Teams Allowing the Most/Least DC Points: Midfield Edition

Part One of the Defensive Contribution Deep Dive

Now that we’ve had 7 gameweeks under our belts, we can start to evaluate the impact defensive contributions are having. I’m specifically looking at midfielders in this post, with defenders and individual game matchups coming in another post.

I think it’s important to look at midfielders and defenders separately, as the match conditions that allow them to rack up defensive contributions are very different. Instead of looking at players, let’s look at the teams who are allowing the fewest defensive contributions to midfielders.

Just to reiterate, these tables are looking at total DC’s given up to midfielders by a team in their first 7 matches.

There’s a clear pattern here, as these 5 sides tend to sit deep and look to counter. Generally, there is not a lot of end to end football occurring in matches involving them. This appears to be leading to less battles in the midfield, which produce in turn produce less tackles/ball recoveries for midfielders on the opposing team.

Now let’s look at the teams which are allowing the most defensive contributions from opposing midfielders.

I think my characterization of these teams as a group would be that their matches have been “a bit mad”. Wolves are a bit of a surprise, but there is a lot of end to end football occurring in matches that involve Spurs/Villa/Newcastle & Liverpool. While they are good sides, they haven’t had match control like an Arsenal, or focus on playing possession football like City (especially City in previous seasons).

This lack of match control looks to be leading to more turnovers & battles in the middle of the pitch.

It looks like you want to target teams that play with a high tempo, if you’re looking to stream in a midfielder with an eye on getting defensive contribution points.

The good thing about targeting DC’s from Midfielders, is there isn’t much of a downside when the other team scores. Another key point out is that these sides aren’t necessarily the best at defending. Meaning there’s a chance you could bring in a midfielder who gets DC points, but also has a chance at getting a goal or assist.

The full table is below. I think targeting teams like Wolves/Spurs/Brighton/Fulham might be your best bet for bringing in a midfielder who has a chance at both DC points and an attacking return. Looking at the early data, Wolves look like the premier team to target.

We’ll be back with part 2 in a couple days. This will focus on some of the matches that have produced the most defensive contributions, and which teams are allowing the most defensive contributions to defenders.

Cheers, and happy hauling!