COPA90‘s Doc of the Day: Eli Mengem traveled to the Balkans to find out how much the World Cup Qualifiers meant to two of the smallest nations competing for a spot at the world’s biggest sporting event.
You may never have noticed, but we provide the same notoriously harsh player ratings that we have for the top tiers of European football across the full English Football League!
This week, we’ve been looking through the best average ratings in each division to put together our team of the season, if the 2019/20 campaign were to stop here.
First up, here’s our team for the EFL Championship. And perhaps controversially, there’s no place for the league’s top scorer – Fulham’s Aleksandar Mitrović. Did we mention these ratings were harsh!?
Collated from the 100s of live statistics that come in to the app on matchday, we then average out the rating awarded to an individual for each game. The team here is therefore based on the best average for a player in each position. Using that method, Brentford’s Ollie Watkins actually rates higher than Mitrović despite scoring less.
The best players in the Championship, according to our ratings are QPR’s Eberechi Eze, and West Bromwich Albion’s Matheus Pereira – with just one decimal point separating them, 7.36 to 7.35!
The Leeds United duo of Pablo Hernández (7.34), and Luke Ayling (7.30) come next – but with Hernández’s position already taken, only Ayling makes our side at right-back.
There are less surprises to be found in our team for League One. Here, five out of the top six sides in the table feature, as it stands – with Peterborough’s Ivan Toney (7.57), the division’s top marksman also coming out with the highest average.
Just behind him, is Coventry City’s Liam Walsh with an rating of 7.47. We still think his goal in November’s game against Rochdale is one of the most underrated goals of the season.
Only Oxford United, 3rd in the table plus 4th placed Portsmouth earn more than one place in our team of the season so far – taking two spots each.
In League Two, the current leaders Crewe Alexandra have produced three of our best performers in the division. Winger Charlie Kirk, with 7 goals and a staggering 14 assists comes out with the league’s best average of 7.35 with teammate, Harry Pickering just behind him on 7.30. Fellow full-back, Perry Ng is the third Alex player to make our team.
Elsewhere, Swindon Town – who only trail Crewe on goal difference in the table provide the rest of our frontline. Irishman, Eoin Doyle who made his loan move from Bradford City to Swindon’s Country Ground permanent in January has scored 25 times in 34 league matches this season.
And a mention for Crawley Town’s Glenn Morris who comes out of this analysis as the best rated goalkeeper anywhere in the EFL this season. His 10 clean sheets and 2 penalty saves earn him a highly respectable 6.94.
Doyle did score a hattrick against him back in October though. ?
If you fancy a deep dive into any of the countless statistics we cover on various league around the world, simply search by country, select a league profile and swipe right to the stats tab.
For more of this kind of thing, make sure you give us a follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Whilst we await a resolution for what remains of the 2019/20 Champions League, we thought we’d take a look through the FotMob stats to put together this – our team of the best rated players to appear in the competition this season.
GK – ?? Keylor Navas, PSG
Not everybody’s automatic thought maybe, but Navas has performed heroically in his first season with Paris Saint-German in the Champions League. He’s kept 5 clean sheets in 7 games and saved the only penalty he’s faced.
LB – ?? Alphonso Davies, Bayern München
Now a regular in every team of the season we seem to draw up, Canada’s breakthrough star of 2019/20 has appeared in 4 of Bayern’s UCL games, providing 3 assists to date.
CB – ?? Dayot Upamecano, RB Leipzig
Upamecano has been at the heart of RB Leipzig’s defence in the year they made their first ever appearance in to the knock-out stages of the tournament.
CB – ?? Kalidou Koulibaly, Napoli
The Senegalese international impressed in the Group Stages as his Italian side progressed after finishing second to reigning Champions, Liverpool in Group E. He did however miss the Round of 16, 1st leg against Barcelona.
RB – ?? Nélson Semedo, Barcelona
Our MOTM in that game against Napoli was Barça’s right-back on the night. It was Semedo’s pass that gave Antoine Griezmann the chance to level the tie going into the 2nd leg, yet to be rescheduled.
