On the heels of hearing the news that Kevin De Bruyne will be out at least a month with a hamstring injury, it is important to point out how significant of an injury this is to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. By our count, De Bruyne has been involved in 10 of Manchester City’s 17 goals (59%) in league play thus far. He has earned 5.64 of his team’s league leading 18 points which puts him in first place in the Most Valuable Offensive Players (MVOP) rankings for the Premier League. Pep’s streak of victories is at risk moving forward without having Kevin De Bruyne to lead the team.
Our followers will notice a new column at the end of our MVOP table. This column implies where the players were ranked in the previous MVOP rankings. As you will notice, 5 out of the top 15 players were unranked in the previous rankings. This is normal because the difference between the top point earners and the rest is quite low at this point in the season.
We see the theme that we noticed in our previous MVOP analysis continuing. The stars of the league continue to dominate the rankings. This was not the case for the Premier League last season. One of the only intriguing names to show up near the top is Southampton’s Charlie Austin. In his second ever season in the EPL, Austin has earned 4.6 of Southampton’s 8 points (58%). He will be on our watch list moving forward.
The Most Valuable Starting Squad in the EPL
Utilizing the most commonly used formation in the Premier League, 4-2-3-1, we determined the most valuable starting squad through matchday 6 (excluding goalies).
Only 3 players remain as starters from the original squad shared two matchdays ago: Sergio Aguero, Leroy Fer and Santi Cazorla. Manchester City and Arsenal are the only two teams to have two players representing them. One interesting note: Centre-backs Scott Dann and Chris Smalling are the only British players in the starting squad.
Check back in after matchday 8 to see our updated rankings and starting squad.
For more information on how we calculate the MVOP rankings, click here.
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