Who were the best players in the Apertura 2022 regular season?
According to SofaScore analysis, four Mexicans and six foreigners made up the 10 best players in the league phase of the Liga MX Apertura 2022 tournament.
Following the conclusion of the Liga MX Apertura 2022 regular season, the player-analysis specialists SofaScore have put together their list of the top 10 performers in the tournament’s league phase. Four Mexicans are included: Pachuca’s Luis Chávez, Chivas Guadalajara’s Alexis Vega, Club América’s Henry Martín and Monterrey’s Arturo Alfonso González.
The list - which was compiled based on players’ average match rating - is completed by the Uruguayans Leonardo Fernández and Fernando Gorrarián, the Argentines Nicolás Ibáñez and Esteban Andrada, the Frenchman André-Pierre Gignac and the Brazilian Dani Alves.
Alves the only non-playoff player on list
When it comes to the quartet of Mexican players, their outstanding displays helped their respective clubs to secure a place among the 12 qualifiers for the Apertura playoffs. That’s also the case of Toluca’s Fernández, Santos Laguna’s Gorrarián, Pachuca’s Ibáñez, Monterrey’s Andrada and Tigres’ Gignac.
The odd man out is Pumas’ Alves, whose club failed to make the postseason. The Brazilian’s average rating climbed as he settled into the side, particularly after his switch from full-back to deep-lying midfielder, a position that gave him a greater platform to pull the strings for Los Universitarios.
Best average match rating, per SofaScore:
- Leonardo Fernández: 7.51
- Luis Chávez: 7.42
- Alexis Vega: 7.33
- Nicolás Ibáñez: 7.31
- Dani Alves: 7.30
- Henry Martin: 7.28
- Fernando Gorrarián: 7.26
- Esteban Andrada: 7.24
- André-Pierre Gignac: 7.22
- Arturo Alfonso González: 7.22.
The analysis of the 10 players took into account goals, shots on target, assists, big chances created, successful passes, key passes, duels won, successful dribbles, and a host of other indicators that led the stars to be named among the regular season’s top-performing individuals.
Fernández the top performer in Apertura 2022
Fernández got better as the run-in progressed, as in Toluca’s last five games - against Chivas, Tigres, Pumas, Mazatlán and Querétaro - his match rating went from 6.7 against Guadalajara to 7.7 in the last of the matches, to give him an overall mark of 7.51. In Pachuca’s final five fixtures, meanwhile, Chávez got a 7.3 against Puebla, a 7.6 against Tijuana, a 7.2 against Juárez, a 7.3 against Atlético San Luis and a 6.6 against Monterrey.
Vega had his lowest performance of 6.4 against Tijuana, before climbing to an 8.0 against Puebla and a 7.1 against Tigres, then falling to a 6.7 against America. His drop-off in the Súper Clásico hurt Chivas’ chances of a result against their arch rivals, but he improved to 7.0 against Cruz Azul to establish himself as the third best player on SofaScore’s list.
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Ibáñez, Alves...
Ibáñez’s average rating of 7.31 came after a slight dip in his displays in Pachuca’s very final games of the campaign, but it was enough for him to finish fourth. In his last five appearances of the regular season, the 28-year-old scored an 8.8 against Puebla, an 8.0 against Tijuana, a 6.9 against Juárez, a 7.3 against San Luis and a 7.2 against Monterrey.
Alves blew a little hot and cold in his last five run-outs of the regular season, as Pumas unsuccessfully fought to snatch a spot in the playoffs. In crucial defeats to Cruz Azul and Puebla, the former Barcelona star registered a 6.7, while in the three previous games he had scored an 8.1 against Atlas, an 8.1 against Querétaro and an 8.0 against Toluca.