Castrol Rankings put Tottenham’s Rafael Van der Vaart at an impressive 7th place – that is to say, over the last 12 months, Van der Vaart has been the 7th best footballer in Europe’s top leagues.
This achievement is made more impressive when you realise that VDV has jumped 76 spots in the last month (the Rankings are updated every month) to achieve his top 10 ranking – leading us to wonder if he is the best performer in the Premier League this season (so far)?
Stats show that Rafael Van der Vaart has had a shot every 16 minutes, the highest ratio in the Premier League so far this season. He is already Tottenham Hotspur’s top scorer in the league this season with five goals, all of those coming at White Hart Lane. The ex-Real Madrid midfielder has also had 44 shots in 690 minutes of action, that’s one every 16 minutes, beating the likes of Nani, Didier Drogba and Carlos Tevez.
| Player | Team | Minutes Played* | Shots | Minutes per shot |
| Rafael Van der Vaart | Tottenham Hotspur | 690 | 44 | 16 |
| Hugo Rodallega | Wigan Athletic | 1011 | 56 | 18 |
| Nani | Manchester United | 902 | 49 | 18 |
| Victor Obinna | West Ham United | 728 | 38 | 19 |
| Didier Drogba | Chelsea | 910 | 46 | 20 |
Here’s a look at Van der Vaart’s Premier League stats for this season:
| Player | Rafael Van der Vaart |
| Team | Tottenham Hotspur |
| Castrol Rankings | 7th (857 pts) |
| Appearances (starts) | 8 (8) |
| Minutes On Pitch | 690 |
| Goal Attempts | |
| Goals (pen) | 5 (1) |
| Mins per goal | 138 |
| Shots per game | 5,5 |
| Shots On Target | 15 |
| Shooting Accuracy | 50% |
| Chance Conversion | 17% |
| Passing | |
| Goal Assists | 0 |
| Chances created per game | 1,5 |
| Total Passes | 370 |
| Passes per game | 46 |
| Pass Completion % | 84% |
| Crossing | |
| Crosses per game | 5,4 |
| Cross Completion % | 21% |
| Dribbling | |
| Dribbles per game | 1,4 |
| Dribble Completion % | 64% |
| Defending | |
| Tackles per game | 2,1 |
| Discipline | |
| Fouls conceded per game | 1,1 |
| Fouls won per game | 1,3 |
| Yellow Cards | 2 |
| Red Cards | 0 |
Clearly he’s in the best form of his last 2-3 years, much of which can be attributed to being made the focal point of his team and getting a regular run of games at Tottenham. Harry Redknapp thinks his fitness levels are questionable and that he might fizzle out, but that’s something that he will adapt to, and Redknapp and Tottenham will hopefully manage his workload in such a way that he’s still going strong come March.
So what do you think – based on the statistics, is Tottenham’s Van der Vaart Premier League’s best player of 2010/2011 (so far)?
Bonus Link: The gorgeous Sylvie Van der Vaart.
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