Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are the players that have marked the world-wide football in the last decade, and exists an eternal debate on who is better. Fans and experts decant to one or another edict in function of preferences, assessments and personal opinions, but a study of the University of Leuven (Belgium) supported by the Dutch company of statistical 'SciSports' has shed light on the subject.
Both entities have developed a program called Valuing Actions by Estimating Probabilities (VAEP), that analyses all the actions of the footballers on the terrain of game and allows to establish a comparison with scientific data. The university professor Jesse Davis signals that further of goals and assistances, take into account passes, shots, dribblings and any type of played, to which awards a determinate value to calculate his profit in relation to the team and to the result.
This examination has taken into account the statistics of the Argentinian and the Portuguese in LaLiga between the seasons 2013-14 and 2017-18, descartando his performances in Champions, Glasses and diverse international tournaments. The result is overwhelming in favour of the of Rosario, since Messi accumulates a value of 1,21 while Christian remains in 0,61, what indicates that the impact of the '10' in the game is very upper.
The student of doctorate Tom Decroos, one of the managers of the development of this study, indicates that in the first campaigns the punctuation was very couple, but that the turning point was 2015. Besides, it explains that some cracks, like Pogba, accumulate a lot of actions of little value, whereas others, as Kane, Salah or Ronaldo, go in less in contact with the balloon but add more in his interventions. The Barcelona, however "is exceptional, has a very high number of actions of value".
This same comparison has relizado between Cristiano and Eden Hazard, and reveals that the Belgian will not be a substitute to the use for the Portuguese. "Cristiano is a classical scorer. His value is determined in his good shots. Hazard Is more involved in the game. His value delivers in passes, dribblings and shots. We can conclude that Hazard is a good reinforcement for the Real Madrid, but no a direct replacement for Ronaldo. The Real Madrid will have to use a style of different game", details Decroos.
The Champions could allow to Christian recortar distances
Although the first study already confirms a greater impact of Messi, Cristiano could recortar distances if it includes the Champions. It does lacking to analyse to the detail the individual contribution of each one to the collective successes, but because of his greater number of parties, the one of Madeira contabiliza more goals that his rival maximum. Also it is one of the few plots in which it surpasses him in list of winners, since the ex of the Real Madrid has five trophies by four of the leader barcelonista.