I tend to try and base my team selection around stats and fixtures to give me the best chance of picking up the most points over a season. Last year I covered the majority of my selection process on this blog, however I didn’t start picking my team until very close to the start of the season. If I want to better my top 500 overall finish next season, I plan to do even more analysis and planning this time around to try and give myself an advantage over others.
As we don’t know when the stats from the 2016/2017 season will be lost from the Dream Team website, I’ve made the most of these figures and conducted some detailed analysis. This analysis will hopefully give us some clues with regards to team selection for next season.
Premier League table based on total points accumulated by each team
| Man Utd | 2,553 |
| Spurs | 2,362 |
| Man City | 2,349 |
| Chelsea | 2,256 |
| Arsenal | 2,230 |
| Liverpool | 1,786 |
| Everton | 1,419 |
| Southampton | 1,404 |
| Leicester | 1,209 |
| West Ham | 1,158 |
| Palace | 1,016 |
| Stoke | 969 |
| Burnley | 918 |
| Bournemouth | 914 |
| Middlesbrough | 888 |
| West Brom | 845 |
| Watford | 642 |
| Sunderland | 517 |
| Hull | 506 |
The table gives a fascinating insight into which teams performed well from a points perspective. The top 7 is no surprise, it reflects exactly how the Premier League finished with the order of teams mixed up slightly.
Importance of selecting players from the top teams
League position appears to have a direct correlation with overall points scored by a team. This makes perfect sense as players pick up more points when they keep clean sheets and score goals.
Pick players with the most fixtures
With Man Utd going the distance in the Europa League and EFL cup, this proves that having players with more fixtures truly does result in more points. Despite finishing outside of the top four they picked up the most points of any team by a significant margin.
Goalkeeper points
Total points: 1,823
| Spurs | 168 |
| Man City | 139 |
| Southampton | 136 |
| Chelsea | 123 |
| Arsenal | 120 |
| Everton | 112 |
| Liverpool | 107 |
| Stoke | 98 |
| Leicester | 95 |
| Man Utd | 94 |
| Middlesbrough | 91 |
| Burnley | 84 |
| Sunderland | 76 |
| West Ham | 70 |
| Bournemouth | 57 |
| Swansea | 54 |
| West Brom | 54 |
| Palace | 50 |
| Watford | 48 |
| Hull | 47 |
The table above shows the combined points accumulated by goalkeepers of every club in the Premier League. Once again it shows that selecting clubs who finish towards the top of the table is favourable. It’s also important to select players who are more likely to keep a clean sheet. For example Middlesbrough didn’t have the best of seasons going forward but did keep 11 clean sheets in the Premier League. This is reflected in the table above as they appear much higher than where they actually finished in the league.
The table above is worth considering when selecting a goalkeeper for next season. I’ll be looking for a cheaper option and the table points me to teams such as Southampton (Forster) and Stoke (Butland).
Defender points
Total points: 8,896
| Man Utd | 879 |
| Chelsea | 855 |
| Spurs | 780 |
| Man City | 736 |
| Arsenal | 710 |
| Southampton | 595 |
| Everton | 564 |
| Liverpool | 448 |
| Stoke | 387 |
| Middlesbrough | 364 |
| Leicester | 352 |
| Palace | 338 |
| Burnley | 334 |
| West Brom | 297 |
| Bournemouth | 291 |
| West Ham | 275 |
| Watford | 257 |
| Swansea | 187 |
| Sunderland | 156 |
| Hull | 91 |
Man Utd had a lot of additional game time but also picked up the most clean sheets in the Premier League, alongside Spurs. Chelsea also had a solid defensive line and this shows through in the stats above. It’s interesting that the top 5 are by some distance clear of other clubs around them and these are the same teams who finished in the top 5 of the Premier League. Once again this shows the importance of picking players from the best teams. The stats also almost perfectly correlate with teams who kep the most clean sheets last year.
Midfielder points
Total points: 9,516
| Man Utd | 971 |
| Man City | 969 |
| Liverpool | 888 |
| Spurs | 839 |
| Chelsea | 797 |
| West Ham | 525 |
| Everton | 440 |
| Leicester | 439 |
| Arsenal | 437 |
| Southampton | 434 |
| Palace | 426 |
| West Brom | 382 |
| Swansea | 319 |
| Bournemouth | 302 |
| Stoke | 285 |
| Middlesbrough | 282 |
| Hull | 281 |
| Burnley | 277 |
| Watford | 119 |
| Sunderland | 104 |
Once again the top 5 teams as they finished in the Premier League are head and shoulders above the rest. Man Utd once again came out on top but I’d put this down to their Europa League commitments. Liverpool also performed particularly well in midfield. With the lack of an out and out goalscorer this doesn’t really come as a surprise with more emphasis on goalscoring midfielders. It’s also worth noting that out of all the positions in the team 9,516 was the highest return of points. I’d generally put this down to teams playing more midfielders over 90 minutes than strikers. This doesn’t mean midfielders generally pick up more points.
Striker points
Total points: 6,424
| Arsenal | 963 |
| Man Utd | 609 |
| Spurs | 575 |
| Man City | 505 |
| Chelsea | 481 |
| Liverpool | 343 |
| Leicester | 323 |
| Everton | 303 |
| West Ham | 288 |
| Bournemouth | 264 |
| Southampton | 239 |
| Burnley | 223 |
| Watford | 218 |
| Palace | 202 |
| Stoke | 199 |
| Sunderland | 181 |
| Swansea | 158 |
| Middlesbrough | 151 |
| West Brom | 112 |
| Hull | 87 |
Despite finishing outside of the top 4, Arsenal finished over 300 points clear in terms of points accumulated by strikers. I think this can generally be put down to two things – Sanchez picking up a huge individual total and a couple of their players who could be classed as midfielders being classed as strikers. What’s also interesting is that Chelsea and Liverpool came 5th and 6th in the list. I believe this represents the lack of a consistent goalscorer at both clubs. The stats show that it’s important to select a striker who is going to grab 25+ goals in all competitions who gets a huge amount of game time. I personally wouldn’t be looking outside of the bigger teams for a striker next season.
As always, share your thoughts/ideas in the comments below.
To keep up to date join our mailing list:
To show your support for the website and to keep it free:
[maxbutton id=”1″ ]