February 23 – Under 21 players are far more likely to be given playing time in France’s Ligue 1 than in any of the other Big 5 European leagues in England, Germany, Italy or Spain. In fact, they are almost three times as likely to get playing time than in England’s Premier League.
The statistics from the CIES Football Observatory look at the amount of playing time given to U21 players across the five leagues. Players are looked at in six categories: Goalkeepers, full backs, centre backs, defensive midfielders, attacking midfielders, forwards.
Just 6.5 players from the Premier League made the lists of 60 players. Five of them were full backs with Tottenham Hotspur’s Dele Alli ranked fifth in the attacking midfielders category.
Manchester United’s Anthony Martial tops the forwards category but only scores a half point for the Premier League, with another half point for Ligue1 as he was at Monaco as well for the period covered by the stats.
Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin tops the Full backs ranking.
France give most opportunity to their young players according to these tables, followed by Spain and the Bundlesliga. Italy came fourth with almost double the Premier League contingent of players.
View the stats at http://www.football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/b5wp/2015/138/en/
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