Man City dominate top 10 players lists; Aguero and Otamendi top their positions

December 12 – The CIES Football Observatory has ranked the top 10 performers in the Big 5 European leagues so far this season in eight positions. Four leagues have players filling top positions, only the Bundesliga fails to have a position leader.

Manchester City have 12 players in the top 10 lists with Nicolas Otamendi topping the table for central defenders (John Stones ranks second), and Sergio Aguero heading the centre forwards ranking.

24 out the 80 players ranked play in the Premier League.

The rankings are compiled using CIES’s proprietory statistical model and only ranks players who have played at least 720 domestic league minutes.

Players from four leagues head the tables with the others being: Liga’s Jan Oblak  (goalkeepers) and Lionel Messi  (wingers); Ligue 1’s Marco Verratti  (box-to-box midfielders) and Nabil Fehir (second strikers); as well as Serie A’s Faouzi Ghoulam (full backs) and Jorginho Frello  (defensive midfielders).

CIES notes: “Besides established football stars, in the top 10 tables also are relatively unknown footballers such as Nick Pope  (Burnley), Alisson Becker  (Roma), Michael Gregoritsch (Hoffenheim), Luis Alberto (Lazio) or Rodrigo Moreno (Valencia).

Paris St-Germain are the second most represented club with eight players.

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See the full ranking at http://www.football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/b5wp/2017/207/en/

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