Impressive Stat Reveals Surprise Defender as Bundesliga's Most Reliable Passer

A surprise name has emerged as being the Bundesliga's most reliable passer.

One might suspect a top class midfielder like Thiago Alcantara, Arturo Vidal, Naby Keita or Julian Weigl would head such a list - but there's a man in Bayern Munich's defence who's been more accurate than all of those names this season.

Niklas Sule, signed from Hoffenheim along with Sebastian Rudy a year ago, made his debut for the club in August in the 2017/18 season opener against Bayer Leverkusen, and the giant defender has been solid for his new club so far.

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The 22-year-old has started most games in the Bavarians' backline and has looked solid as a defender, but as reported by German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, he's actually very useful in possession.

Out of all players across the German top flight in any position, Sule has the highest passing accuracy with 94.2% - meaning just six out of 100 passes do not reach their intended target.

He's ahead of Ömer Toprak (91.4%) and Borussia Monchengladbach star Denis Zakaria (90.7%).

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(You may be interested inJupp Heynckes Suggests Bayern Munich Will Not Sign Another Player in January).

In fairness, the paper do state that Sule is the 'safest' user of the ball, with Mats Hummels and Jerome Boateng the men to attempt more difficult passes forwards and diagonal. The former Borussia Dortmund star in particular likes to try and get the ball rolling for the champions, and therefore has a lower accuracy of 87.6%.

There is certainly nothing wrong with having such a sky-high passing accuracy though, because it pays these days to have a centre-half who is composed on the ball and can keep it away from opposing strikers.