Manchester City striker the best in entire Europe, research reveals

Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (L) and Tottenham Hotspurs striker Harry Kane [PHOTO: COURTESY]

Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero is the best striker in Europe, sports-oriented research body known as CIES Football Observatory has revealed.

The research which was conducted based on 2016-2017 performances focused on top 5 European leagues which have the highest stake in football. Players from English, Spanish, Italian, French and German clubs have been assessed on the previous season’s delivery. The CIES report which was released this week ranks the Argentine striker as the best, beating a group strikers playing for various clubs in Europe.

Sergio Aguero comes on top as Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski comes in second. Tottenham’s Harry Kane comes on fifth as Manchester City’s Gabriel Jesus comes at number 8 and as the last player from English premier league. However, Manchester United’s marquee summer signing Romelu Lukaku and Chelsea’s Alvaro Morata are not found in the top 10, as the CIES reveals.

The study ranks wingers with Barcelona’s talisman Lionel Messi ranked the world’s best winger followed by Raheem Sterling. However, Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo is a notable absentee despite having won a fifth Balon D’OR award. Ronaldo has not been listed in any of the rankings.

It also ranks box-to-box midfielders with PSG’s Marco Verrati leading the queue. Former English league best player Ngolo Kante is ranked at number 9 in that category. Manchester United’s David De Gea is the second best goal keeper after Atletico Madrid’s Jan Oblak.  Chelsea’s Thiabut Courtouis is however an absentee in the 10 of the best goal keepers.

According to CIES, the study was based on evaluating the performances of players who have played at least 720 minutes in their domestic leagues for the time the study was being carried out.

It highlights a number performance analysis approaches on how the players performed. Those areas included the shootings, take-on, and chance creation especially for attackers. Midfielders and defenders were assessed based on their ball recovery, distribution and rigour.