Next Monday night’s matchup of last season’s Champions, Manchester City, and the contenders they eventually pipped at the post, Liverpool, promises to be an epic encounter. To see how fans of both Clubs may be thinking about this game, we looked at the Beat Your Manager! Fantasy Football data from this fixture last season, to see what players were picked for the lineups last year.
Beat Your Manager! Fantasy Football is a game which is similar to “Football Manager”, but applied to live football, where you manage your favourite Club and pick lineups, bench, formations and substitutions, all in real-time. When fans play the game, the Beat Your Manager team can measure the popularity of different players, by looking at how frequently they are selected for the starting lineup, substitutes bench or not selected at all.
This fixture was played last year on St. Stephen’s Day (Boxing Day to our UK readers), with Liverpool topping the table on Christmas Day. Man City’s home form had been impressive, refusing to lose at the Etihad all season and it proved to be a City win on this day too, the hosts eventually running out 2-1 victors in a thrilling encounter.
Formation: 4-4-2 selected by fans from both Clubs
Both sets of fans opted for a steady 4-4-2 formation. In Manchester City’s case, overwhelmingly so, with 63 per cent of Blues fans opting for 4-4-2 and only 9 per cent going for a more aggressive 4-3-3. 27 per cent of Liverpool fans similarly went for 4-4-2, but this formation only just scraped by the 4-3-3 option, with 24 per cent of reds favouring the more aggressive approach.
Goalkeepers: Hart and Mignolet take up their usual positions
Fans of both Clubs did not go for any surprises in goal, with both team’s regular number 1 selected for duty; Joe Hart in for Man City and Simon Mignolet for Liverpool. Of the two, Mignolet was slightly more popular than his counterpart, with 85 per cent of scousers backing the Belgian, to Hart’s 81 per cent rating. Both real-life Managers agreed with fans, going for the identical options between the posts.
Defenders: Southampton leads the stakes in selling off their popular players
Vincent Kompany was the most popular defender on the day (and joint-most popular player), with every City fan playing the Beat Your manager! game selecting him for their lineups. Glen Johnson was a close second, with 98 per cent of Reds picking him for the starting 11. Skrtel and Clichy were the next two most popular defenders, with Sakho, Lescott and Demichelis grouped next, leaving John Flanagan as the least-popular defender, with a 62 per cent rating from Pool fans.
Instead of the fan-selected Clichy and Demichelis, Pellegrini opted for Zabaleta and Kolarov, while Cissokho in for
John Flanagan was the only difference between Liverpool fans and Rodgers.
Midfielders: Gerrard out with hamstring so Yaya Touré tops the bill
Liverpool’s captain Stephen Gerrard was one of the most popular players with club fans, regularly polling more than 95 per cent approval for the lineup. However, he was unavailable for this game due to a hamstring injury, leaving a Liverpool midfield of Jordan Henderson, Phillippe Coutinho, Lucas Leiva and Raheem Sterling to lineup against City.
Man City’s Yaya Touré was the most popular midfielder, with 97 per cent of Citizens playing him in their lineup. Henderson was the second-most popular midfielder at 95 per cent, with Silva, Coutinho, Nasri and Fernandinho edging out the remaining two Liverpool players.
Jesús Navas was favoured by Pellegrini instead of the option of fielding an additional forward (Dzeko), which was chosen by fans. Again, only a single player difference, Joe Allen in for Phillippe Coutinho, separated Reds fans and Rodgers.
Forwards: Both clubs lose their talismanic strikers for this fixture
Liverpool’s “SAS” partnership of Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge was perhaps the talking point of last season, but was unfortunately split for this game, with Sturridge sidelined by an ankle injury. Suarez maintained his popularity with Pool fans, with 100 per cent selecting him for their lineups, making him the joint most popular player for this game (along with Kompany). 31 per cent of Reds also picked the hapless Iago Aspas to start for this match, but Brendan Rodgers did not agree, playing the Uruguayan as the focal point in a diamond attacking formation (although he did bring in Aspas 8 minutes from time).
City’s Sergio Agüero was also benched with a calf injury, leading 97 per cent of fans to select Alfredo Negredo to partner Edin Dzeko upfront. Manuel Pellegrini also started Negredo and he repaid both with what turned out to be the winning goal on 45 minutes. Pellegrini also went for a single point man upfront, instead substituting Negredo for Dzeko on 77 minutes.
Fan-selected lineup for Man City vs. Liverpool 2013/4 EPL Season:
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