Performance analysis: best clubs and players of the season

The CIES Football Observatory is happy to disclose its exclusive rankings on the the best performing clubs and players of the big-5 league season. The full tables are presented in issue number 112 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post, as well as in the fifth edition of our Monthly Report. The latter publication unveils the unique approach developed by our research team to measure on a objective basis the pitch performance of clubs and players.

At club level, the analysis shows that Barcelona was the best performing team in terms of dangerousness (ahead of the other Champions League finalist, Juventus), grip on the game (ahead of Champions League semi-finalist, Bayern Munich) and duelling (ahead of surprising Torino). Borussia Mönchengladbach heads the set play table (ahead of Hellas Verona).

At the top of the individual rankings per position are Thiago Silva (centre backs), Dani Alves (full backs), Francesc Fàbregas (defensive midfielders), James Rodríguez (attacking midfielders) and Lionel Messi (forwards). The best performing players compared to teammates are Raphaël Varane (centre backs), Patrick van Aanholt (full backs), N’Golo Kanté (defensive midfielders), Lars Stindl (attacking midfielders) and Antonio Di Natale (forwards).