Creative Focal Points

In order to identify where various teams focus their creative play, I have taken a close look at distribution data. Whichever area had the highest percentage of created chances per particular area was taken as a focal point for that team. For the likes of Manchester United and Tottenham, it was very close and when we look at crosses it becomes more apparent where a lot of the play comes from. Note, this is not an article that looks at what team has the highest number of chances in a particular area, but instead tries to identify the main area a team’s chances are coming from. I have left out teams such as Newcastle, West Ham and Leicester which have parted with their managers and are more likely to adopt different styles of play and new focal points. In addition, last year’s relegated teams have been omitted.

Team Focal Point

Centre-Focused Teams

Arsenal: (40.6%) 190 chances created

Swansea: (39.1%) 124 chances created

Liverpool: (37.5%) 163 chances created

Tottenham: (35.1%) 143 chances created

Man United: (34.5%) 134 chances created

Left-Focused Teams

Crystal Palace (Pardew): (42.7%) 73 chances created

Everton: (40.2%) 141 chances created

Aston Villa (Sherwood): (39.3%) 46 chances created

West Brom (Pulis): (38.9%) 42 chances created

Chelsea: (37.8%) 176 chances created

Stoke: (36.8%) 132 chances created

Tottenham: (35.1%) 143 chances created

Right-Focused Teams

Southampton: (35.6%) 136 chances created

Man City: (35.5%) 189 chances created

Key Players

So from here, we can look at these specific areas and see which players accounted for the majority of chances created. It is important to note that where a particular team, for instance, Chelsea, might create more chances on the left, this does not mean Cesar Azpilicueta is expected to score higher than Branislav Ivanovic simply because he plays on the left side. Likewise, with teams that focus on the right wing, it may be an accumulation of two or three players rather than, let’s say, one key player through the centre. In order to avoid mistakes like this, I have made up two stat tables, the first looking at Defenders and the second looking at Midfielders, to highlight individual threat rather than generalising about a specific zone of the pitch.

Centre

Arsenal

Ozil: 70 chances created, 27.8 mins per chance created, 5 assists, 104 crosses.

Sanchez: 79 chances created, 39 mins per chance created, 8 assists, 145 crosses.

Cazorla: 78 chances created, 40.5 mins per chance created, 11 assists, 174 crosses.

Ramsey: 47 chances created, 44.9 mins per chance created, 6 assists, 36 crosses.

Swansea

Sigurdsson: 73 chances created, 38.1 mins per chance created, 10 assists, 45 crosses.

Shelvey: 30 chances created, 85.3 mins per chance created, 5 assists, 16 crosses.

Ki: 26 chances created, 109 mins per chance created, 1 assist, 4 crosses.

Liverpool

Gerrard: 53 chances created, 44.5 mins per chance created, 1 assist, 29 crosses.

Coutinho: 58 chances created, 50.3 mins per chance created, 5 assists, 21 crosses.

Henderson: 66 chances created, 52.1 mins per chance created, 9 assists, 31 crosses.

Lallana: 32 chances created, 57.8 mins per chance created, 3 assists, 11 crosses.

Milner (while at Man City): 52 chances created, 35.9 mins per chance created, 7 assists, 27 crosses.

Tottenham

Eriksen: 83 chances created, 39.5 mins per chance created, 2 assists, 179 crosses.

Lamela: 60 chances created, 40.4 mins per chance created, 7 assists, 94 crosses.

Mason: 29 chances created, 83.3 mins per chance created, 4 assists, 28 crosses.

Man United

Di Maria: 51 chances created, 33.9 mins per chance created, 10 assists, 200 crosses

Mata: 50 chances created, 48.3 mins per chance created, 4 assists, 107 crosses

Young: 34 chances created, 63.6 mins per chance created, 5 assists, 169 crosses

Herrera: 26 chances created, 75.6 mins per chance created, 4 assists, 17 crosses

Left

Crystal Palace (under Alan Pardew)

Puncheon: 26 chances created, 43.5 mins per chance created, 3 assists, 72 crosses.

Bolasie: 19 chances created, 58.4 mins per chance created, 2 assists, 68 crosses.

Everton

Baines: 70 chances created, 41.9 mins per chance created, 9 assists, 186 crosses.

McGeady: 17 chances created, 54.4 mins per chance created, 3 assists, 46 crosses.

Mirallas: 18 chances created, 83.1 mins per chance created, 1 assist, 72 crosses.

[Deulofeu: 9 chances created, 108.4 mins per chance created, 3 assists, 82 crosses.]

Aston Villa (under Tim Sherwood)

Grealish: 14 chances created, 44.7 mins per chance created, 1 assist, 27 crosses.

N’Zogbia: 8 chances created, 81.3 mins per chance created, 1 assist, 25 crosses.

West Brom key players (under Tony Pulis)

McManaman: 7 chances created, 43.1 mins per chance created, 1 assist, 15 crosses.

Brunt: 22 chances created, 60.6 mins per chance created, 6 assists, 89 crosses.

Morrison: 13 chances created, 85.1 mins per chance created, 0 assists, 26 crosses.

[McClean: 29 chances created, 85.9 mins per chance created, 3 assists, 128 crosses.]

