So I'm back once again to try to see which league contributed the most successful players to Euro 2012.
Once again, just to run through the aim:
- We grouped players who play their club football in the same league and gave them points for the goals they scored, assists & appearances they made. So Nasri, Rooney, Torres & RVP all scored points for the EPL as long as they featured, scored or assisted.
I excluded defensive attributes and focused more on attack. I've also changed the grading system now, so here it is:
- 1 point per shot on target
- 3 points per assist
- 5 points per goal
- 5 points per MOM
- 7 points for Team of the Tournament
With this grading system, 2 goals earns you a solid 10 points. A player from a league would have to take 10 shots on target to match this score, which is unlikely since the most shots on target by 1 player was 15. We also only took into account players with 3 or more shots on target. We used the Carlsberg Man of the Match winners since this is a neutral selection & doesn't favour any league in particular. We then took the top 15 players from the Castrol Edge Index on the UEFA page. Simple.
So there have been 295 shots on target, 76 goals, 65 assists, 31 Man of the Match's & 15 top players.....let's see where they came from, and we'll take a little look at the top performing clubs. We're expecting the EPL to do well since they have the largest contingent at Euro 2012. Were they the top performing league though?
Let's start with the obvious - Goals:
While there were 6 players who shared the top goal-scorer title, 2 of them came from the EPL (Torres & Balotelli) & 2 came from the Bundesliga (Mandzukic & Gomez). 2 other EPL players managed to score more than once - Bendtner & Silva. In total there were 16 goals scored by players currently in the EPL. Only 9 scored by players from La Liga & Bundesliga (Bundesliga players totalled 14 goals from their 9 players). So the EPL based players, scoring 22 goals, were nearly twice as successful at scoring a goal than their Bundesliga & La Liga counterparts.
League
|
Goals
|
EPL
|
22
|
Bundesliga
|
14
|
La Liga
|
13
|
Serie A
|
6
|
Russian Premier League
|
5
|
4
|
|
Danish Superliga
|
2
|
Gambrinus Liga
|
2
|
Ukranian Premier League
|
2
|
English League 1
|
1
|
Ligue 1
|
1
|
Primeira Liga
|
1
|
SPL
|
1
|
Turkish Super Liga
|
1
|
Grand Total
|
75
|
You may have not spotted this but there were 76 goal scored in Euro 2012 (excluding penalty shoot-outs). The reason there are 75 in the table above is because Glen Johnson scored an own goal & this doesn't count towards any league.
Assists:
There were 65 assists throughout Euro 2012. Once again our expectations that the EPL, by sheer number of participants, has contributed the most assists during the competition. 16 assists for EPL based players puts the EPL ahead of La Liga. This strange way of looking at the Euro's his highlighted in the finale when Torres set up Juan Mata. Although the Spanish team-mates scored for Spain, Torres' assist was the EPL's 15th of the tournament, and Mata's goal was the EPL's 22nd of Euro 2012. Obviously, since they don't play in La Liga, their goals counted for the EPL. Currently it appears as if the EPL is running away with these stats, but that's about to change. Firstly, see the assists chart below with an impressive appearance by the Ukranian Premier League.
League
|
Assists
|
EPL
|
16
|
La Liga
|
12
|
Bundesliga
|
8
|
Serie A
|
7
|
Ukranian Premier League
|
5
|
3
|
|
Ligue 1
|
3
|
Primeira Liga
|
3
|
Russian Premier League
|
3
|
Danish Superliga
|
2
|
Turkish Super Liga
|
2
|
Gambrinus Liga
|
1
|
Grand Total
|
65
|
Shots on Target:
Ronaldo has to be mentioned when looking at Shots on Target.
He had the most in the tournament – 15. Iniesta was only 1 short with 14 on
target (yet no goal), and Benzema also making double figures. It is not the
easiest feat in the world to get a shot on target, but with this weighting, 5
shots on target is equivalent to 1 goal. With this grading system, 2 goals
earns you a solid 10 points. A player from a league would have to take 10 shots
on target to match this score, which is unlikely since the most shots on target
by 1 player was 15. I also only took into account players with 3 or more shots
on target.
League
|
Shots
|
La Liga
|
77
|
EPL
|
69
|
Serie A
|
56
|
Bundesliga
|
51
|
Russian Premier League
|
12
|
Ligue 1
|
7
|
Ukranian Premier League
|
7
|
Danish Superliga
|
4
|
Belgian First Division
|
3
|
Eredivisie
|
3
|
Greek Super League
|
3
|
Saudi Premier League
|
3
|
Grand Total
|
295
|
Carlsberg Man of
the Match:
We used the Carlsberg Man of the Match winners since this is
a neutral selection & doesn't favour any league in particular. Using a
grading system of 5 points for every MOM, we see that La Liga clearly dominate
this category. In fact, only 3 EPL players earned themselves MOM awards
(Gerrard, Nasri & Torres). 4 layers earned the MOM award more than once
during this tournament: Pirlo (Serie A) & Iniesta (La Liga) earned 3 Man of
the Match awards, while Ronaldo (La Liga) & Ozil (La Liga) each earned 2
Man of the Match awards.
