Neymar and the 10 Brazil players to crash in the last six months

Martin Macdonald

26 Mar 2022 11:23 GMT
3 min read

Neymar, PSG v Real Madrid, Champions League, 2021/22 — © ProShots

Edenilson has declined as a player more than any other player Brazilian footballer over the last six months, according to SciSports.

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Using in-game data to calculate the performance of every player in the league, the Internacional midfielder has statistically had the sharpest fall in his personal level.

Edenilson was part of the Internacional side who finished 12th in the Brazilian Serie A in the 2021 season.

The last few months of that campaign were particularly rough for the club as they won just two out of their last 13 matches in the league. Overall they won just 12 of their 38 fixtures across the season.

Their decline was sharp, and that is highlighted by the fact that they have no less than five players in our top 10.

In addition to Edenilson, we have Wesley, Daniel de Sousa Britto, David Correa da Fonseca, and Taison.

Wesley has only just joined Internacional for the 2022 season, but his lack of appearances over the last few years at Aston Villa and Club Brugge have seen his skill level decline.

Fourth on the list is former Arsenal winger Willian, who is still trying to reignite his career after his ill-fated move to the Emirates.

Undoubtedly the biggest name on our list is Paris Saint-Germain superstar Neymar, who is enduring a torrid time in France currently.

In all competitions this season he has just five goals and five assists to his name, and was recently booed by his own fans in a Ligue 1 fixture after PSG were again prematurely eliminated from the Champions League.

Cleiton, Fabricio Bruno and David Luiz round out the top, or bottom, 10.

Brazilians in decline

Player	Club	SCISKILL DECLINE
1. Edenilson	Internacional	-14.1
2. Wesley	Internacional	-13.0
3. Daniel	Internacional	-12.3
4. Willian	Corinthians	-11.5
5. David	Internacional	-11.3
6. Neymar	PSG	-10.8
7. Taison	Internacional	-10.6
8. Cleiton	Bragantino	-9.5
9. Fabricio Bruno	Flamengo	-9.3
10. David Luiz	Flamengo	-9.0

How is the SciSkill ranking calculated?

Over the course of a season, there are players who will enjoy increasingly poor performances and increasingly positive performances.

FootballTransfers, in partnership with SciSports, has determined 10 Brazilian players over the last six months whose performances have declined to a higher degree than anyone else.

SciSports explains how our development ratings are gathered:

"Among others, a positive development could be boosted by more playing time, playing time on a higher level or better performances on the pitch.

"A negative development could be due to the player being active on a lower level than he used to play, bad performances or the fact that he does not play that often as he used to do.

"A SciSkill Development of 0.0 could indicate that a player is performing exactly like our algorithm expects him to do. Another reason could be inactivity (e.g. a long-term injury or suspension)."