With the game just being released, it’s a good time to look at the highest scoring players over the 2020/2021 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. Kane (Spurs) – 357 points
2. Fernandes (Man Utd) – 323 points
3. Salah (Liverpool) – 265 points
4. Rashford (Man Utd) – 257 points
5. Cancelo (Man City) – 242 points
6. Foden (Man City) – 229 points
7. Son (Spurs) – 225 points
8. Mane (Liverpool) – 224 points
9. De Bruyne (Man City) – 209 points
10. Chilwell (Chelsea) – 204 points
11. Calvert-Lewin (Everton) – 204 points
12. Mahrez (Man City) – 200 points
13. James (Chelsea) – 199 points
14. Pepe (Arsenal) – 191 points
15. Wan-Bissaka (Man Utd) – 186 points
16. Mount (Chelsea) – 184 points
17. Maguire (Man Utd) – 184 points
18. Gundogan (Man City) – 182 points
19. Dias (Man City) – 181 points
20. Sterling (Man City) – 180 points
For me the key takeaways from this are:
One player from outside the “top 7” clubs – a typical trend is that players within the top 20 are made up from players within the top 7 clubs. If we assume the top 7 are: Man City, Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs, Leicester and Arsenal then we have only one player outside of these clubs on the list this year. There are absolutely no surprises in the top 20 other than maybe Calvert-Lewin. 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. 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 6 defenders on the list and no goalkeepers. Kane and Fernandes were the only two players who scored over 300 points which suggests we should be picking players rather than worrying too much about what position they play in.
Kane finishes highest point scorer – no real surprise here despite Spurs not having the best season. This now makes him the most expensive player on the game for the upcoming season but are we brave enough to leave him out?
Players reputation doesn’t always transfer into points on the board – I find the stats interesting from a psychological point of view. Throughout the season there was a lot of talk about players like Kane and Salah being essential. However, someone like Rashford wasn’t too far behind Salah in terms of points on the board. It does make me wonder if any player is truly essential or if we mainly base our opinions on the perception we have of those players.
Thanks for the good info. Just to let you know I can’t comment on the FB posts because all my friends in my mini leagues will see what I’m up to, due to the way in which FB allows others to see posts which they are not privy to. This happened to a guy on dreamteam rating this week on the euros. Otherwise the whole dtt subscription for me will be pointless as they will all know and either join themselves or try and Chuck me out of
leagues as they will accuse of cheating, even though technically it is not !!! Would be more than happy to comment on WhatsApp service.
Is it not all a private group Chris?
Well, no I don’t think they are entirely private. A guy In dream team rating group got caught out by his fb friends in the euros come seeing him comment on the fb group and then they got him out of their mini league !!! I think FB works In weird ways. So I won’t risk it personally !! Il just stick to the blog !
I think the only way people would know is if they were also a member of the group but it’s always a bit of a risk on Facebook. I try to respond to all comments on here so get all your thoughts posted in here.
Great article Paul and I reckon there is a strong argument to go with quite a few “set and forget” options for the season right off the bat; Bruno, KDB, Kane etc.
Very very early days and I’m not entirely sure of injury situations etc just yet but here’s my first draft (without having had time for more in-depth study):
Pickford – decent opening fixtures for the toffees, although I got stung bad going Pickford early doors last season.
TAA – Only if fully fit by the season start. He’ll be chomping at the bit and Pool have nice opening fixtures.
AWB – Very little competition for that RB spot and United have great opening fixtures. Should be fresh. Hoping he can improve his attacking returns this season.
Femenia – Watford we’re very tight at the back last season under Muñoz and The Hornets have favourable opening fixtures. Likes to bomb forwards too. Bargain bucket option to hopefully gain some early value before off-loading.
KDB – Set and forget.
Bruno – Set and forget.
Sterling – Maybe would not have normally gone for him but the price is just too good to ignore for a player of his calibre. Rotation will always be an issue but he has the potential to score very highly when he plays.
Grealish – This boy haunted me for the first half of last season. Central to everything that Villa do going forwards and always a good bet for SM awards. Good opening three fixtures.
Kane – Set and forget.
Salah – Set and forget.
Greenwood – Not sure about this choice but with Rashford likely to miss the start of the season with his shoulder healing, Greenwood should get good game time and he’s had the summer off so should be fresh. Good opening fixtures.
I’m sure that team will change many times before the curtain raiser but it’s a start. Boy it’s good to be back. ⚽️💪
I am chomping as well Chris
what about Buendia cheaper than Grealish.
He is, but I see Grealish as the focal point of most things from an attacking perspective in that team.
Buendia scored 86 points the last time he was in the PL (for Norwich) having played 39 games (avg points per game 2.2).
Grealish scored 127 points last season having only played 27 games. That’s an average of 4.7 per game. Worth the extra I reckon.
Those stats for Grealish are from last season btw.
Good to have you back Chris. I think you’re right with the set and forget choices. I generally think most of the tinkering often doesn’t pay off and people would be better off just sticking with what they’ve got most of the time but it’s knowing when to pull the trigger. You’ve highlighted a few players that I’ll be considering as well. Wan-Bissaka seems to tick all the boxes for me in particular