Big-5 Weekly Post n°73 - April rankings of the best big-5 league players

The CIES Football Observatory is happy to disclose the rankings of the three best performing players per position and league for the month of April. Only footballers who played at least 66% of minutes were taken into account. All the information is presented in the issue 73 of the Big-5 Weekly Post.

In England, at the top of the tables are players from four clubs: Džeko (Manchester City), Cazorla (Arsenal), Schneiderlin (Southampton), Azpilicueta and Cahill (Chelsea).

In Spain, Aduriz (Athletic Bilbao) was the only best performing footballer who does not play for Real Madrid (Isco and Sergio Ramos) and Barcelona (Busquets and Dani Alves).

In France, PSG is the only club with two players at the top of the ranking: Cavani and Cabaye. Sertic (Bordeaux), Perrin (St-Etienne) and Bedimo (Lyon) head the remaining tables.

In Germany, players from four different clubs are at the top of the rankings: Oli? and de Bruyne (Wolfsburg), Schweinsteiger (Bayern), Spahi? (Leverkuesen) and Posp?ch (Mainz).

In Italy, finally, no club has more than one player at the top of the tables: Immobile (Torino), Hernanes (Inter), Inler (Napoli), Chiellini (Juventus) and Pasqual (Fiorentina).

Our metrics measure players' pitch production and efficiency in six complementary areas of the game.

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

Data in each area are weighted according to the impact on club results per position. Consequently, for example, rigour is more important for centre backs than forwards, while the opposite holds true for shooting.