IT should go without saying that Dream Team assets who collect regular Star Man awards are worth their weight in gold.
Coming out on top of the match ratings earns a player an additional five points, equivalent to a goal.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at which individuals have been named Star Man most often so far this season.
5 – Ruben Neves (£2.9m), Marcus Rashford (£6.5m), Mohamed Salah (£8.6m), Riyad Mahrez (£6.1m), Nick Pope (£4.7m), Martin Odegaard (£3.6m), Thiago Silva (£5.7m)
Seven players are level on five Star Man awards right now with Neves being the most surprising inclusion as the only one among them yet to breach the 100-point mark.
In fact, 35.3% of the Wolves midfielder’s 85-point total have come from Star Man bonuses.
Three of Rashford’s five Star Man gongs have come in the last eight Game Weeks, coinciding with his most prosperous form of the campaign.
Salah makes the cut having produced a 10/10 performance against Man United on Sunday.
The Egypt international banked 21 points at Manchester United’s expense and, more broadly, he’s amassed 60 points in his last six outings.
Mahrez registered three Star Man awards in as many Game Weeks from late January to mid-February.
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Manchester City’s Algerian winger didn’t notch his first point until October but he’s made up for his slow start and is now the fifth-best asset in his position.
Newcastle’s clean sheets may have dried up recently but Pope remains in pole position for the Golden Glove.
The Magpies have conceded just 17 league goals in 2022/23, eight fewer than the next-best defence, and their first-choice goalkeeper has been key to their impressive campaign.
Pope’s third Star Man award came in Game Week 5 and for a while he topped the metric among all assets.
Odegaard claimed three Star Man gongs in three consecutive games separated by the World Cup break.
Arsenal’s captain has nine goals and six assists in the Premier League this term.
Lastly of this crop, it’s Chelsea’s crocked Brazilian centre-back.
The Brazilian defender actually produced a streak of four Star Man awards in a row between Game Weeks 4 and 8.
Silva has been a class act despite the Blues’ problems in the final third.
6 – Bruno Fernandes (£6m), Erling Haaland (£9m)
The main reason Rashford isn’t higher in this list is that he’s had to share Star Man awards with his Portuguese team-mate since the restart.
Fernandes may not have plundered as many goals as the England international but his all-round performances have been instrumental to the Red Devils’ uplift under Erik ten Hag in recent weeks… the 7-0 defeat aside.
The 28-year-old briefly jumped ahead of a certain Belgian playmaker to take the crown of Dream Team’s best midfielder this season but he’s since dropped back down to second, though the gap is just four points.
Fernandes has earned 7+ match ratings 28 times in 2022/23, more than any other player.
Many Dream Team bosses would have expected Man City’s No9 to have claimed more than six Star Man awards given his mountainous points tally of 278.
However, it’s worth remembering that many of Haaland’s best performances have been characterised by ruthless efficiency – he rarely registers many touches.
The fact he is frequently quiet outside of one or two key moments in the penalty box has sometimes hindered him in the match ratings, where City’s all-action midfielders tend to do well.
Haaland’s last Star Man award came back in Game Week 19 – he’s due one.
7 – Kieran Trippier (£6.3m)
We’ve written so much about Newcastle’s right-back this season but it’s going over the key points.
Trippier’s ginormous total of 190 points owes plenty to his Star Man tally, achieved through his dual purpose in Eddie Howe’s set-up.
Not only has the England international contributed to the aforementioned defensive record, he has also been a force to be reckoned with in terms of chance creation.
His crossing, both from open play and set-pieces, has been superb and, truth be told, his team-mates should have converted his service into more goals than they have in reality.
But WhoScored’s sophisticated system takes into account Trippier’s attacking output and so he has been duly rewarded.
8 – Kevin De Bruyne (£7.6m)
No prizes for guessing who tops the pile, it’s the man who so frequently looks like the best player on the pitch.
When De Bruyne is on song he’s pretty much unplayable and therefore unbeatable in the match ratings.
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Man City’s chief creator has provided 17 assists in all competitions and is leading every underlying metric related to playmaking imaginable.
After a relative lean patch between Game Weeks 16 and 21, De Bruyne has responded with 31 points in five appearances since.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