Chelsea

Hazard: 100 chances created, 35.3 mins per chance created, 9 assists, 61 crosses.

Oscar: 36 chances created, 57.6 mins per chance created, 8 assists, 38 crosses.

Luis: 10 chances created, 100.1 mins per chance created, 0 assists, 33 crosses.

Stoke

Moses: 32 chances created, 46.8 mins per chance created, 3 assists, 127 crosses.

Arnautovic: 42 chances created, 48.1 mins per chance created, 6 assists, 123 crosses.

Pieters: 17 chances created, 159.1 mins per chance created, 2 assists, 77 crosses.

Tottenham

Townsend: 13 chances created, 60.4 mins per chance created, 2 assists, 58 crosses.

Chadli: 41 chances created, 61.3 mins per chance created, 5 assists, 45 crosses.

Rose: 27 chances created, 92.2 mins per chance created, 4 assists, 89 crosses.

Davies: 8 chances created, 118.4 mins per chance created, 1 assist, 28 crosses.

Right

Southampton

Tadic: 68 chances created, 31.6 mins per chance created, 7 assists, 225 crosses.

Long: 21 chances created, 78.6 mins per chance created, 5 assists, 57 crosses

Clyne: 22 chances created, 151 mins per chance created, 0 assists, 117 crosses

Man City

Navas: 79 chances created, 30.4 mins per chance created, 8 assists, 242 crosses

Milner: 52 chances created, 35.9 mins per chance created, 7 assists, 27 crosses

Zabaleta: 26 chances created, 105 mins per chance created, 4 assists, 48 crosses

Conclusions

• Arsenal’s central midfielders share a lot of the responsibility to create. While Mesut Ozil stands out as the highest creator, it would not be mad to mull over Santi Cazorla as a cheaper alternative, especially considering their points-per million ratio. Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshire are also stand-out options for 2015/16 if they can secure a central midfield berth.
• Swansea seem to focus their style around their centrally placed attacking midfielder, Gylfi Sigurdsson, and it’s no wonder with some of his impressive displays last season, allowing him to feed the strikers or wingers. Swansea full-backs don’t seem very appealing for attacking threat, though, because of this.
• Like Arsenal, Liverpool’s central midfield shares a lot of the creative responsibility. With the departure of Steven Gerrard, James Milner could be the surprise pick over the popular Phillipe Coutinho and Jordan Henderson. New recruit Roberto Firmino is also one to watch to see how his role will impact Liverpool’s play. If he secures a central attacking midfield role he could prove a canny transfer for Fantasy managers.
• Christian Eriksen seems to be pivotal to Spurs’ attack through the centre, and when they focus on the wings, the stand-out performer was Erik Lamela, followed by Nacir Chadli. With new additions likely to arrive it is worth keeping an eye out as to whether Spurs’ focal point of attack shifts more to the wings or remains in the centre.
• As mentioned, Manchester United’s focal points change a lot but Angel Di Maria, Juan Mata and Ashley Young are highlighted as the main men. With the introduction of Memphis Depay, it will be interesting to see if he can nail a spot ahead of Young and deliver from the wings.
• Throughout Alan Pardew’s short spell at Crystal Palace, it is clear to see that Yannick Bolasie and Jason Puncheon are his key players where creativity is concerned. With the rumoured arrival of Yohan Cabaye, perhaps this will dent or improve their capabilities. Time will tell.
• Everton focus their play around left-back Leighton Baines but it will be interesting to see if new recruit Gerard Deulofeu will effect this with his wide play and whether Kevin Mirallas will be less greedy with the ball.
• Jack Grealish could be a cheap FPL option judging by his short run of games under Sherwood for Villa. It is hard to gauge with only a handful of matches played, but he has looked impressive at creating chances.
• If Chris Brunt is reclassified for West Brom (which is highly doubtful) he would be a fairly decent pick considering his returns under Pulis and West Brom’s left-sided focal point. Other than this, nobody really stands out as a worthwhile option.
• Eden Hazard, as we expected, is the key player for Chelsea, but perhaps we shouldn’t overlook the capability of Oscar, who likes to roam about the pitch, as an alternative.
• Should Mark Hughes make a move for Chelsea’s unwanted winger Victor Moses, he could be an important figure, as he was while on loan for Stoke in 2014/15. Otherwise, should the rumours of Xherden Shaqiri agreeing a deal with Stoke be true, that would be a mouth-watering prospect. Marko Arnautovic is certainly one to watch with his high number of crosses, good assist return and low number of minutes per chance created.
• Southampton thrived under Ronald Koeman, and Dusan Tadic contributed to their impressive campaign with his seven assists, even though as the season tailed off he succumbed to rotation and injury. Tadic was only bested by Ozil and Manchester City’s David Silva, Jesus Navas and Samir Nasri for minutes per chances created and it will be interesting to see how the Serb comes back next season after a groin injury kept him out of the last few games.
• Man City created so much last year, but didn’t deliver to our expectations at times. Though Silva created more chances per minute than Navas, most of City’s chances came from the right. Should Liverpool’s Raheem Sterling move to City, he may be a decent option if Manuel Pellegrini uses him on the right wing.