Beat Your Manager! Fantasy Football is an app similar to “Football Manager for live football”, where you manage your favourite Club and pick lineups, bench, formations and substitutions, all in real-time. When fans play the game, the Beat Your Manager team can get a picture of the popularity of different players, by looking at how frequently they are selected for the lineup. 

Norwich City’s John Ruddy was selected for 91 per cent of fan lineups, but was not considered by Roy Hodgson for Brazil. Ruddy’s approval ratings are very consistent both pre and post-January (both 91 per cent).

The most popular Premier League defender not going to Brazil is John Terry, who recorded a 86 per cent average popularity rate with Chelsea fans, but did not make Hodgson’s squad for Brazil.

Gael Clichy was selected in defence by 78 per cent of Manchester City fans, but this was not enough to make it into Didier Deschamps’ French lineup.

Ashley Cole was rated a respectable 63 per cent of Chelsea fans, but this was not enough to make it into the England squad.

Rafael da Silva’s slightly above average 54 per cent rating by Manchester United fans was not enough to convince Phil Scolari to include him in the Brazil squad.

Terry and Clichy have pretty consistent approval ratings both pre and post-January, while Cole is less popular and Rafael is more popular in the second half of the season, compared to the first.

The most popular Premier League midfielder not going to Brazil is another Roy Hodgson reject, Gareth Barry, who recorded a 90 per cent average popularity rate with Everton fans, but did not make the cut for England.

Closely rated to Barry is Phillippe Coutinho, who was selected in midfield by 89 per cent of Liverpool fans. But this was not enough to make it into the Argentina lineup of Alejandro Sabella.

Another highly-rated midfielder not going to Brazil is Samir Nasri, who was left out of Deschamps’ French squad despite being included in 84 per cent of Manchester City fan lineups. 

Lucas Leiva recorded a very respectable 74 per cent rating with Liverpool fans, but was not considered for Big Phil’s Brazil midfield.

Nasri has a very consistent approval rating both pre and post-January, while both Barry and Coutinho are more popular in the second half of the season, compared to the first. Lucas was much more popular in first half of season (84 per cent) than in the second half (11 per cent).

The most popular Premier League forward not going to Brazil is Roberto Soldado, who recorded a 78 per cent average popularity rate with Spurs fans, but did not make Vicente del Bosque’s Spain lineup

Arouna Koné’s injury problems have obviously affected his World Cup chances, but he was only selected for 33 per cent of Everton fans’ lineups when he was playing, so he may not have made the cut for Sabri Lamouchi’s Ivory Coast squad anyway.

Soldado was more popular in the 1st half of season (86 per cent) than in the second half (67 per cent), while Koné has not played since October 2013.