In our latest pre-season article on the Sky Sports game, we turn attention to the most arbitrary of scoring methods – the Man of the The Match (MoTM) award.
While it’s often easy to overlook the significance of this accolade, it should be noted that MoTM is worth five points in the Sky Sports game – the same amount as a goal or clean sheet.
As the award is dished out by the Sky Sports match reporter, and can sometimes differ from the televised opinion, it is far more difficult to predict and quantify than likely goals or clean sheets.
Using the last couple of season’s data, however, we can look to highlight certain players and positions and their potential chances of securing future accolades.
TOP OVERALL RECIPIENTS
Let’s take a look at the players who gained five or more MoTM awards last season.
| Name | Starts | MoTM | Starts – MOTM % | (MoTM 13/14) |
| Eden Hazard | 38 | 12 | 32% | 9 |
| Sergio Aguero | 30 | 8 | 27% | 3 |
| Harry Kane | 28 | 8 | 29% | n/a |
| David Silva | 32 | 7 | 22% | 6 |
| Yannick Bolasie | 31 | 7 | 23% | 6 |
| Sadio Mane | 24 | 6 | 25% | n/a |
| Philippe Coutinho | 32 | 6 | 19% | 2 |
| Alexis Sanchez | 34 | 6 | 18% | n/a |
| Jamie Vardy | 26 | 6 | 23% | n/a |
| Danny Ings | 35 | 6 | 17% | n/a |
| Raheem Sterling | 34 | 5 | 15% | 5 |
| Stewart Downing | 37 | 5 | 14% | 2 |
| Papiss Cisse | 11 | 5 | 45% | 0 |
| Gabriel Agbonlahor | 30 | 5 | 17% | 2 |
Here are a few points to note:
- Seven forwards and midfielders make up the top players here, with not a defender or goalkeeper in sight.
- As a generalisation, it appears that creative midfielders with good dribbling skills and hardworking forwards (who can also score) look the most likely to receive the award.
- Eden Hazard’s 12 awards was the highest amount ever awarded in a single season by Sky Sports – nine was the previous record, also set by the Belgian and a few others.
- Papiss Cisse had the highest overall starts to MoTM percentage with 45%, although many of those came via appearances from the bench.
- Yannick Bolasie, David Silva, Raheem Sterling and Eden Hazard are the only four players to have achieved over five MoTM awards in back-to-back seasons.
- Sadio Mane and Harry Kane were awarded many MoTM awards in a relatively small window of time suggesting when they hit form they are likely to continue to rack up the five extra points.
AWARDS BY POSITION
Let’s now assess the entire player list broken down by position…
| Position | Total awards | % of total MOTM | Total awards (13/14) | % of total MOTM (13/14) |
| Goalkeeper | 30 | 8% | 23 | 6% |
| Defender | 50 | 13% | 57 | 15% |
| Midfielder | 199 | 52% | 199 | 52% |
| Forward | 101 | 27% | 101 | 27% |
These stats help to back up our findings in our previous article on formations. The numbers underline that, once again, midfielders come out on top, followed by forwards, then defenders, and, finally, the lowly goalkeeper. In addition, these percentages mirror the previous season’s breakdown by position almost exactly – confirming that there is a trend at play.
LOOKING FORWARD
As MOTM awards are harder to predict than goals or clean sheets, we shouldn’t get too carried away and start picking players on the basis that they are MOTM “darlings”.
However, the allure of the extra five points really comes into its own when you combine it with the captain’s armband: if you’re torn between two candidates in any given Gameweek, then targeting the player a strong track record for the MoTM award is clearly the most sensible route.
Given the data on show, it’s fair to assume that we’re likely to see the trends continue. The top team midfielders, who play a big part in the final third should regularly receive MOTM gongs, along with forwards who not only score goals but put a good shift in, hassling the opposition’s defence.
For the lesser sides, it appears centre forwards are even more likely to receive MoTM if they win their side the points: Jamie Vardy, Danny Ings, Papiss Cisse, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Charlie Austin and Saido Berahino all secured the most MoTM’s for their individual sides last season.
THIS SEASON’S BENEFACTORS
So let’s try to predict a few of the likely benefactors for this season.
The table below lists my view on the key MoTM candidates by team:
| Team | Player |
| Arsenal | Alexis Sanchez |
| Aston Villa | Jack Grealish |
| Bournemouth | Matt Ritchie |
| Chelsea | Eden Hazard |
| Crystal Palace | Yannick Bolasie |
| Everton | James McCarthy/Romelu Lukaku |
| Leicester | Jamie Vardy |
| Liverpool | Philippe Coutinho/Jordan Henderson |
| Man City | Sergio Aguero/David Silva |
| Man United | Wayne Rooney |
| Newcastle | Georginio Wijnaldum |
| Norwich | Nathan Redmond |
| Southampton | Sadio Mane |
| Stoke | Bojan Krkic |
| Sunderland | Costel Pantilimon/Jeremain Lens |
| Swansea | Gylfi Sigurdsson |
| Tottenham | Harry Kane |
| Watford | Troy Deeney |
| West Brom | Saido Berahino |
| West Ham | Dimitri Payet |
Hopefully some of the above will repay my faith, although, with the ever-changing dynamics of the Premier League and the whims of the Sky Sports reporters dictating matters, I’m sure I’ll be reassessing my thinking as the Gameweeks roll by.
As always, I’ll be tracking the allocation of the MoTM awards and offering an updated view in my weekly Sky Sports article each and every Friday.
SKY SPORTS FANTASY FOOTBALL SCOUT LEAGUES
We’ve already set up the official Scout League with a top prize of £1000 on offer to the winner once again. If you’ve tinkered with your Sky team and are looking to get involved, our league name is FFScout and the code is 8009000.
Finally, we’ve set up a community article to exclusively deal with Sky Sports Fantasy teams. Those looking to get involved with the discussion should click this link.
