The rankings compare players according to key performance indicators exclusively developed by the CIES Football Observatory academic team using data provided by our partner Opta Pro. The indicators measure both the production and efficiency of players in six complementary areas of the game: shooting, chance creation, take on, distribution, recovery and rigour (see explanation below).

All the indicators are perfectly comparable at international level as they were developed by taking into account the differences between leagues in both the style of play and game intensity.

Luis Suárez outranks Cristiano Ronaldo (1st in Spain) and Neymar among the best performing strikers. In the remaining leagues, Carlos Tévez tops the table in Italy, Zlatan Ibrahimovi? in France and Marco Reus in Germany.

Franck Ribéry was the best performing offensive midfielder both in Germany and at big-5 league level, ahead of James Rodríguez (1st in France) and Miralem Pjani? (1st in Italy). In the other leagues, Samir Nasri tops the English table and Andrés Iniesta the Spanish one.

Paris St-Germain rising star Marco Verratti heads the ranking for central and defensive midifielders. The young Italian prodigy outperforms Gabi Fernández (1st in Spain) and Arturo Vidal (1st in Italy). Former full back Philipp Lahm ranks first in Germany, while Aaron Ramsey tops the English table.

Another very young player tops the table for full backs: David Alaba. In the other leagues, the best performing full backs were Douglas Maicon (Italy), Layvin Kurzawa (France), Pablo Zabaleta (England) and Dani Alves (Spain).

Finally, Giorgio Chiellini finishes top of the ranking for centre backs, ahead of Dante Bonfim (1st in Germany) and Leandro Castán. Alex da Silva heads the French table, Dejan Lovren the English one and Gerard Piqué was the best performing centre back in Spain.

More rankings are available in the 57th edition of the Big-5 Weekly Post. For more information, please contact us at football.observatory@cies.ch

CIES Football Observatory key performance indicators

Shooting: ability to take advantage of goal opportunities through accurate shooting

Chance creation: ability to create goal opportunities through efficient passing

Take on: ability to create dangerous situations by successfully challenging opponents

Distribution: ability to hold the grip on the game through efficient passing

Recovery: ability to minimise goal opportunities for opponents through proficient ball recovery

Rigour: ability to minimise goal opportunities for opponents by efficiently blocking their actions

Our analysis shows that French Ligue 1 clubs fielded more U21 players since the start of the season than teams in the four other big-5 leagues. On average, a Ligue 1 club plays with 1.61 footballers aged 21 or under. This figure is also relatively high in Germany (1.52) and Spain (1.24). Conversely, the rate of employment of U21 players per club is lower than one in Italy (0.96) and England (0.74).

In the English Premier League, only six clubs fielded on average more than one U21 player per match: Southampton (2.0), Swansea (1.8), Everton (1.8), Liverpool (1.4), Arsenal (1.3) and Manchester United (1.2). At the opposite end of the table is Chelsea. Mourinho’s team has not yet fielded a single U21 players during the current season.

The highest number of U21 players fielded among current top ranked team was registered for Paris St-Germain (2.6), while the lowest was recorded for Barcelona (0.8). Atlético Madrid also fielded relatively more U21 players than the Catalan side (2.2). Does Gerardo Martino feel less confident in Barcelona’s cantera players than his predecessors?

The data for each big-5 league club is presented in the 56th Big-5 Weekly Post which is now available here.

For more information please email us at football.observatory@cies.ch

This edition focuses on the performance of big-5 league footballers from the start of November until games of the last matchday.

The most surprising result is the first position in the Italian general ranking of Omar El Kaddouri, a Belgian-Moroccan 23 year-old attacking midfielder loaned by Napoli to Torino.

At the second place is the 19 year-old Domenico Berardi who already greatly contributed to the promotion achieved by Sassuolo last season. He was signed by Juventus during last transfer window, but remained on loan at Sassuolo in order to gain experience.

Several players signed at the start of the season have adapted perfectly to their new work environment and are to be found in the top 3 positions of the general table in their respective league: Navas (1st in England), Isco (1st in Spain), Bale (2nd in Spain), Thauvin (2nd in France) and Son (2nd in Germany).

Based on data provided by our partner OptaPro, the CIES Football Observatory rankings take into account pitch productivity in five key areas of the game: shooting, chance creation, take on, distribution and recovery (see below for more details). By weighting each indicator according to the strength of its correlation with club results, we obtain a general index highlighting the most decisive footballers.

The rankings of the best performing players in the five major European championships per area of the game can be found in the Big-5 Weekly Post. This can now be downloaded from the CIES Football Observatory website.

Methodological note: specifications of indicators

• Shooting measures the effectiveness of players to shoot and score goals, excluding penalties

• Chance creation refers to the ability of players to put teammates into shooting positions, with particular emphasis on goal assists

• Take on highlights footballers who are both productive and efficient in dribbling, crossing and winning corners

• Distribution refers to the ability of players to make accurate passes, above all in the opposition half

• Recovery brings to the fore players whose tackling and interceptions minimise the chances for opponents to score goals and shoot, especially from close range

Our analysis shows great differences between Northern (England, Germany) and Southern (Italy, France, Spain) European leagues.

In Germany, clubs have employed so far 4.4 players taller than 185cm on average. This figure is only 2.0 in Spain.

All clubs fielded at least one player over 185cm in height. However, four teams play on average with less than a footballer taller than 185 cm (Celta Vigo, Real Valladolid, Valenciennes and Montpellier).

Conversely, four teams are on average made up of a majority of players taller than 185cm (Stoke City, Hamburg, Schalke 04 and Bayer Leverkusen).

Among current top ranked clubs, the lowest number of tall players was fielded by Barcelona (1.5 on average on the pitch), while the greatest was registered at Juventus (5.5).

The figures for all big-5 league clubs are available on the CIES Football Observatory website.

All interested users can now actively consult and access the trends observed in each of the big-5 leagues in relation to the following indicators:

• Average age

• Average height

• % of club-trained players

• % of full internationals

• % of expatriates

• Average stay

(More detailed descriptions for each indicator are available on the Football Observatory website)

For more information please contact us at football.observatory@cies.ch

On another level, we are pleased to inform our European audience that the Football Research in Enlarged Europe (FREE) project has launched an online survey about what football means to Europeans in their daily lives. You are kindly invited to participate at this link

Our predictions are based on the analysis of player profile data from the perspective of “experience” (number of matches played and results achieved), “prolificacy” (number of goals scored and level of the competition) and “stability” (number of seasons with the employer club and years remaining on contract).

Using these indicators, we have classified teams by taking into account the 11 players with the highest scores (potential “starting 11”), as well as squad members ranked between the 12th and 22nd positions (“substitutes”). The final ranking has been estimated on the basis of the average position in the two tables. In case of equality, we ranked teams according to their overall score.

Manchester United and Paris St-Germain are the only two most probable champions ranked in first position for both “starting 11” and “substitute” players. While the competitive advantage of Borussia Dortmund is mainly related to the 11 players with the highest scores, and that of Juventus is due to the quality of substitutes. The same holds true for Real Madrid with respect to Barcelona.

Monaco is the only promoted team with a real chance of finishing the season in the top three of their domestic league. Conversely, this year many prestigious teams risk being sucked into a fight against relegation (Fulham, Levante, Valenciennes, Werder Bremen, Torino, etc.).

Using the indicators described above, we were also able to identify the players with the highest scores, and whose performance levels should have the greatest impact on results obtained by their respective teams (key players).

The full predictions may be downloaded from the CIES Football Observatory website. We are at your disposal for more information at football.observatory@cies.ch