League
|
MOM
|
La Liga
|
10
|
Bundesliga
|
7
|
Serie A
|
5
|
EPL
|
3
|
2
|
|
Danish Superliga
|
1
|
Gambrinus Liga
|
1
|
Russian Premier League
|
1
|
Ukranian Premier League
|
1
|
Grand Total
|
31
|
Top 15 players of
Euro 2012:
On UEFA.com you can find a write up on how the Castrol Edge
rankings work. It basically tracks everything a player does. Xavi won Player of
the Tournament in 2008 nad that was entirely based on the Castrol Edge
rankings. The Top 15 Players has the highest weight and for good reason. This
isn’t the Best Starting XI of Euro 2012, simply the 15 best players:
League
|
Count of
Player
|
La Liga
|
11
|
EPL
|
2
|
Serie A
|
2
|
Grand Total
|
15
|
Overall:
Taking all of the above into account and remembering the
grading system, below is the overall table which should reflect which league
dominated Euro 2012. Our winner is La Liga which ended a clear 40 points ahead
of the EPL. Although more goals & assists came from the EPL, La Liga
players had more Man of the Match performances & 11 of the top 15 players
come from La Liga.
When looking at the actual table, it may not be a surprise
to see which leagues make up the top 5: La Liga, EPL, Bundesliga, Serie A &
the Russian Premier League:
League
|
Score
|
La Liga
|
294
|
EPL
|
254
|
Bundesliga
|
180
|
Serie A
|
144
|
Russian Premier League
|
51
|
39
|
|
Ukranian Premier League
|
37
|
Danish Superliga
|
25
|
Ligue 1
|
21
|
Gambrinus Liga
|
18
|
Primeira Liga
|
14
|
Turkish Super Liga
|
11
|
English League 1
|
5
|
SPL
|
5
|
Belgian First Division
|
3
|
Eredivisie
|
3
|
Greek Super League
|
3
|
Saudi Premier League
|
3
|
Grand Total
|
1110
|
Another point to take note of is the minor influence of the
Eredivisie. The truth is that very few players were picked from this league
& those that were chosen had very little to do with the outcomes during
Euro 2012.
I’ve thrown in a bonus chart using the above scoring system,
but one that looks at the actual club instead of the league. Remembering that
Ronaldo would score points for Real Madrid, and that a goal is worth 5 points,
take a look at the below table and see if it’s something you expected:
Club
|
Score
|
Real
|
179
|
88
|
|
83
|
|
Bayern
|
62
|
Juventus
|
51
|
Arsenal
|
50
|
46
|
|
AC Milan
|
44
|
41
|
|
38
|
|
CSKA
|
26
|
Brondby
|
22
|
Dynamo Kyiv
|
22
|
19
|
|
Man United
|
19
|
Olympiacos
|
16
|
PAOK
|
16
|
15
|
|
15
|
|
14
|
|
14
|
|
Zenit
|
14
|
Udinese
|
13
|
FC Porto
|
11
|
Lazio
|
11
|
10
|
|
Panathinaikos
|
10
|
Dnipro
|
9
|
Munchengladbach
|
9
|
PSG
|
9
|
8
|
|
Everton
|
8
|
Lokomotiv Moscow
|
8
|
Sevilla
|
8
|
Tottenham
|
8
|
Fiorentina
|
7
|
Inter
|
7
|
6
|
|
Shakhtar
|
6
|
Celtic
|
5
|
5
|
|
5
|
|
Samsunspor
|
5
|
5
|
|
4
|
|
3
|
|
Al-Hilal
|
3
|
Club Brugge
|
3
|
FC Copenhagen
|
3
|
Galatasaray
|
3
|
3
|
|
3
|
|
3
|
|
3
|
|
Marseille
|
3
|
Roma
|
3
|
Spartak Moscow
|
3
|
Sporting
|
3
|
Grand Total
|
1110
|
EPL only:
League
|
Club
|
Score
|
EPL
|
83
|
|
Arsenal
|
50
|
|
38
|
||
19
|
||
Man United
|
19
|
|
15
|
||
10
|
||
Everton
|
8
|
|
Tottenham
|
8
|
|
4
|
||
EPL Total
|
254
|
|
Grand Total
|
254
|
La Liga only:
League
|
Club
|
Score
|
La Liga
|
Real
|
179
|
88
|
||
14
|
||
Sevilla
|
8
|
|
5
|
||
La Liga Total
|
294
|
|
Grand Total
|
294
|
Twitter: @thembasweet
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