LM – ?? Serge Gnabry, Bayern München
We could have put Gnabry in any number of positions in this team, such has been his form and versatility this season. He’s scored 6 goals in the tournament, all of them against English sides – particularly sweet after his early career in the Premier League was seen as something of a failure.
CM – ?? Toni Kroos, Real Madrid
The player with our third best average rating in the Champions League during the campaign, Kroos has been central to Zidane’s plans for Real Madrid – and they’ll need him to fire again, if the club are to overturn their 1st leg defeat in the R16 to Manchester City, should that second game ever take place.
RM – ?? Achraf Hakimi, Borussia Dortmund
Dortmund’s only representative in the team after we failed to squeeze Erling Haaland in to a packed front line(!), Hakimi provided four goals on the club’s run to the R16, where they were defeated by PSG.
LW – ?? Neymar, PSG
The Parisians are into their first Quarter-Final for four seasons, thanks in part to the excellent form of their talisman, Neymar. Despite being restricted to just 4 appearances in the competition, he’s scored 3 and set up another 2 goals along the way.
CF – ?? Robert Lewandowski, Bayern München
Bayern’s third player to make our team of the season won’t need any introduction – after all, he’s had a freakishly good year in the competition, even by his standards! Lewandowski has scored 11 goals as Bayern destroyed their group and took a 3-0 lead back to Germany after the 1st leg of their R16 tie against Chelsea.
RW – ?? Lionel Messi, Barcelona
Enjoy him whilst you can! This might not be a vintage Barcelona side but the second top scorer in the competition’s history has still managed to work his magic – adding 2 goals and 3 assists in this year’s edition of the tournament.
If you fancy a deep dive into any of the countless statistics we cover on various league around the world, simply search by country, select a league profile and swipe right to the stats tab.
For more of this kind of thing, make sure you give us a follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
First, an easy one — the length of this quiz is equal to Andreas Pereira’s squad number. Now, let’s test your knowledge of the Red Devils.
If you’re feeling proud (or ashamed) of your score, let us know on Twitter.
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More quizzes to flex your football brain:
Can you name every club that has played in the Premier League?
How many clubs can you name from Champions League history?
2019-20 Premier League season quiz
Premier League grab bag quiz (buckle up, this one is tricky)
In the first of two related Stadio podcast episodes, Musa Okwonga and Ryan Hunn wonder: if you had to name a team of football’s supervillains, a side of unparalleled skill, strength, strategy and ruthlessness, who would they be? What devilish mastermind would coach a team of such cunning, and which suitably hostile stadium would be their home ground? See what you think of the terrifying squad they have selected, feel free to suggest your own on Twitter, and look out for the sequel: in which Musa and Ryan try to pick the one team of superheroes from football’s universe who could possibly defeat them.
Every football fan dreams of that striker who can come up with the goods on a regular basis, the one who bang in goals for fun and sometimes, just sometimes hits their peak at the club you support.
We’ve taken another look through the stats for Europe’s top five leagues to find out if any of the big name players are producing that much sought after, but rarely achieved goal-a-game ratio.
?? La Liga
Even in a season where we’ve seen less of him gracing the stadiums of La Liga due to his struggle with injury early in the campaign, Lionel Messi has proven once again that he can do more with less.
Messi’s 19 league goals have come across 22 appearances and 1,890 minutes of football. Perhaps it’s his form from dead ball situations that has helped him reach the top of our minutes per goal list for the division – with 4 coming from free-kicks and a further 3 from the spot.
??????? Premier League
Manchester City’s ever reliable frontman, Sergio Agüero has also had a fruitful campaign, scoring 16 goals despite only appearing in Pep Guardiola’s starting XI for 17 games. Taking into account the minutes he’s actually spent on the field, he is the first striker on this list to break the goal-a-game mark.
