CIES’ latest monthly report is out, and this time they have been ranking the most influential U21 players in Europe.
The Football Observatory have taken into account a number of different stats as well as the player’s performance compared to his teammates in order to rank the most influential U21 players on the continent.
There are some interesting findings for supporters of both north London clubs.
For Arsenal, there are a number of Gunners represented in this list.
Bukayo Saka tops the charts and Gabriel Martinelli is in the top 20, which isn’t all that surprising as Arsenal have focused on youth quite a lot over the past couple of years.
However, in terms of Spurs, a number of their reported targets are in this list, Mohamed Ali-Cho is in 99th, Tino Livramento is in the top 50, and perhaps most interestingly, Josko Gvardiol is fourth.
Gvardiol has been strongly linked with a move to Tottenham, and now he’s been ranked as the most influential U21 defender on the planet – which is no mean feat.
Indeed, CIES’ system clearly favours attacking players, with only three of the top 14 players on this list being defenders, and according to the research, Gvardiol is the most effective of the bunch.
This is even more staggering when you consider that Gvardiol is playing for RB Leipzig, a team that are far from struggling in the Bundesliga, sitting comfortably in fourth.
Gvardiol looks to be the real deal, and if he ends up at Spurs, he could quickly become a Premier League star.
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