Chance Creators - A Closer Look

I have previously looked at which players created the most chances for their team-mates in the Premier League last season (see here).

However, that took no account of how many minutes each player played, so wasn't an entirely accurate picture. I have now calculated this information for the top 3 players (in terms of chances created) for each of the 20 teams.

And the overall winner is. . . .

It's no surprise to see Florent Malouda take first place here; after all he created 27 more chances than his nearest rival, Kevin Davies.

Inevitably, I approached this information with my Liverpool hat on, and it's very interesting to see that Steven Gerrard claim a very creditable 9th place in the table.

Especially as you have to bear in mind that he only made five league appearances under Kenny Dalglish, so the majority of his time was spent playing for Roy Hodgson's static, plodding under-achievers.

It certainly makes me wonder what Dalglish might have achieved last season, had he been able to call upon the captain in the 13 league games he missed through injury.

It's also encouraging to see that the Reds' recent targets and/or acquisitions rate well here; Henderson is 15th, Downing 19th and Adam is 28th.

Inevitably they are all unlikely to fare as well next season when playing in the same team, but they all finished in the top half of the table, so clearly are in good form for chance creation going into the new season.

Credit especially goes to Gerrard, Henderson and Downing, as they are three of only 24 players to create a chance more than once every 45 minutes on average.

Purely out of interest, I awarded each of the above 60 players points based on where they are in the table (1st place gets 60, 2nd gets 59 etc) to see which team had the highest ranking overall for it's three players.

As you'd expect, the usual suspects from the top of the league also register the highest here, albeit in a different order. With the additions that Liverpool have now made, hopefully they can top this chart next season.

Please take a look at my other articles, a list of which can be found here.