David Silva heads the CIES Football Observatory table of the best performing big-5 league attacking midfielders. Manchester City’s Spaniard outranks Mesut Özil (Arsenal) and Henrik Mkhitaryan (Dortmund). In the top three positions for forwards are Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Zlatan Ibrahimovi? (Paris St-Germain) and Neymar (Barcelona). Issue number 150 of the Weekly Post presents the top 10 for both positions.

Issue number 149 the Weekly Post presents the best performing central midfielders of the big-5 league season. According to the exclusive CIES Football Observatory methodology, at the top three positions of the rankings for defensive midfielders are Arturo Vidal (Bayern), Xabi Alonso (Bayern) and Lucas Biglia (Lazio). Mousa Dembélé (Tottenham), Blaise Matuidi (Paris St-Germain) and?lkayGündo?an(Dortmund) head the box-to-box midfielder table.

Issue number 148 the Weekly Post highlights the best performing defenders of the 2015/16 season in the five major European leagues. According to the exclusive CIES Football Observatory statistical approach, at the top three positions of the centre back table are Mats Hummels (Dortmund), Thiago Silva (Paris St-Germain) andNicolásOtamendi (Manchester City). Filipe Luís (Atlético Madrid), Philipp Lahm (Bayern) and Dani Alves (Barcelone) head the full back rankings.

Issue number 147 the Weekly Post presents the best performing goalkeepers of the big-5 league season. The ranking notably takes into account the number of goals conceded per match and the percentage of saves. At the top of the table is German world champion Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), ahead of Jan Oblak (Atlético Madrid) and another world champion, the Italian legend Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus).

Leicester City’s success during current Premier League season has been outstanding. The analysis of the percentage of long balls out of total passes confirms the exceptional feature of Claudio Ranieri’s team. While the percentage of long balls for the best performing teams generally does not exceed 3%, this figure is almost 7% for Leicester. This is the highest level in the English Premier League and the third highest in the big-5 European leagues. A full set of data is available in issue number 146 of the Big-5 Weekly Post.

Issue number 145 of the Big-5 Weekly Post identifies young players active in the five major European leagues eligible for England, Spain, Germany, France and Italy who have more experience than current full internationals of those nations had at the same age. Among them notably are Nathan Redmond (Norwich),SaúlÑíguez (Atlético Madrid), Johannes Geis (Schalke 04), Samuel Umititi (Olympique Lyonnais) and Stefano Sturaro (Juventus).

Issue number 144 of the CIES Football Observatory Big-5 Weekly Post compares clubs according to the percentage of their current squad members who have been signed from abroad. At the top of the table is Chelsea (75% of players), followed by Monaco (73%) and Manchester City (69%). Sassuolo is the only big-5 league team who signed all squad members from national based clubs. The English Premier League gathers the most footballers recruited from abroad: 43.1%.

Players fielded by France since June 2015 have played 66,961 minutes in the big-5 leagues during the current season. This is the highest figure among teams qualified for the Euro 2016 tournament, ahead of Italy, Spain, England and Germany. Since last June, Didier Deschamps has fielded 35 footballers who have played during the current season in the big-5 leagues (34 for England). Issue number 143 of the Weekly Post presents data for all the national sides.

Issue number 142 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the median stay of coaches at the head of teams in the five major European leagues. Arsène Wenger stands alone, having managed Arsenal for 233 months. This is almost six times more than the second coach with the highest longevity in the English Premier League: Eddie Howe (Bournemouth). At big-5 league level, the second coach with the longest stay is Christophe Galtier (St-Etienne): 75 months.

Issue number 141 of the Weekly Post presents the highest experience capital for players born in or after 1995. Six players born in 1997 employed by clubs outside the big-5 leagues have greater experience than any footballer born in the same year playing in the five major championships: Rúben Neves (Porto), Youri Tielemans (Anderlecht), Breel Embolo (Basle), Enes Ünal (NAC Breda, on loan from Manchester City), Ante ?ori? (Dinamo Zagreb) and Renato Sanches (Benfica).

Twenty-nine big-5 league footballers aged 27 or over have played for a single club since the start of their career in the adult game. Among them are only two English Premier League players: Tony Hibbert (Everton) and Andy King (Leicester). Francesco Totti is the big-5 league player who has stayed for the longest period at the club where he made his debut. A full set of data is available in issue number 140 of the Weekly Post.

Issue number 139 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post unveils the players with the most domestic league appearances since the start of their career at adult level per year of birth. Tottenham’s rising star, Dele Alli, tops the table for players born on or after 1996. Overall, the current squad member of a big-5 league club who has played the most domestic league games during his career is Leicester City’s reserve goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer: 626 matches.

