February 27 – Chelsea’s Eden Hazard is the world’s leading dribbler of the ball so far this season, topping Neymar and Lionel Messi in an analysis of Europe’s Big 5 league players.
The CIES Football Observatory dribbling index is calculated by multiplying the average number of dribbles achieved per 90 minutes with the percentage of successful ones. CIES says this enables them to take “account of both the quantity and quality of dribbles.”
“While Neymar won so far a higher number of contests per 90 domestic league minutes, Hazard achieved a greater percentage of dribbles attempted: 75% compared to 62%. Messi’s success rate is also 62%,” says the report.
The highest percentages of successful dribbles are made by central midfielders with Moussa Dembele, Mario Lemina and Julian Draxer standing out, though their stats reflect the more defensive location of their dribbles.
Looking by league, players in France fill nine in the first 15 positions. The highest ranked players trained in the other countries are Isco in Spain (16th),Zaha and Loftus-Cheek in England (19th), Draxler in Germany (19th) and Italy’s D’Alessandro (38th).
The technical breeakdown of the individual players can be searched at http://www.football-observatory.com/-Ratings-eng-
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