Ace and Waste of Space: Unheralded Man Utd midfielder takes spoils
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Our alphabetical tour around the Premier League to find the best and worst player at each club last season reaches Manchester United at the oddest of junctures, with the 20-time title winners clearly going through a severe identity crisis.
Players who made 15 or more starts in all competitions qualify, with the men with the highest proportion of wins and losses picking up the laurels.
New Red Devils gaffer Jose Mourinho will no doubt be whipping his squad into shape, with many from last term’s disappointing campaign surely on their way out of the ‘Theatre of Dreams’, but it’s interesting to see how the cards fell through this particular looking glass.
ACE – Morgan Schneiderlin
The findings are certainly intriguing, with heralded young Frenchman Anthony Martial not proving a particularly good omen in a United shirt, winning just 41% of the matches he has started so far, putting him near the bottom of the rankings here.
Conversely, midfielder Schneiderlin is another Les Bleus star unused at Euro 2016 by coach Didier Deschamps, unlike Martial, and seemingly unloved at Old Trafford after what was perceived by many to be a poor first season in the north west.
Schneiderlin’s 58% win rate puts him two ahead of predictably-high teen hotshot Marcus Rashford and another oddly-regular winner, Memphis Depay.
Wayne Rooney posts a decent score in an injury-ravaged campaign, with the United and England skipper on 54% alongside probable departee Juan Mata.
WASTE OF SPACE – Memphis Depay
Despite ranking highly on the win metric, it seems the Dutchman’s motto is ‘Victory or Death’, with a 33% loss rate the biggest by three points ahead of Martial.
Memphis also averaged the smallest number of draws by some way, down at 11% with next least Mata up at 19%, Bastian Schweinsteiger was at the top with 40%.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