In fact, it’s been a record breaking season for the Argentine. His hat-trick against Aston Villa back in January saw him surpass Thierry Henry’s record for Premier League goals scored by an overseas player. It also set the new standard for the number of hat-tricks scored by any one player in the Premier League era.
Agüero now has 180 Premier League games in total, which puts him fourth in the all-time scoring chart.
?? Ligue 1
French boy wonder, Kylian Mbappé can do little wrong at PSG. Already a World Cup winner with multiple domestic titles and individual honours under his belt – he’s even beaten the rumours that he had fallen ill to the coronavirus earlier this month.
And although restricted, in terms of starts because of PSG’s embarrassment of riches in attacking positions, Mbappé has still scored 18 times in 20 appearances – a goal coming for every 81 minutes he has spent on the pitch.
?? Serie A
Atalanta’s Colombian international, Luis Muriel is somewhat of a super sub and comes out here as having the best minutes per goal of any player in Europe’s top five leagues.
Profiting from his side’s ability to dismantle Serie A defences (Atalanta have scored 7 on three separate occasions during the season), Muriel has scored 13 goals in just 918 minutes of football – with 7 of those coming from the bench.
Elsewhere in the league, Lazio’s Ciro Immobile has also scored at a rate of more than one a game, in terms of minutes played. We profiled his statistical battle against the league’s other top scorer, Cristiano Ronaldo in an article – here.
?? Bundesliga
Until his unfortunate injury last month, Robert Lewandowski had been up to his usual tricks – scoring goal after goal in the Bundesliga.
At that point, he had played more minutes than any of the other players who’ve topped our charts for the different divisions here – but he’d also scored more goals – 25 at a rate of one every 81 minutes. That’s good, even by his own extremely high standard.
Our stats for the Bundesliga do of course miss one player who’s recently joined the league. And if you know the FotMob back story originating in Norway, you’ll know he’s a particular favourite of ours! ???
Erling Braut Haaland moved to Borussia Dortmund in January and following the resumption of the season after the winter break, went about scoring 9 goals in his first 512 minutes for the club. A hat-trick came in the first half-hour of his debut against Augsburg!
So, why doesn’t Norway’s new hero appear in our table? He simply hasn’t started enough games or played enough minutes to appear. Yet!
If you fancy a deep dive into any of the countless statistics we cover on various league around the world, simply search by country, select a league profile and swipe right to the stats tab.
For more of this kind of thing, make sure you give us a follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Back in 2017, LAFA made the decision to sign Mexican striker Carlos Vela as their first ever designated player. It was a major call that has shaped MLS ever since.
When Vela left Spanish La Liga club, Real Sociedad to move to the league’s then-newest expansion team, his career had been a case of what might have been. He had finally established his reputation at La Real but the fractious relationship with the Mexico national team and his experiences at Arsenal meant he had never quite lived up to early expectations.
Two years later, at the end of a record breaking 2019 season he was celebrating his status as the league’s MVP.
Vela’s statistics from 2019 speak for themselves. As early as mid-August, he broke Sebastian Giovinco’s all-time MLS record for the combined number of goals and assists in a single season, also securing LAFC’s play-off place in the same game against Real Salt Lake.
By September, and the penultimate week of the regular season Vela went on to equal the Golden Boot scoring record for a single season, only set by Atlanta United’s Josef Martínez in 2018 – an astonishing 31 goals in 30 games.
That meant just a single goal in LAFC’s final game against Colorado Rapids would be enough to make history. Instead, he scored a hat-trick to set a new standard for the future!
Unfortunately, for Vela and his team – their hopes of adding the MLS Cup to the Supporters Shield they had earned in the regular season where ended by Seattle Sounders in the Western Conference Finals, but not before Vela had added another two goals and an assist to his final tally for the year.
34 regular season goals and 15 assists meant that Vela was involved in 49 of LAFC’s total of 85 goals across the campaign. To put that in to context, 7 MLS sides scored fewer than 49 goals in total!
