By Dr Neil: They say that, by the end of the season, the table doesn’t lie: the best team will win the league, the worst teams will be relegated, and the middling teams will finish in the middle! So surely, the same philosophy can be applied to the players within these teams? Fantasy football leagues in England have been rating players with reference to objective criteria for nearly 20 years now. So what would the England team look like if we use data from the most popular Premier League player picking portal, fantasy.premierleague.com to choose a team for Capello?
We’ve ranked players by their points per game, rather than overall points to allow for injuries and absences. And, to eliminate statistical outliers, only players with a minimum of ten matches under their belts this season are eligible. (Points in this league are principally based on goals, assists and clean-sheets.) A lot of familiar faces crop up but there are a few surprise inclusions too. These player rankings seem quite representative of England’s selection dilemmas: our top goalkeeper is only the 8th best in the league (behind the non-English keepers), but we could field a midfield of five that feature within the league‚Äôs top 10. With regard to the forwards, Rooney (2nd) is up with the best, whilst a cluster of others inhabit a statistical realm slightly below the peak of Premier League talent (Bent, Defoe, Agbonlahor and Zamora are 7th, 9th, 11th and 12th respectively.)
Goalkeeper
Joe Hart would be England’s no. 1, although he is only the 8th best Premier League stopper (according to our interpretation of Fantasy Premier League data). Paul Robinson (9th) would make the bench. Ben Foster ranks higher than Hart under points-per-game but narrowly misses out, having only played nine games for Manchester United this season.
Defence
The backline initially has a familiar look to it with Glen Johnson (2nd=), Ashley Cole (2nd=) and John Terry (8th) making the side. But they are supplemented by the otherwise ignored Jody Craddock (10th) of Wolverhampton Wanderers. Apart from a tongue-in-cheek internet campaign, Craddock hasn’t been mentioned at all with reference to the England squad. Does this mean the stats are misleading, or that he’s been overlooked as a result of being a 34 year old centre-half who has never played for one of the Premier League’s more fashionable sides? Stoke’s Danny Higginbotham (12th) takes a spot on the subs bench.
Midfield
Frank Lampard (1st), James Milner (5th) and Steven Gerrard (8th) could easily feature in England’s starting XI against the USA. They would be joined by David Dunn (7th) in England’s engine room. Aaron Lennon (9th) takes the midfield substitute spot.
Forwards
No major surprises here. Rooney (2nd) partners Bent (7th) in attack, with Defoe (9th) on the bench.
How did Craddock secure his seemingly elevated position? Goals from set-pieces, or just all-round defensive genius?
Craddock scored 36pts out of his 132 from goals and assists (27.2%)
Cole scored 36pts out of his 135 from goals and assists (26.7%)
Cole featured in less games though, so missed out on some appearance points, but was involved in more Chelsea clean sheets than Craddock was involved in Wolves clean sheets.
Interestingly, Craddock accrued 13 bonus points (points given subjectively for playing well) yet Cole who plays amongst a team of superstars, only accrued 5 bonus points.