Issue number 148 the Weekly Post presents the best performing defenders of the big-5 league season. According to the exclusive CIES Football Observatory statistical approach, at the top three positions of the centre back table are Mats Hummels (Dortmund), Thiago Silva (Paris St-Germain) and Nicolás Otamendi (Manchester City). Filipe Luís (Atlético Madrid), Philipp Lahm (Bayern) and Dani Alves (Barcelone) head the full back rankings.
The analysis is based on the statistics of players in six areas of the game, weighted according to their importance per position (see table). Two Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are crucial for defenders: rigour and recovery. The former area defines the ability to minimise opponents’ chances through robust duelling. The latter highlights proficient interception work. Only players fielded for at least 60% of minutes are included in the rankings.
According to our approach, the best performing full back over the 2015/16 English Premier League season was Aleksandar Kolarov (Manchester City). The Serbian is the only EPL player in the top 10 positions. Besides Nicolás Otamendi, Mamadou Sakho (Liverpool) is 10th among centre backs. The youngest footballers in the lists are Ricardo Pereira (Nice, on loan from Porto) for full backs (4th) and Samuel Umtiti (Lyon) for centre backs (9th). They are both aged 22.
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