Presenting Your 2018 EPL All-Stars

Every year millions of fans in the United States fill out their all-star ballots to watch the best players in their respective sports duel in a non-competitive game (except in baseball, which has stakes) and arbitrary skill competitions. It’s a celebration of the league and the players involved. You get crazy dance numbers, legendary moments of athleticism and awkward moments where rivals become teammates.

Due to a lack of history and not enough time off in the season, England does not have one. This is a shame, but that won't stop me from imagining what if it did. You could have an East vs West. A UK vs the World. However no one in the UK associates East vs West and the UK is hardly good enough to take on the World. The logical answer is North vs. South. In this scenario, who in the current season would represent both teams?

Here is a map of England with the current Premier League teams. Everything north of Leicester are players and teams that would be considered for the North All-stars and teams/players south of Leicester would be considered for the South All-stars.

As there are many formations we can play with, I'll go with the one that makes sense for each given team. I did take into consideration games & minutes played. If you're not on the field, you're not helping your team.

North All-Stars

This on the surface seems the more difficult one to fill out since three of the top four teams (Man City, Man Utd and Liverpool) reside here. And with a record breaking start to the season City will be well represented. I'm going with a 4-5-1. Lets go.

Goalkeeper

David De Gea is the obvious choice. He always makes the big save when United need it. Good with his feet and commands his box. Best in the league and its hard to argue it. The stats back it up.

Defense

We'll start with heart of the defense. This is actually the easiest of all the positions to sort out. You can dismiss all Liverpool and Manchester United CBs because the former haven't been good and the latter haven't played enough. Phil Jones has played the most of any United defender (19 of United's 24 games) and has been solid but as many United fans will tell you, does not inspire confidence in the group and isn't a stud. So I've gone with Nicolas Otamendi and Ben Mee. Otamendi, always a player who divides opinion, has been the bedrock of City's defence, which has given up the third fewest goals. He's not only prevented goals but scored them as well. He has four this season already, including the crucial winner against United and the equalizer a week earlier against West Ham. The tougher decision was choosing between James Tarkowski and Ben Mee. Their averages are roughly the same (same blocks per game and Mee has slightly less interceptions and tackles) but I'm going to give it to Mee. He's the captain of Burnley, the heartbeat of the team, and their miraculous 7th place position is in large part down to those two. Burnley's defense has been their calling card and the reason their sitting pretty in 7th and I'd like to reward that start. An honorable mention to Harry Maguire who has been terrific and will have Everton kicking themselves for buying Michael Keane instead of him.

On the left, we have Ashley Young who has enjoyed a renaissance at the age of 32. This culminated in being recalled into the England national team in November after 4 years on the sidelines. He's been reliable and is fourth on United in xA. Frankly there aren't many challengers for this, as Fabian Delph has been a solid replacement for Benjamin Mendy after his injury but hardly remarkable. On the right, we have Kyle Walker. No one now is deriding City's decision to make him the most expensive (at the time) defender ever. He's dominated the right side of the field when City plays, and has 5 assists on the season. Antonio Valencia has similarly been terrific for United, but when you look at their stats, Walker clearly wins out and his team is better. Graph by Understat.

Midfield

It's no surprise that my midfield will be dominated by Man City, since they will most likely become the highest scoring team in the modern era. Kevin De Bruyne is a no brainer and is the front runner in the Player of the Year race. City march to his drum beat as he is the catalyst for most of their dangerous plays. He is leading the field in xA (expected assists) and xGChain (the xG of every possession he is a part of). Three of his teammates join him on my team: Raheem Sterling, David Silva and Leroy Sane.

While I want to be balanced, it's impossible to ignore the output of those three. Phillipe Coutinho gets an honorable mention for his 7 goals and 6 assists in 13 appearances but while that's great numbers per game, playing only 13 games is precisely the reason he can't make it into the team. Silva, Sterling and Sane have made City's the best midfield in PL history. Together Sane and Sterling are the two fastest midfielders (or players) in the league and KDB and Silva are the most creative. This creativity, combined with pure speed is unrivalled in PL history. They can kill you on the break or against a well organized back line. And they are the reason that City don't have games when they're off their game.

