By David Gold
August 21 – Football clubs using fewer players during the season will pick up better results, according to an analysis of the 2011-2012 season by the CIES Football Observatory.
The champions of the five major European leagues, Montpellier, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus, Real Madrid and Manchester City (pictured above after winning the English Premier League) all used fewer than 25 players last season.
However, the team using the fewest players was Bayern Munich, who experienced heartbreak on three fronts as they finished second in the Bundesliga, lost the German Cup final and the Champions League final at their home ground.
They used just 21 players last season, indicating that while consistent line-ups are important, using too few players can lead to being overstretched.
This theory was also proven by Marcelo Bielsa’s Athletic Bilbao, the team which used the second fewest players last season in the big five leagues.
The Basque side were one of the most entertaining teams in Europe last year, but their high paced style of football led to them eventually fizzling out at the end of the season as the effects of a small squad took their toll on the Europa League runners up.
This summer German giants Bayern have been busy bolstering their squad, acquiring Croatian playmaker Mario Mandžukić (pictured below, right), Swiss midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri, and they are also closing on the signing of Javi Martínez from Athletic Bilbao.
The importance of a consistent starting line-up was perhaps shown best in France, where big spending Paris St Germain tinkered under Carlo Ancelotti with various systems in the second half of last season, relinquishing the lead in the title race to eventual champions Montpellier.
The study of last season also sheds an interesting new light on the debate over the abilities of the world’s two best players, Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Players in Europe were ranked according to their effectiveness in six areas: shooting, chance creation, take on, distribution and recovery and general.
While Ronaldo was the most effective player when it comes to shooting, Messi is the best player in the general category.
Similarly, Ronaldo’s team, Real Madrid, were ranked the most effective team in terms of shooting, with Barcelona rated the best at general play.
With Madrid winning the Spanish title for the first time in four years last season, this indicates that Ronaldo’s tendency to play a more individualistic game with a “shoot on sight” policy was the decisive factor in the battle between the La Liga giants last year.
Unsurprisingly, Barça were the most effective team in possession, while Juventus were the best team in Europe last season at recovering the ball.
The Serie A champions did not lose a single game in the league, prompted in large part by the mercurial playmaker Andrea Pirlo, but it was Arturo Vidal (pictured above) who was most crucial to their success according to the analysis.
The Chilean, who signed at the start of the season from Bayer Leverkusen, was the best player in Europe last year at recovering the ball.
Barcelona’s Xavi was the best in possession and Real Madrid’s Mesut Özil ranked highest for chance creation.
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