Issue number 188 of the Weekly Post presents the best players of the 2016/17 big-5 league season. The rankings were elaborated according to the exclusive CIES Football Observatory’s approach to measure player performance on an objective and comparable basis. Lionel Messi outranks Cristiano Ronaldo in the table for wingers.

Three Bayern Munich players top the rankings in their respective position: Manuel Neuer for goalkeepers, Javi Martínez for centre backs (ahead of teammate Mats Hummels), as well as Thiago Alcântara for central defensive midfielders. Only footballers who have played at least 2,000 minutes in domestic league games are included in the analysis.

Alex Sandro and Marcelo (full backs), Kevin de Bruyne (central attacking midfielders), Lionel Messi (wingers) and Dries Mertens (centre forwards) head the rankings for the other positions considered. Except for de Bruyne and Marcelo, all these players are also to be found in the CIES Football Observatory’s 4-3-3 best XI of the season alongside Bruno Peres (right full back), Paul Pogba and Naby Keita (box-to-box midfielders), as well as Cristiano Ronaldo (left winger).

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The 25th edition of the CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report analyses the presence of expatriate footballers in 137 leagues from 93 national associations at worldwide level. In total, 12,051 expatriates originating from 174 national associations are currently present in the 2,120 clubs studied. Brazilians are the most numerous abroad (1,202 players), ahead of French (781) and Argentineans (753).

The report also presents the main destinations for the principal exporting countries. While the main destination of Brazilians is Portugal (221 players), that of French is England (107 players). The most numerous contingent of Argentineans is to be found in Chile (106 players). Also well represented in foreign associations, English footballers mainly go to Wales (143 players) and Scotland (114).

Expatriate players are present in all of the 93 countries and 137 leagues surveyed. Their overall percentage in squads is 21.6%. The CIES Football Observatory Digital Atlas provides data on their playing time in 31 top division leagues of UEFA member associations. For more information, please contact us at football.observatory@cies.ch.

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The ability to both create and convert big chances is a key success factor. However, issue number 187 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post highlights that in four out of the five major European leagues, teams heading the table distinguished themselves from runner-up clubs above all for their ability to score with no clear-cut opportunity available.

Rome (26), Paris St-Germain (25), Tottenham (34) and RB Leipzig (25) scored significantly fewer goals from situations with no big chance available than Juventus (37), Monaco (36), Chelsea (41) and Bayern Munich (40). In no big-5 European league, the club having created the most clear-cut scoring opportunities tops the rankings: PSG, Barcelona, Rome, Borussia Dortmund and Manchester City.

The key question is thus to know why some teams scored more goals with no big chance available. Luck certainly plays a role at this level. However, the greater desire to win should probably also be taken into account. In addition, while the best form of defence is attack, we should not forget the importance of defensive teamwork to win trophies.

Issue number 186 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post analyses the results of big-5 league teams according to their transfer expenditure to sign the players fielded over the 2016/17 season. A positive and significant correlation was measured between fees paid and points per match in all leagues surveyed. This confirms the strong link between money and success.

Three teams performed much better than the amounts invested on the transfer market would have suggested: West Bromwich Albion, Atalanta and Freiburg. The most positive gaps in the French Ligue 1 were recorded for Nantes and Nice. Eibar and Alavés are at the top of the table at Spanish Liga level.

The club having so far the most under-performed with regard to its expenditure in signing players fielded is Wolfsburg. Results obtained by Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen, Hamburg and Sunderland were also clearly disappointing. The same holds true for Bastia in France, as well as for Inter and Palermo in Italy.

Issue number 185 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the top 100 list of the best performing big-5 league players in the area of dribbling. Middlesbrough’s Adama Traoré outranks Eden Hazard (Chelsea) and Allan Saint-Maximin (Bastia). Neymar, Lionel Messi and Alexis Sánchez also are in the top 10 positions of the rankings.

The dribbling index is calculated by dividing the number of dribbles attempted by the percentage of successful ones. This allows us taking into account dribbling skills from both a quantitative and a qualitative perspective. In quantitative terms, the big-5 league player who attempted the most dribbles so far is Barcelona’s Neymar (269), ahead of Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace) and Felipe Anderson (Lazio).

The best ratio of successful dribbles among players in the top 100 list was recorded for OGC Nice’s midfielder Wylan Cyprien (87%). At second position is another French Ligue 1 player: Marco Verratti (Paris St-Germain). The best ratio for players who attempted more than 100 dribbles was observed for Eden Hazard: 75%.

Dear subscriber,

The CIES Football Observatory research team is happy to inform you that the Digital Atlas was updated. It now takes into account domestic league games played during the last six months. This exclusive tool allows you to compare the squad make-up of teams in 31 top division leagues of UEFA member associations.

In addition, the new top 100 lists of the teams having fielded club-trained players for the highest percentage of minutes, the most stable line-ups, as well as the youngest ones are now available. The rankings refer both to the 31 top division leagues of UEFA member associations and the five major European championships (Spanish Liga, English Premier League, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A and French Ligue 1).

We hope that you will enjoy these tools. Any feedback is welcome. We also kindly invite you to follow us on Twitter. Thank you for your interest!