12 | 1.18 | 92.0% | 44.0% | 12.2 |
| 8 | Afeez AremuAberdeen | Aberdeen | 589 | 55.8 | 4.13 | 1.68 | 83.2% | 59.3% | 16.9 |
| 9 | Nicolas RaskinRangers | Rangers | 595 | 52.6 | 1.51 | 0.45 | 87.3% | 48.1% | 16.4 |
| 10 | Brad SpencerFalkirk | Falkirk | 618 | 52.2 | 1.60 | 1.17 | 74.7% | 53.1% | 22.4 |
| 11 | Dan NeilRangers | Rangers | 573 | 50.9 | 2.51 | 1.26 | 84.9% | 50.7% | 17.8 |
| 12 | Ryan FinniganDundee | Dundee | 472 | 49.9 | 4.39 | 1.33 | — | 63.0% | 14.8 |
| 13 | Laurent MendyHearts | Hearts | 672 | 47.5 | 1.74 | 1.21 | 81.5% | 50.0% | 20.3 |
| 14 | Finley BarbrookFalkirk | Falkirk | 675 | 43.9 | 2.40 | 0.93 | 86.4% | 40.7% | 17.2 |
| 15 | Tom LoweryKilmarnock | Kilmarnock | 790 | 42.3 | 1.71 | 0.57 | 88.0% | 45.6% | 18.0 |
| 16 | Reece McAlearSt. Johnstone | St. Johnstone | 764 | 41.7 | 1.88 | 0.59 | 82.7% | 45.9% | 20.7 |
| 17 | Paul NsioSt. Mirren | St. Mirren | 697 | 39.5 | 2.84 | 1.16 | 75.4% | 43.3% | 26.6 |
| 18 | Miguel ChaiwaHibernian | Hibernian | 572 | 38.6 | 0.63 | 0.79 | 83.1% | 50.9% | 19.3 |
| 19 | Josh MulliganHibernian | Hibernian | 795 | 37.6 | 2.15 | 0.57 | 85.1% | 43.0% | 21.4 |
How this ranking works
Players are ranked by the Football Performance Lab Impact Score, an experimental in-house model that combines role-relative percentile families using explicit position-specific weights. The score shown here is the stored season-level figure for the Scottish Premiership 2026/2027; nothing is recalculated for this page. It is not an official rating, not a definitive measure of player quality, and not a prediction.
Only players with a published Impact Score for this competition and season are eligible, and a position page is published only when at least 5 players qualify. Players without enough data are excluded rather than shown with a substitute figure, and a statistic the provider did not record is shown as not available, never as zero. Read the full scoring methodology.
Last updated: 22 Oct 2026