Beat Your Manager! Fantasy Football is a game which is similar to “Football Manager”, but applied to 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 measure the popularity of different players, by looking at how frequently they are selected for the lineup.
David De Gea is the second most popular international Goalkeeper, while Asmir Begović makes up the numbers
Both the 2nd and 3rd most popular goalkeepers exited the World Cup at the group stage. Spain’s David De Gea is the most popular player in our list and takes up the second goalkeeper slot, with an impressive 96 per cent rating with Manchester United fans. Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Asmir Begović takes up the final goalkeeper slot, recording a respectable 86 per cent with Stoke City fans. John Ruddy did rank marginally higher with Norwich City fans (89 per cent), but as he did not make it into the England squad, Begović takes the final goalkeeper slot in our lineup.
Defenders: Toffees and Citizens neck-and-neck
The four next-highest rated Premier League defenders to qualify for World Cup 2014 are from only two teams: Everton and Manchester City. Everton supplied the most popular two for England, with Leighton Baines (86 per cent) only marginally ahead of Phil Jagielka, with 85 per cent. Manchester City and Belgium’s Vincent Kompany was even closer to Jagielka, separated by less than one-fifth of one per cent, while his Argentine colleague Pablo Zabaleta takes the final slot in defence, with 84 per cent approval with Citizens. This group were very closely rated. Only 2 per cent separates the top from the bottom. However, this has not been an indicator of success in the World Cup. Zabaleta, our fourth-choice defender went all the way to the final, while England’s Baines and Jagielka exited at the group stage
Second choice Premier League midfielders did better in World Cup 2014
Unlike our first-choice list last week, who all exited the World Cup at the group stage, the next most popular midfielders fared far better. Germany’s Mesut Özil is our next most popular midfielder, with a 90 per cent rating from Arsenal fans and departs the World Cup as a worthy winner. Australian Mile Jedinak is only the second non-European in our list and ranks just behind Özil, with an 87 per cent rating with Crystal Palace fans. Like Jedinak, David Silva also exited the World Cup at the group stage with Spain, despite recording 84 per cent with Manchester City fans. France lasted until the quarter final and their midfield was bolstered by Newcastle United’s Yohan Cabaye and Moussa Sissoko, who both scored an 84 per cent rating with Toon fans.
Taking a fourth striker to the World Cup? Oh, go on then
Our most popular lineup last week contained three forwards, so it is no surprise that only one more striker makes the full 23-man squad. That forward is Eden Hazard, who despite having a great season at Chelsea (and recording an 86 per cent rating), ultimately had a disappointing World Cup campaign with Belgium. He makes it into our lineup though, so hopefully that will be some consolation for him.
Overall next-most-popular Premier League World Cup 11:
Next-most popular Premier League World Cup 11:
To simplify the choice, we limited limit the candidates to just the countries that actually qualified for Brazil 2014 and also to just the squads picked by their respective Managers. Then, we looked at the Beat Your Manager! Fantasy Football data for all the football players that played for English Premier League teams during the 2013/4 season.
