Issue number 251 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post highlights the 20 most experienced young players from 22 European competitions per year of birth. The rankings were elaborated using an exclusive methodology weighting domestic league minutes played by footballers during the last two years according to the sporting strength of employer teams.

The CIES Football Observatory celebrates the 250th edition of its Weekly Post with an exclusive analysis on the contribution of clubs in training the players fielded in big-5 league matches during the last five years. Training clubs are those where players have been for at least three seasons between the ages of 15 and 21. The rankings are elaborated by summing minutes played in the big-5 since January 1st 2014 by all of the footballers trained per club.

Who are the footballers having played the most minutes in the big-5 leagues during the last five years? This is the question answered in issue number 249 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post. Samir Handanovi? (Inter) tops the table for goalkeepers, while César Azpilicueta (Chelsea) heads the rankings for outfield players.

No team in the 35 European competitions surveyed needed as few shots to score as Paris St-Germain. The French side scored so far every 4.7 shots. According to the exclusive InStat data, this ratio was inferior to five for another big-5 league club only: Borussia Dortmund. The top three per league is available in issue number 248 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post.

Issue number 247 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents big-5 league players whose current estimated value exceeds the most the fee paid by recruiting teams during last summer. Rodri Hernández (+€45 million) tops the table for fee-paying transfers ahead of Lucas Torreira (+€44m), while Emre Can (+€45m) heads the rankings for free agents ahead of Stefan de Vrij (+€39m).

Issue number 246 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post analyses the pitch production of big-5 league clubs during the first part of the current season to highlight if they have over- or under-performed in terms of points achieved. The findings suggest that Manchester City will finally beat Liverpool in the English Premier League title race.

The first Weekly Post of the year presents the 100 big-5 league players with the highest transfer value according to the exclusive CIES Football Observatory algorithm. The 20-year-old French prodigy Kylian Mbappé (€218.5 million) tops the list ahead of Harry Kane (€200.3m) and Neymar (€197.1m).

The last CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post of the year 2018 highlights players whose teams have achieved the most or least points per match when they were in the starting 11 than when this was not the case. The most positive gap in absolute was recorded for Christophe Jallet (OGC Nice): 7 wins out of the 7 matches that he started compared to only 0.44 points per match for the remaining games.

Issue number 243 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the top 20 tables for big-5 league players whose transfer values have increased the most during the last three months both in absolute and relative terms. At the head of the two rankings is the fresh English full international and Borussia Dortmund player Jadon Sancho: +€78 million and +806%.

Issue number 242 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post relies on InStat data to present the average effective time of games in 37 European competitions. The Swedish Allsvenskan is the league with the most fluid matches (60.4% of effective time), just ahead the UEFA Champions League (60.2%). The Portuguese Primeira Liga finds itself in the opposite position (50.9%).

Issue number 241 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks countries according to the number of domestic league minutes played by their representatives in the big-5. The French top the rankings (19.7% of total minutes) ahead of the Spaniards (15.2%) and the Germans (9.8%). Overall, players originating from 85 countries have taken part in big-5 league matches so far this season.

Issue number 240 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the ten most fielded U21 players in the big-5 leagues and Portuguese top division. Until last Friday, eleven U21 footballers had played the totality of domestic league minutes. Among them notably are hot prospects such as Rúben Neves, Jules Koundé, Arne Maier, Nikola Milenkovi? and Rúben Dias.

Every month, the CIES Football Observatory updates the transfer valuations of big-5 league players using its exclusive algorithm. Issue number 239 of the Weekly Post presents the top 10 list for each position. The highest figure overall was recorded for Kylian Mbappé (€216.5m). Ederson, Umtiti, Alexander-Arnold and Alli top their position’s rankings.

Issue number 238 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post highlights clubs having trained the most players currently present in 31 European top divisions and the big-5 leagues respectively. The highest figures were recorded for AFC Ajax for players in the 31 top divisions (77) and Real Madrid for footballers in the big-5 (36).

The CIES Football Observatory has developed an exclusive approach to assess the performance of players using the statistics produced by the leading data company OptaPro. Issue number 237 of the Weekly Post presents big-5 league footballers with the highest scores for the last 1,000 domestic league minutes played.

Only three teams in Europe have fielded this season players who have been in the first team squad since more than five years on average: Real Madrid (5.84 years), Barcelona (5.36) and Bayern Munich (5.26). Issue number 236 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post also reveals that another Champions League participant, Viktoria Plze?, is the most stable club outside of the big-5 (4.28 years).

Issue number 235 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post highlights teams having fielded the youngest and oldest line-ups in domestic league games so far this season (or since 1st of July for summer leagues). The extreme values at big-5 league level were recorded for two Italian teams: Fiorentina (23.79 years) and Chievo (29.53 years).

Issue number 234 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks clubs across Europe according to the number of minutes per shot attempted. The following teams head the table in the five major European leagues: Manchester City, Juventus, Olympique Lyonnais, Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Slavia Praha tops the rankings outside of the big-5.