With his five goal haul grabbing the headlines in Gamweek 15, Dimitar Berbatov had himself something of a bandwagon before the big freeze put paid to Man United’s game at Blackpool last Saturday. The Bulgarian sits atop the Premier League scoring charts with eleven goals to his name so far, despite failing to find the net since gameweek 5, which was, coincidentally, the last time Wayne Rooney played 90 league minutes for Sir Alex Ferguson‘s side.
So much of the focus was on Rooney’s return to the starting XI against Blackburn that Berbatov was perhaps under less pressure for the first time in two months and resultantly stepped up to the occasion in emphatic style. Bearing in mind, then, the Bulgarian hadn’t scored in his previous seven matches, is there a correlation between the presence of Rooney and how Berbatov performs?
Clearly, as far as FPL returns go, there is a dramatic effect. This latest Numbers Game article for Members delves even further though, and examines the OPTA data for both players in attempt to assess just how reliant Berbatov has become on Rooney’s presence on the pitch.