The last midfielder spot goes to Paul Pogba (apologies to Wilfried Ndidi who keeps getting better and better). He's finally settled to life in the Prem (and more importantly Mourinho has figured out how to use him best) and while he might not be lighting the world on fire with goals he's been heavily influential in United's build up play. In fact, he's improved his stats in every category- except goals- compared to his days at Juventus. If those stats are too fancy for you, he's third in the league with 9 assists.

Forward

For the lone forward spot, I've chosen Mohomed Salah. He's been the lynchpin of the second best offense in the league and while Sergio Aguero has been brilliant as well, Salah is working with less talent at Liverpool and his team is more reliant on him. He is not just good at finishing plays but starting them. He ranks behind only Silva and KDB in xGChain. He's on pace for 28.5 league goals, and without him in peak form, Liverpool would be in battling Arsenal for 5th in the league instead of Chelsea for 3rd.

For manager, the choice is simple, Jose Mourinho…just kidding. Pep Guardiola. To explain would undermine your intelligence. On to the south.

Full Team: De Gea, Otamendi, Mee, Young, Walker, De Bruyne, Sane, Silva, Sterling, Pogba, Salah. Manager: Pep.

South All-Stars

The London clubs have largely disappointed this season, but none more so than Arsenal. You could make the case they don't deserve a single entrant into this imaginary All-Star game but there are 11 spots for grabs and Spurs and Chelsea haven't been great either. I'm going with a 4-2-3-1 formation.

Goalkeeper

Its a toss up between Lukasz Fabianski and Thibaut Courtois. As goalkeeping stats are still in their infancy, this is a bit more difficult. Fabianski edges Courtois every so slightly in xGoT (Opta's Expected Goals on Target, which shows how many goals a team should have conceded compared to their actual total) and if you look at Colin Trainor's model Fabianski comes out on top.

These stats are from the end of December but they still show that Fabianski has had a better season, if only by a narrow margin. I'll give it to Fabianski as he's been Swansea's lone bright spot and why not give Swansea fans something imaginary to cheer about.

Defense

As in the north we'll start in defense. Our central defenders are Jan Vertonghen and Cesar Azpuelicueta. As you can see we're not working with a lot here. You can see why Liverpool shelled out £75 million on a CB. Not many inspiring choices. I'll explain my reasoning. Vertonghen has been consistently excellent for Spurs and he's been the constant with a rotating trio of Davinson Sanchez, Eric Dier and Toby Alderweireld. He's the easy choice. Azpuelicueta similarly has been the Conte's Mr.Dependable. Has he made a single mistake this season? Has he ever? Like Spurs, Chelsea have rotated their own CB's (Rudiger, Cahill, Christansen) and he's been the glue. There aren't many other options for centre-backs. I couldn't possibly give it to Laurent Koscielny but Arsenal have bled goals this year far too much. He's been their too long and ought to be a defensive leader by now.

For right back it comes down to Kieran Trippier and Hector Bellerin. Trippier has been superior this year distributing with a fantastic 2.19 KP90 (Key passes) and 0.23 xA90 compared to 1.00 and 0.10 repectively for Bellerin. However Trippier has played just half of the minutes of Bellerin (1190 and 2160 respectively). It's a coin flip but I'll give it to Bellerin because well, I appreciate the swag.

Left back is loaded by comparison. You have numerous worthy candidates: Marcus Alonso, Nacho Monreal, and Ben Davies. Even Aaron Creswell has regained much of his stellar form from two years ago. Can you spot which one is Davies? Monreal? Alonso?

Player A

Player B

Player C

Alonso is player B, Davies is player A and Monreal is player C. If you look at Alonso's and Davies' numbers they paint a different story yet both are extremely effective in their own way. As you can see Alonso is much more adept at scoring goals and getting in goal scoring chances. He takes set pieces and his 30 yard free kick against Southampton secured 3 points for Chelsea when it looked like they were due for a draw. He's a match-winner and one of the first names on Conte's team sheet. Davies has been excellent setting up Kane and Dele Alli, whipping in the best crosses in the PL. Its so good its part of Tottenham's bread and butter in attack. His 2.27 KP90 leads the league for all fullbacks and puts him on par with quality midfielders like Anthony Martial and above wingers like Riyad Mahrez. Monreal has been excellent and Arsenal's best defender, but the team has leaked goals at an even higher rate than Liverpool. It remains unclear why Wenger is married to three at the back when it clearly hasn't worked. However, I'm going to give it to Alonso because goals win matches and his two goals beat Tottenham on the second week of the season.