Issue number 138 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 10 most fielded U21 players per position. French Ligue 1 footballers are the most represented, while English Premier League players are the least numerous. However, Anthony Martial (Manchester United) tops the table for forwards, while Héctor Bellerín (Arsenal) heads the full back rankings. Among the most fielded young players are two Schalke 04 players: Leon Goretzka and Maximilian Meyer.

Issue number 137 of the Weekly Post presents analysis on the performance levels of Champions League last 16 round participants during the group stages. The study covers both defensive and attacking areas of play. This allows us to predict the most likely winners. The biggest performance gap was measured between Real Madrid and Rome: +32%. Atlético Madrid and Bayern Munich also performed significantly better than PSV Eindhoven and Juventus: +25% and +23% respectively.

Issue number 136 of the Weekly Post compares fees paid to sign big-5 league players during the January window with transfer values estimated on the basis of the algorithm exclusively developed by the CIES Football Observatory. In 34 cases out of 49, the difference between the fee invested to recruit a big-5 league player and his estimated transfer value was less than €2 million. The analysis also highlights that the inflation in transfer costs continues.

Manchester United have fielded the most players at English Premier League level since the start of the season. At the opposite end of the table is Arsenal. Arsène Wenger has only used 21 players so far, while Louis van Gaal has already fielded 28 footballers. The data for all clubs is available in issue number 135 of the Weekly Post. Previous research from the CIES Football Observatory suggests that maintaining a core group of footballers is more likely to allow clubs to achieve top level results.

Issue number 134 of the Weekly Post ranks players according to the level at which they outperformed their teammates since the start of the season. This allows us to highlight the outstanding performance levels of footballers who are, for the most part, not yet part of the most competitive teams, but could reach that level in the future. Several U23 players are in the top three rankings per league and position, such as Adam Masina (Bologna) and Leroy Sané (Schalke 04).

Issue number 113 of the Weekly Post ranks clubs according to their efficiency since the start of the season. The indicator of efficiency refers to the ability of teams to achieve the highest number of points with respect to their level of grip on the game and dangerousness. Stoke City is the most efficient club both in the English Premier League and at big-5 league level, ahead of Villarreal, Paris St-Germain and Hertha Berlin.

Issue number 132 of the Weekly Post presents data on the percentage of minutes played by footballers who represented a national A-team in 2015. At the top of the club table is Real Madrid, while the competition where active internationals play the highest percentage of minutes is the English Premier League. So far, footballers with national A-team caps in 2015 played 90% of domestic league minutes at Real Madrid.

Issue number 131 of the Weekly Post unveils the bi-annual list of the 100 big-5 league players with the highest transfer values, estimated according to the CIES Football Observatory exclusive algorithm. Lionel Messi heads the ranking ahead of teammate Neymar and Chelsea’s Eden Hazard. In fourth and fifth positions are Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Kane. The estimated transfer value of Neymar, €153 million, is €59 million above that of June 2015.

If the Ballon d’or was awarded per position, the following big-5 league players would deserve to be named trophy winners according to their performances in 2015: Thiago Silva, Dani Alves, ?lkay Gündo?an, Santi Cazorla, Mesut Özil and Lionel Messi. Issue number 130 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the top 10 rankings per position, as well as the “dream teams” for both players over and under 23 years of age.

Current Manchester United and Manchester City squad members have played 120 national A-team matches in 2015. This is the record figure at big-5 league level. In third position is Chelsea (111), ahead of Paris St-Germain (106) and Barcelona (99). Seven out of the 10 top ranked clubs qualified for the Champions League knockout stages. The full set of results is presented in issue number 129 of the Weekly Post.

Issue number 128 of the Weekly Post analyses the average day of birth of players for each club of the five major European leagues. In 23 teams only, this date is after July 1st. This is the average date of birth of the typical citizen. The extreme values were recorded at Fiorentina (20 April) and Southampton (11 August). This confirms the existence of a selection bias in football, which favours players born in the first months of the year.

Issue number 127 of the Weekly Post presents data on the average transfer fee invested per player fielded. Four clubs stand apart: Real Madrid (€30.7 million), Manchester City (28.3), Manchester United (27.4) and Paris St-Germain (27.1). Only in two other clubs is the average transfer expenditure for players on the pitch above €20 million: Chelsea (21.9) and Barcelona (21.3). This figure is only €2.5 million for Leicester City.