Hummels and Lahm head defender rankings. A Euro 2016 indicator?

May 3 – The CIES Football Observatory has released more details of its ranking of the best players in the Big 5 European leagues for this season. Dortmund’s Mats Hummels leads the list of best centrebacks while Atlético Madrid’s Filipe Luís tops the full back table.

Last week CIES named Bayern Munich stopper Oliver Neuer as Europe’s best performing goalkeeper this season. It looks like Germany could have a good defence at this summer’s Euros as veteran Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich) was named as the second best performing full back.

CIES base their stats on Key Performance Indicators which are weighted according to their importance per position – for defenders the two crucial indicators are rigour and recovery. “The former area defines the ability to minimise opponents’ chances through robust duelling. The latter highlights proficient interception work,” says the CIES.

The stats only rank players who have played at least 60% of the minutes played by their club this season.

Paris St Germain have both their centre backs in the top 10 with Thaigo Silva in second position and David Luis in eighth. Manchester City have tow players ranked; Nicolas Otamendi at third in the centre backs and Alexander Kolarov eighth in the full backs.

Barcelona also have two players ranked in the top 10, both full backs, reflecting the nature of the club’s more attacking style. Dani Alves is ranked third while Jordi Alba is ninth.

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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Source: CIES Football Laboratory

View the rankings at http://www.football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/b5wp/2015/148/en/

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