Premier League team of the season: How CLUB compares to FPL

Sponsored by CLUB

The hype continues to mount around CLUB, a new free-to-play mobile Fantasy game that allows football fans to create, build and sell their own digital football club and step in the shoes of a Club Owner (CO).

Uniquely, you’ll be able to choose players from Europe’s top five leagues and they’ll score you points based not only on their performances in domestic leagues but also in European competitions too.

With CLUB’s intuitive scoring promising to match the ‘eye test’ of football fans, their Premier League team of the season has an even more ‘real’ feel than the FPL dream team.

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BEST PREMIER LEAGUE XI THIS SEASON

GK – Alisson (Liverpool, 192 points)

Also the top Fantasy Premier League (FPL) goalkeeper, it should be no surprise to see this back five belong solely to Liverpool and Manchester City. Midweek clean sheets arrived once again, taking them both up to 19 for the season.

RB – Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool, 242 points)

Naturally, Trent Alexander-Arnold finds a place in this line-up. Two goals and 12 assists alongside all those clean sheets represent another fantastic campaign for the 23-year-old.

CB – Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool, 234 points)

Liverpool’s defensive rock was missing for almost all of last season and it’s no coincidence that their points tally dropped from 97 and 99 down to 69. Set to exceed 90 this time, Virgil van Dijk should take huge credit.

CB – Aymeric Laporte (Manchester City, 194 points)

Now it’s time for some Man City. Aymeric Laporte has an outstanding 2018-19 campaign but barely played in the last two. This time, he has started 27 of 32 league games and rewarded Pep Guardiola with some strong performances. Underlying stats show that his defence has allowed the fewest goal attempts and shots on target, with by far the lowest expected goals conceded (xGC) total.

LB – Joao Cancelo (Manchester City, 227 points)

Way ahead when tallying goal attempts from defenders, Joao Cancelo may be slightly disappointed to have only scored once. However, he is a constant attacking threat and a menace to those FPL managers who opted out because of ‘Pep Roulette’ fears.

DM – Declan Rice (West Ham United, 209 points)

Now this is where CLUB differs from FPL. Its point-scoring system finds a way to reward defensive midfielders and therefore sits them side-by-side with attacking players when it comes to viable options. Declan Rice ensures they are well-represented here, despite collecting just 85 FPL points so far.

CM – Bernardo Silva (Manchester City, 230 points)

Back to last season’s champions. A strong autumn run brought six goals in eight league games for Bernardo Silva. Although this purple patch quickly ended, he netted on Wednesday night and is now on 15 goal involvements. His all-round contribution is also rewarded on CLUB.

CM – Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City, 240 points)

Despite only playing 61.8% of possible league minutes for Man City, the world-class Kevin De Bruyne has still found time to grab 11 goals. A man for the big occasion, five goals and an assist have arrived during the six meetings with Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea.

RW – Mohamed Salah (Liverpool, 320 points)

What else is there to say about Mohamed Salah? He only blanked once in his first 17 league outings and, at times, made FPL captaincy very boring. When observers pointed out a drop in form – by his standards – he replied with two goals and an assist on Tuesday night. His place in this line-up was never in doubt.

LW – Son Heung-min (Tottenham Hotspur, 274 points)

Spurs assets have been extremely popular recently, with Harry Kane, Dejan Kulusevski and Matt Doherty all exceeding the effective ownership (EO) of Son Heung-min in FPL. Yet six goals have arrived in four matches, meaning Son has outscored Kane over the last four games, six games and throughout the whole season.

CF – Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United, 217 points)

Not many Premier League players can score hat-tricks in two successive home games but Cristiano Ronaldo did. His 15 goals contradict the instinctive thought that the 37-year-old has been disappointing upon his Old Trafford return. Especially when doing it from just 23 starts.

Additionally, as the app features five major European leagues, here is a similar XI for Serie A, Ligue 1, Bundesliga and La Liga.

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How Do I Play CLUB?

Like all the Fantasy games we know and love, CLUB users pick real players and score points based on their real-world performances.

CLUB takes it to another level in their next-generation Fantasy Football game. Here are the key features:

• Select players from Europe’s top five leagues. With a bigger pool of players to choose from (Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1, Bundesliga), there should be a sizeable reduction in ‘template’ teams to help negate the effective ownership (EO) factor that a lot of us have come to hate in Fantasy Premier League (FPL).
• Points are scored over multiple competitions. Not just their domestic fixtures but in both the UEFA Champions League and Euopa League.
• An intuitive scoring system. For example, an N’Golo Kante defensive midfield masterclass would bring in a good score, regardless of whether he produced a goal or assist.
• Play players in their real positions. Players will have designated positions based on historical performances for their team, so you will need to buy and select individuals who are able to play in your side’s formation. You can’t – for example – have four left-backs in your defence.
• Live transfer market, with player prices moving 24/7. Forget staying up until 2.30am in the morning and biting your nails to see if Antonio Rudiger rises in price – a dynamic transfer market will see player prices fluctuate with regularity, based on their EO.
• Grow your budget by being successful. It can be done by climbing the league rankings, winning cup competitions or growing the infrastructure via facilities and sponsorships.
• Choose your Club name, badge and club owner avatar. We all love a funny team name, don’t we? Bayern Badonde and Bilbao Baggins FC are two of the best that we’ve seen so far, with CLUB allowing you to name your own team.
• Select your kit, sponsor and upgrade your club infrastructure. Take off your Mikel Arteta hat and don your Stan Kroenke cap as you make upgrades and sort deals at boardroom level.

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