Mile Jedinak’s impressive form for Crystal Palace has him ranked Europe’s No.2 player

ROO RADAR: It’s not just goals catching the eye from Mile Jedinak. He’s also statistically Europe’s second best player, behind just Eden Hazard.

Crystal Palace's captain Mile Jedinak, second left, celebrates scoring his side's third goal with during the English Premier League soccer match between Crystal Palace and Liverpool at Selhurst Park stadium in London, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

AUSTRALIAN skipper Mile Jedinak is the second best player in Europe.

Well, statistically speaking, anyway.

In a week that he played his best Socceroos game under Ange Postecoglou, the midfielder has attracted plenty of attention for an eye catching display for Crystal Palace against Liverpool.

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WATCH ALL FOUR OF JEDINAK’S EPL GOALS IN THE VIDEO ABOVE

In October, it was revealed that he was ranked the fifth best midfielder in Europe according to the statistical matrix used by the site oulala.com, behind Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Alexandre Lacazette from Lyon and Montpellier’s Victorino Hilton.

Now, he has moved up to second on 452 points, behind Eden Hazard on 494, and ahead of Paris Saint-Germain’s Lucas Moura, in a ranking determined by a realm of factors from goals, assists and shots, through to blocks, clearances, successful tackles and more. Others in the top 10 include James Rodriguez from Real Madrid and Kevin De Bruyne from Wolfsburg, while the next best EPL star is Cesc Fabregas, 16th.

His sumptuous free-kick was the icing on the cake on the weekend at Selhurst Park, but it’s the dirty work and statistical benchmarks Jedinak is hitting that has him rubbing shoulders with the EPL’s elite.

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His four goals and one assist are a bonus for a defensive midfielder, who boasts 4.4 tackles per game (third best in EPL) and 3.9 interceptions (first in EPL) per game. With that, comes conceding the most fouls too, with 2.7 per game, but putting himself about in midfield has always been a trademark of Jedinak’s game. Palace, too, have had a few troubles in recent times and Jedinak’s smarts in midfield have been vital in trying to break up play.

According to the statistics website Whoscored.com, Jedinak is in the top 10 players in the Premier League, sharing a stage with Hazard, Diego Costa, Alexis Sanchez, Cesc Fabregas, Sergio Aguero, Victor Moses, Oscar, Michael Dawson and Angel di Maria.

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He is the only defensive midfielder in the top 10.

Against Steven Gerrard, he made 10 aerial duels to Gerrard’s two. His performance included five interceptions and two clearances to go with his goal, while Gerrard didn’t make any, although his pass percentatge was higher.

And in the lead up to the game, he matched up favourably head-to-head with the Liverpool legend. Could clubs like Arsenal or Liverpool do worse than look at the Aussie as a potential target?

Jedinak > Gerrard. pic.twitter.com/t0gMgrKtSk

— Five Year Plan (@FYPFanzine) November 20, 2014

Palace boss Neil Warnock, who has said he knows Jedinak will leave a huge void during the Asian Cup, said: “Jedinak was a long distance traveller as well, Australia lost 1-0 in Japan so it was a lot of travelling for the lads but I thought they really responded and dug deep today.

“I don’t think I could ask any more from the team.”

Jedinak enjoyed the win over Liverpool and said rather than focusing on Liverpool’s malaise, it was Crystal Palace’s bright performance that was the catalyst for the 3-1 triumph.

“You see your direct opponent and try to outmuscle them and outfight them. If that means they are doing less it wouldn’t be right to say anything; we just wanted to assert ourselves and they didn’t,” he said.

He also had some interesting thoughts on Liverpool’s struggles at the moment.

“I think you could see they are a team low on confidence,” Palace’s captain said. “I remember watching them of late and last year when they were free-flowing and attacking and not taking backward steps. But we had that belief that we could get a couple of chances against them and it showed. We got a couple of chances and created difficulties for them.

“People will make their own judgments on [Luis] Suárez. It is a big loss to them? Well, that is evident because he was a fantastic player for them but, saying that, they have brought in players and they are trying to fill that void. It may not come straight away and it may take time but there is a lot of quality in that dressing room.”

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With the skipper leading the way, here’s a summary of the rest of our Australians across the globe in your weekly ROO RADAR.

The other headline act this week was Ryan McGowan, the man who supplied Tim Cahill with the cross for his famous World Cup volley, enjoyed another momentous moment on the weekend, scoring a 95th minute winner for Shandong Luneng in the Chinese FA Cup final.

His stoppage time header helped edge his side to silverware 5-4 on aggregate over two legs.

EUROPE

The highlight in Europe came from Dario Vidosic this who got FC Sion back in the game at 1-1, before going on to lose 3-1, against Zurich in Switzerland.

Eleswhere, it was a pretty ordinary week across the continent, with quite a few losses for our intrepid Socceroos. There was game time for Trent Sainsbury (PEC Zwolle lost to Twente 2-1), Mat Ryan (Club Brugge lost 4-2 to Waasland-Beveren in Belgium), Mathew Leckie (2-1 loss to Nurnberg for Ingolstadt in Bundesliga 2), James Troisi (78 minutes for Zulte Waregem ina 3-1 loss to Kortrijk) and Oliver Bozanic (Luzern lost 3-2 to Grasshopper).

Tommy Oar, who missed the Japan game, returned with a full game for Utrecht, who lost 3-1 to Cambuur.

USA

It’s the business end of the Major League Soccer season and Tim Cahill’s New York Red Bulls are in the Eastern Conference final.

The Socceroos star has been consigned to the bench in recent weeks, and was a late 76th minute sub as his side lost 2-1 at home to New England in the first leg.

We win together and we lose together. Fans were amazing today. We just have to Believe. @NewYorkRedBulls #Believe pic.twitter.com/kz4Cz2rpNw

— Tim Cahill (@Tim_Cahill) November 24, 2014

Originally published as Mile Jedinak’s impressive form for Crystal Palace has him ranked Europe’s No.2 player