CIES Football Observatory have crunched the numbers to deduce the most impactful players on the planet under the age of 25, with Tottenham target Alessandro Bastoni coming out on top.
CIES decided to adopt a role-based approach based on technical profile clusters to determine the top 10 players in each role.
The points for each player were calculated based on the official game minutes played over the last year, as well as pitch performance compared to their teammates, opponents and other players of the same profile.
Bastoni was one of just four players to get a perfect 100/100 score, with the other three being Eder Militao, Jules Kounde and Vinicius Junior.
The Inter Milan star was reportedly Tottenham’s top target for the left centre-back role this summer (Football.London) but the Italy international’s agent declared that his client wanted to the San Siro (Football Italia), with Spurs signing Clement Lenglet on loan from Barcelona instead.
Sky Sports journalist Dharmesh Sheth has backed the North London club to reignite their interest in Bastoni next summer (GiveMeSport).
Meanwhile, Emerson Royal was ranked seventh place in CEIS’ top 10 for the ‘defensive infiltrator’ profile with a score of 85.5 while Dejan Kulusevski was ranked tenth in the ‘infiltrator creator’ profile with 88 points.
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Spurs Web Opinion
I have an issue with these sorts of pure quantitative analyses without any qualitative assessments. It is clear that the players’ numbers have been heavily influenced by the system and teams that they play for.
For example, I do not think Emerson is the top ten wing-backs in the world (although he is a good full-back). However, the system that Spurs play, means that he finds himself in the final third more often than others who play the same position.
While data analysis is becoming an increasingly important part of football, particularly recruitment, numbers alone without the appropriate context, do not tell the full story.
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