His end of season average FotMob player rating of 8.46 out of 10, per game was also one of the highest we’ve seen from a player in any league for which we carry full statistics.
And Vela’s form didn’t look like letting up any time soon, with him starting the 2020 MLS season with two goals in the two opening games. One of them, a trademark lob against David Beckham’s Inter Miami. ?
With the future uncertain and MLS on hold, we can only wonder what further feats Carlos Vela will come up once football does finally restart.
For more of this kind of thing, make sure you give us a follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Every football fan dreams of that striker who can come up with the goods on a regular basis, the one who bang in goals for fun and sometimes, just sometimes hits their peak at the club you support.
We’ve taken another look through the stats for Europe’s top five leagues to find out if any of the big name players are producing that much sought after, but rarely achieved goal-a-game ratio.
?? La Liga
Even in a season where we’ve seen less of him gracing the stadiums of La Liga due to his struggle with injury early in the campaign, Lionel Messi has proven once again that he can do more with less.
Messi’s 19 league goals have come across 22 appearances and 1,890 minutes of football. Perhaps it’s his form from dead ball situations that has helped him reach the top of our minutes per goal list for the division – with 4 coming from free-kicks and a further 3 from the spot.
??????? Premier League
Manchester City’s ever reliable frontman, Sergio Agüero has also had a fruitful campaign, scoring 16 goals despite only appearing in Pep Guardiola’s starting XI for 17 games. Taking into account the minutes he’s actually spent on the field, he is the first striker on this list to break the goal-a-game mark.
In fact, it’s been a record breaking season for the Argentine. His hat-trick against Aston Villa back in January saw him surpass Thierry Henry’s record for Premier League goals scored by an overseas player. It also set the new standard for the number of hat-tricks scored by any one player in the Premier League era.
Agüero now has 180 Premier League games in total, which puts him fourth in the all-time scoring chart.
?? Ligue 1
French boy wonder, Kylian Mbappé can do little wrong at PSG. Already a World Cup winner with multiple domestic titles and individual honours under his belt – he’s even beaten the rumours that he had fallen ill to the coronavirus earlier this month.
And although restricted, in terms of starts because of PSG’s embarrassment of riches in attacking positions, Mbappé has still scored 18 times in 20 appearances – a goal coming for every 81 minutes he has spent on the pitch.
?? Serie A
Atalanta’s Colombian international, Luis Muriel is somewhat of a super sub and comes out here as having the best minutes per goal of any player in Europe’s top five leagues.
Profiting from his side’s ability to dismantle Serie A defences (Atalanta have scored 7 on three separate occasions during the season), Muriel has scored 13 goals in just 918 minutes of football – with 7 of those coming from the bench.
Elsewhere in the league, Lazio’s Ciro Immobile has also scored at a rate of more than one a game, in terms of minutes played. We profiled his statistical battle against the league’s other top scorer, Cristiano Ronaldo in an article – here.
?? Bundesliga
Until his unfortunate injury last month, Robert Lewandowski had been up to his usual tricks – scoring goal after goal in the Bundesliga.
At that point, he had played more minutes than any of the other players who’ve topped our charts for the different divisions here – but he’d also scored more goals – 25 at a rate of one every 81 minutes. That’s good, even by his own extremely high standard.
Our stats for the Bundesliga do of course miss one player who’s recently joined the league. And if you know the FotMob back story originating in Norway, you’ll know he’s a particular favourite of ours! ???
Erling Braut Haaland moved to Borussia Dortmund in January and following the resumption of the season after the winter break, went about scoring 9 goals in his first 512 minutes for the club. A hat-trick came in the first half-hour of his debut against Augsburg!
So, why doesn’t Norway’s new hero appear in our table? He simply hasn’t started enough games or played enough minutes to appear. Yet!
If you fancy a deep dive into any of the countless statistics we cover on various league around the world, simply search by country, select a league profile and swipe right to the stats tab.
For more of this kind of thing, make sure you give us a follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.