On the eve of the new season, we roll our second analysis article on the Sky Sports game. After previously examining formations, we now turn our attention towards the Man of the Match (MOTM) recipients.

The MOTM award is worth five points in the Sky Sports game – the same amount as a goal or clean sheet – and warrants some attention when selecting our lineup. As the MOTM is given out by the Sky match reporter, and can often differ from the televised award, it is far more difficult to predict and quantify than likely goals or clean sheets. Using last season’s data, however, we can look to highlight certain players and positions and their potential chances of securing future awards.

Most Awards Per Club

Firstly let’s take a look at the players who hogged the limelight and achieved the most Man of the Match awards for their respective clubs.

There are a number of significant points to note from our table:

• There’s no sign of Robin Van Persie, who collected a paltry four MOTM awards in spite of his goalscoring heroics for United. So, while we can perhaps rely upon the Dutchman for goals, we shouldn’t expect a haul of supplementary points.
• Man City seem to be the only team in the top seven without a stand-out performer; David Silva fared best with four MOTM awards.
• Midfielders earned the most MOTM awards for five of the top six teams, highlighting that a midfielder who plies his trade for a side that generally tends to dominate matches, is most likely to receive the award.
• In the bottom 11 teams, there were only two midfielders who claimed the most MOTM awards for their respective sides, highlighting that a defender or striker seems more likely to receive the award for a “lesser team”.

Top Overall Recipients

Let’s now follow that up by taking a look at the players who gained five or more MOTM awards last season.

Most of the names in this table won’t come as a surprise due to their performances and accumulated points in 2012/13. Let’s take a look at some of the more interesting points, however:

• Wayne Rooney achieved MOTM in a massive 45% of his games started.
• Robert Snodgrass and Ashley Williams achieved a surprisingly large amount of MOTM awards.
• With the futures of Rooney, Luis Suarez and Gareth Bale uncertain, Santi Cazorla appears the stand-out ‘big hitter’ option once again.
• Chelsea had three players with five or more MOTM awards apiece. Factor in the return of Romelu Lukaku and the potential signing of Rooney and it’s fair to say the awards could be spread even more evenly amongst Jose Mourinho’s side.

Awards By Position

Lastly we will take a look at which positions received the MOTM award the most times (excluding the relegated teams).

These stats help to back up our previous article on formations, showing that once again midfielders come out on top. There is very little between forwards and defenders, whilst goalkeepers were rarely awarded MOTM awards.

Looking Forward

As MOTM awards are harder to predict than goals we shouldn’t get too carried away and start picking players on the basis that they are MOTM “darlings”. However, combined with passing and tackling bonus, the chances of earning these awards can certainly help settle some internal struggles we may have when choosing between two players.

For example, in the contest of Santi Cazorla vs Theo Walcott, there is simply no comparison. Both produced 12 assists, while Walcott scored 14 goals to Cazorla’s 12, however, after factoring in the MOTM awards and bonus, Walcott finished on a total points haul of 174 (admittedly with less games) whilst Cazorla scored 262 points, 50 of which were from MOTM awards.

As for this season, we can expect similar trends to last. Expensive midfielders who play in “the hole” or advanced positions from the top teams should regularly receive MOTM gongs. For the lesser sides, their dominant defenders and match winning strikers will earn the plaudits. However, with an influx of some new big name forwards, we can perhaps expect that the frontmen to achieve a higher percentage of MOTM awards this time around.

This Season’s Benefactors

While we can anticipate that the patterns of awards may be similar, there are an array of players who could well emerge as stronger candidates this term.

If, as expected, David Silva is handed a regular role, and Man City’s new quartet of forwards start firing, we can anticipate the Spaniard to receive a lot more MOTM awards, in a similar vein to Cazorla for the Gunners. The possibility of Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho supporting the Liverpool attack should also see him established as a favourite – particularly if Luis Suarez is out of the picture at Anfield. Finally, on the other side of Merseyside, Kevin Mirallas is widely expected to play in an advanced position on the right of the Everton front three and could well make a dent in the awards handed to a deep-lying Marouane Fellaini.