Are Premier League players really better? Cross-league strength adjustments

Topline

The Big-5 league per-90 stats currently feed Model 4's percentile ranker directly. A goal in EPL is harder to score than a goal in Ligue 1 — the leagues have different strength-of-opposition distributions. Treating them as equivalent depresses EPL players' ranks relative to their true level and inflates ranks at the bottom of the Big-5 hierarchy.

The fix: pull each row's per-90 offensive stats through a multiplicative adjustment derived from ClubElo per-league mean strength, before the percen…

Full note

Standard Pass

Read the full research note

Are Premier League players really better? Cross-league strength adjustments runs 1,012 words. The Standard Pass unlocks every research note in full, plus the complete forecast and per-team and per-player ratings — valid through the tournament.

Get the Pass — $15 →

24h self-service refund·No subscription, no auto-renewal·Access through 31 Dec 2026. See refund policy.