Statistically, Europe's best XI

The CIES Football Observatory has come out with the best XI playing in Europe based on this season's stats and it might surprise some that Paul Pogba is the only EPL representative in there. Naturally, don't expect the tabs or pundits who have slated him to pick up on this story...

CIES best XI: Neuer; Peres, Javi Martinez, Hummels, Alex Sandro; Naby Keita, Thiago, Pogba; Messi, Mertens, Ronaldo.

http://www.football-observatory.com/

 

Tell that to the CIES with their pesky stats.

 

Or even Manchester.

 

Pogba is Man Utd's Grosicki, it appears.

 

Or even Manchester United midfield.

 

People often quote stats about football, except when those stats don't confirm the required message.

Weird innit?

 

Well that sent me back to have a look at the link.

"The rankings were elaborated according to the exclusive CIES Football Observatory’s approach to measure player performance on an objective and comparable basis"

The whole thing is a bag of ****e.

Lies, damned lies, and statistics.

 

You don't even like stats.

 

You should only quote stats when you actually know what they are, there's no mention on that site of their data, methods or analysis, why would you just take their word for it? In all probability they've put outliers like Pogba in as click bait to get people talking about their article.

 

Any stats to back that up?

 

If you're gonna quote stats, quote opta or whoscored. They're the most reliable.

 

You're all asking me as if I've written this. I've got no agenda or interest in promoting any of the players, I shared a news story about a company coming up with a best XI based on statistics.

You're all happy to quote press stories about impending player transfers without any shred of evidence - what's the difference?

About CIES:
Since January 2015, the CIES Football Observatory has published Monthly Reports analysing a wide array of topics in professional football. These include composition of squads, training and development of players, youth employment, performance analysis, transfer values, career development and best prospects, for example. The Monthly Reports replaced the annual fee paying publications edited between 2006 and 2014: the CIES Football Observatory Annual Review (nine editions) and the Demographic Study (six editions). Please write to [email protected] to suggest future case studies which could be of interest to you.

And I'm really not sure what the amount of social media followers has to do with anything, or is that a barometer of legitimacy these days?

 

I was wrong, the tabs haven't ignored it. Seems it's ok for them to run it, but heaven forbid that I should mention it from source:

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/3573270/paul-pogba-world-xi-best-players-europe-stats/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...ace-Paul-Pogba-Europe-s-best-XI.html?ITO=1490

 

In that case, I assume if I look back over the years and from this point onwards I'll never see you quote a transfer story or rumour from the same 2 sources.

 

They both found his inclusion surprising too.

 

I found his inclusion surprising too. That was why I mentioned it specifically and no other players.

I even stated 'and it might surprise some that Paul Pogba is the only EPL representative in there'

 

Ah right oh then.