Sponsored by CLUB
With the Premier League entering its final week of the campaign, awards are being handed out and ‘team of the season’ line-ups are getting compiled all around the world.
The good folk at CLUB have put their own twist on this with their look at the players who have underachieved and overachieved this season.
In case you’re new to this free-to-play Fantasy game, CLUB allows football fans to create, build and sell their own digital football club and step in the shoes of a Club Owner (CO). It combines the thrill of Fantasy Football with the strategy and excitement of club-building, available on iOS and Android.
Uniquely, you’ll be able to choose players from Europe’s top five leagues, while the intuitive scoring system means that every player on the park has the potential to rack up a good points tally – unlike, for example, defensive midfielders in FPL.
Here, we take a closer look at the players who scored highly on CLUB’s scoring system this season and who perhaps didn’t have great things expected of them.
There is also a glance at the ‘worst’ XI of underperformers.
First, a quick guide to the game.
REGISTER FOR CLUB HERE
How Do I Play CLUB?
Like all the Fantasy games we know and love, CLUB users pick real players and score points based on their real-world performances.
CLUB takes it to another level in their next-generation Fantasy Football game, however:
- Choose players from Europe’s top five leagues (Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1, Bundesliga) and follow their fortunes into both the UEFA Europa League and Champions League.
- The intuitive scoring system reflects what you see on the pitch. For example, an N’Golo Kante masterclass with no goals or assists would still see him score competitively.
- Squads use real formations and realistic player roles, so you can’t have four left-backs in your defence. These will reflect the real-world positions that a player is capable of playing. So, for instance, Mohamed Salah could be a forward or a midfielder depending on how you choose to play him.
- Initially you’ll be selecting a team from the Premier League, with a limited budget and tough choices to make. You might start with a star or two but you’ll have to grow your club, spot talent and earn money and work towards a dream team that can eventually include all of the top stars across Europe!
- You can grow your budget by climbing the league rankings, winning cup competitions or growing your club’s infrastructure via facilities and sponsorships.
- CLUB’s dynamic transfer market sees player prices fluctuate based on their effective ownership (EO). With five leagues’ worth of star players, teams should theoretically be less ‘template’.
UNDER AND OVERACHIEVERS
Edouard Mendy only ranks eighth for CLUB points amongst Premier League goalkeepers.
Contrast that with Wolves’ number one, Jose Sa, who is currently third of all those in his position. According to the expected goals prevented stats in Fantasy Football Scout’s Members Area, no goalkeeper comes anywhere near Jose Sa’s +7.80.
This means that opponents’ shots – when on target – should have resulted in 46.8 goals, yet Sa only let in 39. The next best are Kepa Arrizabalaga (+1.30), Ederson (+1.10) and Alisson (+1.00).
Matty Cash has been credited with 13 clean sheets, although Aston Villa went on to lose games 3-2 and 1-0 once the right-back was substituted. Always an attacking threat, Cash has the third-most penalty area touches amongst defenders. A trio of goals and assists have also arrived.
Despite CLUB giving points for recoveries, duels won and interceptions, N’Golo Kante ranks really low due to him only starting 19 league games. As the first name that usually comes to mind when thinking of defensive midfield engines, it’s a surprise to see Kante not benefit from these rewards.
Yet West Ham United’s Declan Rice has made the most of them. With 240 points, he is amongst the league’s top 15 highest CLUB scorers. In FPL, Aymeric Laporte, Raheem Sterling and Cristiano Ronaldo share the equivalent 15th place, highlighting the potential of strong defensive midfielders in CLUB.
With Jadon Sancho, his underachievement really is being compared to last season. This is because the Manchester United attacker is on half of the CLUB points he would have earned last season, when at Borussia Dortmund.
134 points is disappointing for Chelsea midfielder Kai Havertz, who often gets deployed as an out-of-position forward. His 11 goal involvements is better than last season but his FPL campaign was summarised by the events of Gameweek 9.
About to face Norwich City at home, over 360,000 managers bought Havertz. He was the only starter to blank in their 7-0 win.
Sticking with Chelsea, their £97.5 million signing Romelu Lukaku has certainly underachieved so far. Before Gameweek 36, he had only scored five times. So it’s unsurprising to see that Lukaku has less than half of his points tally of last season, where 24 goals and ten assists occurred at Inter Milan.
Finally, to end on a positive, Brentford’s Ivan Toney has the most points of all promoted players. An average league campaign was immediately boosted by Christian Eriksen’s arrival. Before the Dane’s first start, Brentford had recorded just one point from their last eight matches. Subsequently, the Bees have went on to win seven out of ten.
REGISTER FOR CLUB HERE
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Full-year memberships, monthly subscriptions and a FREE trial are all now available.
Join now to get the following:
- Plot your transfer strategies using the fully interactive Season Ticker.
- Get projections for every Premier League player provided by the Rate My Team statistical model.
- Use Rate My Team throughout the season to guide your selections and transfers.
- Get access to over 150+ exclusive members articles over the season.
- Analyse our OPTA-powered statistic tables specifically tailored for Fantasy Football Managers.
- Use our exclusive tool to build custom stats tables from over 100 OPTA player and team stats.
- Enjoy our Flat-Track Bully feature which introduces an opposition filter to your tables.
- View heatmaps and expected goals data for every player.
- Use our powerful comparison tool to analyse players head-to-head.
ALREADY A USER? CLICK HERE TO UPGRADE YOUR FREE ACCOUNT
NEW TO SCOUT? CLICK HERE TO START A MEMBERSHIP ACCOUNT
Full-year memberships, monthly subscriptions and a FREE trial are all now available.
Join now to get the following:
- Plot your transfer strategies using the fully interactive Season Ticker.
- Get projections for every Premier League player provided by the Rate My Team statistical model.
- Use Rate My Team throughout the season to guide your selections and transfers.
- Get access to over 150+ exclusive members articles over the season.
- Analyse our OPTA-powered statistic tables specifically tailored for Fantasy Football Managers.
- Use our exclusive tool to build custom stats tables from over 100 OPTA player and team stats.
- Enjoy our Flat-Track Bully feature which introduces an opposition filter to your tables.
- View heatmaps and expected goals data for every player.
- Use our powerful comparison tool to analyse players head-to-head.
ALREADY A USER? CLICK HERE TO UPGRADE YOUR FREE ACCOUNT
NEW TO SCOUT? CLICK HERE TO START A MEMBERSHIP ACCOUNT