With the game released, it’s a good time to look at the highest scoring players over the 2023/2024 campaign. I always find this a good place to start and they will help when it comes to picking a team for next season. As a result, I’ve highlighted the top 20 highest scoring players below.
1. Foden (Man City) – 392 points
2. Haaland (Man City) – 385 points
3. Palmer (Chelsea) – 368 points
4. Saka (Arsenal) – 363 points
5. Salah (Liverpool) – 330 points
6. Fernandes (Man Utd) – 328 points
7. Watkins (Aston Villa) – 315 points
8. Guimaraes (Newcastle) – 304 points
9. Bowen (West Ham) – 300 points
10. Kudus (West Ham) – 300 points
11. Nunez (Liverpool) – 284 points
12. Alvarez (Man City) – 280 points
13. Gordon (Newcastle) – 278 points
14. Odegaard (Arsenal) – 272 points
15. Gallagher (Chelsea) – 269 points
16. Isak (Newcastle) – 267 points
17. White (Arsenal) – 266 points
18. Groß (Brighton) – 260 points
19. Ward-Prowse (West Ham) – 259 points
20. Rice (Arsenal) – 256 points
For me the key takeaways from this are:
Every player on the list either had European football or finished in a European place on the table – a typical trend is that players within the top 20 are made up from players within the top clubs. There are no real surprises in the top 20 other than maybe Groß, Guimaraes and Gallagher. At the end of every season, as you’d expect, the highest scoring players typically come from the teams who performed the best over the season. This means it is usually a list dominated by the big clubs or those who have been involved in Europe. My strategy will be to continue to pick players from the top teams based on this evidence – they tend to perform better and have more fixtures due to involvement in European competitions.
What positions return the most points? – traditionally strikers and midfielders picked up the most points over the course of the season. This hasn’t really changed much with only 1 defender on the list.
Foden finishes highest point scorer – a little surprised Foden beat Haaland to the highest point scorer but he was a close second. I can see both scoring well again.
Some good observations there Paul, giving us plenty of food for thought heading into the new season. 👍🏻
I’m going to take my full ten team allowance this season (if they do indeed persist with this) and allow myself to experiment a little with strategy. I don’t actually agree that one person should be allowed ten teams but this is how those at the top of the overall standings seem to approach the game. If you can’t beat them, join them!
I think the injury to Alisson has skewed the Liverpool defender’s scores mind you, as you would normally expect to see VVD in that top 20 too. Liverpool really struggled to keep a CS during that time and I would have expected to see TAA and Robbo further up that list of 20 under normal circumstances.
I don’t foresee me going “big at the back” with my ML teams this season, but I may have a couple of experimental teams with this strategy. Trent can bring in points from all areas and Maguire seems to be a Whoscored favourite who also seems to play EVERY game throughout the season. You also always have to consider Robbo and possibly VVD depending on price (he was way overpriced at the start of this season imo). That’s the defence for one of my “experimental” teams sorted then!
I would imagine a lot of people would bring Sancho in if the move to United goes through. Could he be one of those exceptions who would hit the ground running in the PL?
He could absolutely be an exception. I should have mentioned Bruno Fernandes really as he’s already proven to be an exception. I always do the 10 teams myself but end up getting bored with the other 9 when focusing on this one so much. I think it’s going to be difficult to get that initial team right this season – so many options.
Throw into the mix that City, Wolves and United may not start their season at the same time as the rest too and it’s brain meltdown time….🤯😂
That would be a nightmare to be fair. Although it could give us an early advantage over those who forget 😂
That thought did cross my mind too….
*strums fingers together in true Mr Burns style “excellent “. 😂
I never do the 10 teams myself – last season I had 6 teams, three of which were abandoned quite quickly so really focussed on three teams which I entered in several mini leagues. So the most I will be 4 teams as it will help my concentration. I think the DTT mini league winner entered only one team.
Interesting article of Foden here:
https://amp.theguardian.com/football/blog/2020/aug/07/phil-foden-stars-to-offer-manchester-city-glimpse-of-multiple-futures?__twitter_impression=true
I think his inclusion in the team last night for such a huge fixture made a massive statement for how much more he’ll be involved next season. Could be a real bargain.
I thought the same when I saw that he started – pretty big statement in a game like that.
Playing alongside the likes of Dilva, Sterling, KDB, Aguero etc can only serve him well in his development. I think this season is going to be the one where he lights the blue touch paper.
I think it could be as well. Be interesting to see how they price him.
Early injury news consideration:
Jonny facing a lengthy spell on the side-lines apparently with a knee injury.
Ruben Vinagre could be a nice early season cheapie? 👀
Just realised Vinagre is classified as a midfielder within the game at present, so unless he’s reclassified as a defender for the new season, he’s not really an option….
The player who surprises me most on that list is Maguire.Don’t like picking Utd defenders as i like them to concede.Might have to change my attitude.Has made a pleasant change watching the European games and not being bothered who scores or how many a team concedes
I thought the same, never expected him to be the highest scoring defender. Having looked at the stats he played a load of games/minutes and picked up the most clean sheets of any player. I think it’s probably down to the Europa League and Man Utd’s run in the FA Cup.