Pogba and Jimenez head Europe’s top U23s. The Ox, Kane and Sterling make list

By Mark Baber
February 3 – The dark art of using OPTA in-match statistics to rank players has gained new exponents as members of The International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) Football Observatory who have developed key performance algorithms in 6 different areas of play and used them to rank under-23 players across the main European Leagues.

The areas of play for which the CIES have developed algorithms for include:

Shooting: ability to take advantage of goal opportunities through accurate shooting
Chance creation: ability to put teammates in a good position to score
Take on: ability to create dangerous situations by successfully challenging opponents
Distribution: ability to keep a hold on the game through efficient passing
Recovery: ability to minimise goal opportunities for opponents through proficient interception workRigour: ability to minimise goal opportunities for opponents through robust duelling

Applying the formulae to data since the start of this season (and including only those players who have played at least 50% of their team’s Championship minutes) the CIES finds José Gímenez (Atlético Madrid) top for rigour, Layvin Kurzawa (Monaco) for recovery, Marco Verratti (Paris St-Germain) for distribution, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal) for take on, Isco Alarcón (Real Madrid) for chance creation and Neymar Júnior (Barcelona) for shooting.

Rather than attempt to integrate the rankings for the separate skill sets into an overall ranking, CEIS are content to point out that only two players are in the top 12 positions in three different rankings: Paulo Dybala (Palermo) for take on, chance creation and shooting, as well as Paul Pogba (pictured, Juventus) for distribution, take on and shooting.