Player Focus: Europe's top rated players in January

With the New Year back in full swing, all of Europe’s top 5 leagues are back in action and the sides now have to make do with what they’ve got after the transfer window slammed shut on Friday. With January having come to an end then, here is a rundown of the top players of the month based on WhoScored’s unique, statistically calculated player ratings.

The Bundesliga‘s star performers miss out having only played twice since a lengthy winter break, with the top 20 here all having made at least 3 league appearances in January.

There’s a familiar name at the top of the pile, with Cristiano Ronaldo picking up the best WhoScored.com rating of the month (8.70) having scored 4 goals in his 4 appearances, rifling off a European high of 35 shots in January – 11 more than any other player. He picked up 3 man of the match awards in turn, the best of which came courtesy of a brace against Celta Vigo in the first La Liga gameweek of 2014.

The Real Madrid icon is closely followed by Liverpool’s Luis Suárez, who also netted 4 times in the league last month but was significantly more efficient in front of goal, doing so from just 16 shots in comparison (25% conversion). The controversial forward earned a maximum score of 10 from WhoScored for his role in a remarkable 5-3 win at Stoke, scoring twice and completing 4 dribbles in the match.

With 3 goals and 3 assists Zlatan Ibrahimovic picks up the bronze in this instance, having laid on 13 chances for teammates as well as mustering 18 shots himself. The Swede also picked up a maximum rating of 10 in January for his part in a 5-0 rout over Nantes, scoring twice as well as picking up an assist.

Meanwhile it was Athletic Bilbao’s Aritz Aduriz who contributed to the most goals directly last month, with a European high of 5 assists added to a trio of strikes in January. That was enough to double his tally for the entire season, and with 2 goals and 2 assists in a single game against Osasuna he certainly put in one of the standout performances of the month.

Belgian pocket-rocket Dries Mertens ranks fifth in our ratings, with an average of 8.47 coming over the course of 4 Serie A appearances. He fired off 20 shots in that time – scoring 3 goals – and completed 15 dribbles; 4 of which came in a match winning display against Sampdoria having scored the only goals of the game.