The CIES’s most recent technical analysis of player performance in Europe’s Top-5 Leagues presents their attempts to provide an objective measure of player performance.
At first glance, there are facts listed here that some as no great surprise; for example, that Arturo Vidal is ranked the best-performing defensive midfielder of the top-5 leagues, or that Thiago Silva is a top class centre-back. Dig a bit deeper, and there are a few shocks – such as Ignazio Abate being one of the best-performing full-backs in Europe, or that Dybala is adjudged to be performing better than Cristiano Ronaldo.
This may suggest there are tweaks to be made in their model, but the ‘absolute’ rankings as listed above are only half of the story. The CIES also produce ‘relative’ rankings for players, which are the best performers in the top-5 teams relative to their own team-mates. These are a lot more thought-provoking; after all, as the report itself states:
‘This type of analysis is particularly useful in unveiling the potential of footballers who do not yet play for the most competitive clubs. It also allows us to measure the clubs’ dependency on their key players.’
Before we take a look at the relative rankings for those players based in Italy, it would help to have a quick overview of their methodology – as it helps set out which competencies are most important. Performance is analysed on the basis of 6 key performance indicators, as listed in their graphic below:
Firstly, they examine the rankings by competency, each list comprising the top 10 players from Europe’s top-5 leagues:
RIGOUR – In a list populated by Full-and Centre-Backs, Fiorentina’s Facundo Roncaglia makes second place for his part in earning la Viola their 5th place finish. Genoa’s Sebastian De Maio makes 8th position, despite (or given the nature of how relative rankings work, due to) Genoa’s slide from 6th in 2014/15 to 11th this season. Although different in stature and style, both defenders are 29, so are more likely to settle into senior roles into their respective sides.
RECOVERY – The 10 players are divided up into 7 Defensive Midfielders, 2 Box-to-Box Midfielders and 1 Centre-Back. The combination of positional awareness and tactical intelligence required to satisfy this indicator are the hallmark of a mature midfielder. Riccardo Montolivo ranks 3rd overall – the best in Serie A. In the light of Conte’s preliminary selection for the Euros, the following conclusion drawn by CIES is particularly interesting:
‘Our analysis also suggests that Riccardo Montolivo is the best candidate to supplant Claudio Marchisio, injured, for the next European championships’
Of course, Marchisio features – even in a side as successful as Juventus this year, his performances stood out. Napoli’s Jorginho, for Napoli’s dependence on him in a stellar season makes the list too.
I mentioned there was a centre-back in the list: Kalidou Koulibaly of Napoli.
As put best by Adam Digby of FourFourTwo (link), Koulibaly’s first season in Italy would give no indication of what a talent he would grow to become:
‘The Senegalese giant looked awkward and ungainly, was often caught out of position and appeared to lack either the tactical discipline or concentration necessary to succeed in Serie A’
So what business does he have in this list? He’s improved massively under Maurizio Sarri’s reign. Leave it to Adam to explain further:
‘…perhaps his biggest improvement has been in terms of positioning – he’s now seemingly always in the right place to steal the ball away from an opponent’
A centre-back blessed not only with great height and physical presence, but also an excellent reading of the game is rare in the modern game. Napoli daren’t sell such an important asset to their side’s spine if they wish to challenge for honours again next season.
There’s one more surprise here – Mirko Gori of Frosinone creeps in at number 10 in the list. Relegation favourites from before the season even started, Frosinone’s highlights included scalping Sampdoria and holding Juventus to a draw – with Gori playing a key role in midfield. For a player of just 23, the potential is evident for him to play at a higher level.
DISTRIBUTION – a category populated by DMs and BMs – the representatives include another appearance by Jorginho (according to FICG the top passer in the entire league – link). Lucas Biglia features, too, for his work in Lazio’s midfield. With all mercato attention on Lazio this summer likely to be centred on Felipe Anderson, expect Biglia to be sought-after, too.
TAKE-ONS – a trait important to forwards and attacking midfielders – unsurprisingly Franco Vazquez tops the list for his role in dragging Palermo to Serie A survival this term. His achievements are made ever more significant in part of the report’s concluding statements, on what factors to consider when looking at relative performance:
‘Moreover, individual performance is influenced by the general configuration of teams. It is, for example, much easier for a player to be competitive in a stable environment with a clear strategy than in an unstable one characterised by frequent changes of the coach’
We all know there’s not many clubs as unstable as Palermo under Zamparini! Atalanta’s Alejandro Gomez is also prominent. More of a winger than Vazquez; his 7 goals, 7 assists and 5 man-of-the-match performances give him a Whoscored.com rating of 7.36 – 9th in the site’s ranking of Italy’s top players. At the age of 28, it may be that Atalanta choose to cash in on their asset this summer to a side seeking attacking reinforcements.
CHANCE CREATION – only one player from Serie A features here – Empoli’s Riccardo Saponara. Unlucky not to be featured in Conte’s most recent selection, the playmaker has been reborn since returning to Empoli after a failed experiment at Milan. The top Italian assist-maker this term, only 1 behind leaders Pjanic and Pogba. Still only 24, the attacking midfielder occupies both ends of the relative performance scale – in the sense that he is both depended upon by his team as a key player, and also has the potential to play at a high level.
SHOOTING – Gonzalo Higuain is the only representative from Serie A in the list after breaking Gunnar Nordahl’s record this season. Remember, though, that this is not an absolute but a relative list – so for all his record-breaking feats, HIguain has also been dramatically outperforming his team-mates. A quick look at Napoli’s page on WhoScored.com confirms as much – Higuain has an average Shots Per Game score of 5.2, a full 1.6 SpG clear of Insigne, and leaving Hamsik (2.2) miles behind. Just to put into perspective, HIguain and Insigne occupy the top two slots in SpG for the entire league, too.
In this piece we’ve seen which players stand out when considering individual key performance indicators. To go a level further, the CIES package these KPIs up to show what are most important for different positions on the pitch. In the next article on this topic, we’ll look at which players make the top places when the rankings are organised by position.
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