The Premier League has been done and dusted and what a season it has been. Leicester City emerged out of nowhere to capture the Premier League title and made this a season to remember. The season was full of twists and turns with only one of the traditional top 4 actually making it to the Champions League.
The PFA team of the year has already been picked, however, if we consider only cold hard statistics, there are quite a few surprising inclusions and omissions. We pick a team only based on statistics taken from the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index, and here are the results:
Goalkeeper
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The younger Schmeichel played all 38 games for his side, making crucial saves to keep the Foxes ahead of the pack and was always strong between the posts. The Danish shot-stopper is the highest rated goalkeeper on the performance index, finishing comfortably ahead of PFA selected goalkeeper David De Gea.
Schmeichel has been rock solid, reliable and has been a key member of this historic Leicester City squad. According to the index, the closest competitor to Schmeichel is Tottenham’s Hugo Lloris followed by golden glove winner Petr Cech and Watford’s Heurelho Gomes.
Surprisingly, Manchester United’s goalkeeper David De Gea is languishing in 5th place and Schmeichel is way ahead of his competitors if we only consider the statistics.
Defence
The defence has the usual suspects except for the left-back position which has been taken up by Aaron Cresswell. The centre-back pairing consists of Tottenham’s Toby Alderweireld and Leicester City’s Wes Morgan. Alderweireld has the highest rating with a score of 587. Morgan is a close second with a score of 547.
In the right-back position, Hector Bellerin is way ahead of his closest competitor, Kyle Walker with a score of 535 compared to Walker’s 455. The real surprise is in the left-back position however, with West Ham’s Aaron Cresswell narrowly edging out Nacho Monreal.
The PFA team’s left back Danny Rose is rated nowhere close to Cresswell with Leicester City’s Christian Fuchs around 45 rating points behind Cresswell. Although Cresswell has had a good season, one would have expected Leicester City’s Christian Fuchs to lead this list.
Midfield
PFA player of the year Riyad Mahrez unsurprisingly makes the list along with Mesut Ozil, Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen. Surprisingly, Leicester City's supreme midfield enforcer N'golo Kante fails to make the list showing how a team picked purely based on stats can never portray the true picture.
Mahrez is the highest rated midfielder with 979 points. Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil is second way behind on 796 points. Tottenham’s Christian Eriksen is surprisingly rated very highly. Although, the Danish midfielder had a very good campaign, his midfield compatriots Dier and Dembele can rightly feel aggrieved to have not made the list.
Rounding of the midfield 4 is Tottenham’s young sensation Dele Alli. The box-to-box midfielder has really captured the imagination with his tireless displays and England will be hoping he continues his good form at the Euros.
Forwards
The forward line unsurprisingly has Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy. The Tottenham striker ended as the golden boot winner and his goals were key to Tottenham having a good season and qualifying for the Champions League. The Tottenham star is the highest rated player with 1027 points ahead of Leicester duo Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy.
Jamie Vardy has had a season to remember. The Leicester City forward has been absolutely sensational this year, plundering goals left, right and centre. Vardy even broke Van Nistelrooy’s long-standing record of scoring in 11 consecutive matches this season.
Both the star strikers were rewarded for their good form with a call-up to the national squad and they will be hoping to inspire the Three Lions to Continental glory this summer.
In the next slide, we see the performance rating of each player, how they will line up and how they compare to the PFA team of the season.
Individual Player Ratings and Formation
From the Performance index, we have ratings points for each player. Here they are:
Kasper Schmeichel: 474
Toby Alderweireld: 595
Wes Morgan: 547
Hector Bellerin: 535
Aaron Cresswell: 518
Dele Alli: 661
Christian Eriksen: 738
Mesut Ozil: 796
Riyad Mahrez: 979
Jamie Vardy: 937
Harry Kane: 1030
Here is how our EPL statistical team of the season lines up:
This team varies slightly from the PFA team of the year which lined up like this:
The likes of Danny Rose, N’golo Kante and Dimitri Payet miss out in favour of Aaron Cresswell, Mesut Ozil and Christian Eriksen? Which team do you think is better? Have your say in the comments section
