Best not to mess with them: Europe's toughest midfield enforcers | OneFootball

Several guests have canceled on your Halloween party?! No problem at all. We’ve still got a few monsters ready for you. Just a little warning in advance: the other party guests probably shouldn’t challenge them to a duel.

Here are the current most fearsome duel monsters from Europe’s top five leagues (Source: fussballtransfers).

Premier League

You won’t get past him so easily: Elliot Anderson has already won 70 duels for Nottingham Forest – that’s an average of 7.8 per game. Bayern’s transfer flop João Palhinha – currently playing for Spurs – is, by the way, in third place league-wide with a total of 66 duels won.

Serie A

Patrizio Masini is also an absolute duel monster. For Genoa, he has already won 72 duels, putting him at the very top of the Serie A ranking.

📸 Marco Luzzani - 2025 Getty Images

La Liga

Do you still remember Lucas Torró? The defensive midfielder spread terror in Frankfurt from 2018 to 2020. Apparently, he hasn’t forgotten how to do it. For Osasuna, the 31-year-old has already won 74 duels this season.

Ligue 1

Former Mainz player Ludovic Ajorque doesn’t just score goals for Brest – no. The striker is also absolutely top when it comes to duels won. In the current season, he has already won 99 direct duels.

Bundesliga

No one can dance past him so easily: the most fearsome duel monster of the current Bundesliga season is Bernardo. The Hoffenheim player has already won an incredible 104 duels. Machine – uh, of course we mean monster.

Are you scared yet? We’d better not list the monsters of aerial duels here as well. With too much horror, no one will want to party anymore.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

📸 Alexander Hassenstein - 2025 Getty Images