Midfield

On to the midfield where we will be fielding an athletic and strong set of holding midfielders. In our imaginary game, these two will be trying to keep Silva and KDB quiet. I've selected Ngolo Kante and Eric Dier. Kante is the reason why Chelsea is elite defensively. He covers so much ground and is a general nuisance to all clubs. Every club in the world would love to have him. Is he the most unsellable player in the league? How much would Man City have to pay for him, £150 million? Dier is the much more controversial choice. His teammate Mousa Dembele may even be better than him but he's played half as many minutes. Dier is extremely versatile and is a plus wherever he is on the pitch. He can play central defence, right back and the central of midfield. He can take free kicks as adeptly as he can defend them. Frankly there aren't many other central midfielders who can do it all for the South team (shouts to Mark Noble who is turning back the clocks).

Now to our advanced midfield three. Eden Hazard is the first name I'd write in. He's been back to his electrifying best this season and has been even better than he was in Chelsea's title winning side last year. His per 90 numbers are up across the board and he's been taking more shots in the penalty area (2.3 up from 1.6) per Whoscored.

He's also been named man of the match the second most times in the league (7). Most crucially he's been taking on significantly more dribbles this season. He's gone from 5.6 dribbles to 8.1 dribbles per game which is a 44% increase. This could be because he didn't have summer tournament and could recover fully from the grueling PL season. Regardless, he's ultra aggressive and putting defenders on their heels.

There are six players vying for the other two spots, all with their merits. Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil, Christian Eriksen, Dele Alli, Son Heung-Min and Wilfried Zaha. Ultimately I'm going with the Ozil and Son. Alexis Sanchez is supposed to be the leader of Arsenal and has led them to an abysmal 6th place where they're as close to Burnley as the top 4. Unlike Sanchez, Ozil hasn't dropped in form and has been the one shining light for the Arsenal attack. He is the top passer in the league, leading in key passes per game (according to Whoscored and third in the league in xA (according to Understat). It's not his fault Sanchez and the talent around him is playing lacklustre. Out of all the Tottenham players I'll give it to Son. He covers the most ground defensively and that gives him the edge over Eriksen and Alli, especially since Alli plays in a much more advanced position. Son also has the versatility that Pochettino covets with his ability to provide cover when Kane rests. But you can't go wrong with any of these Tottenham players. I mean look how tight their statlines are.

An honorable mention goes Zaha. Zaha is a fascinating case-study and perhaps merits his own column. In the six games that Crystal Palace missed Zaha to start the season they had 0 goals and 0 points per game. You can put that down to poor luck and a difficult schedule but you can also say they missed their most vibrant player. It's not coincidence when he came back Crystal Palace won their first game and scored their first goals at Chelsea when they won 2-1. Since he came back they've scored 22 in 18 games and got 25 pts. He opens up the field for his teammates as he draws defenders to him like a magnet. Teams have to respect his blistering speed and this leaves more opportunities for his teammates.

Forward

Finally, there can only be one striker: Harry Kane. There's not much I can say about the goal machine that hasn't been said before. He's on pace to reach 33 goals which would smash his 29 goals total from last year and surpass the PL season record of 31 (held by Ronaldo, Suarez and Shearer). This increase would be right in line with his three previous years where his goal tallies went from 21 -> 25 -> 29. His shot map from this season is also a great reminder to young strikers out there. If you want goals, get in the box.

The manager leading out the team would be Antonio Conte. He's leading the reigning champions, a team that has the most points of any in the South. When (not if) they got more production from Alvaro Morata they will be frightening.

Full Team: Fabianski, Vertonghen, Azpuelicueta, Bellerin, Alonso, Kante, Dier, Ozil, Hazard, Son, Kane Manager: Conte.

What do you think would happen if these two teams squared off? The North would be the favorites but would you bet against Harry Kane and Eden Hazard? Let me know on my twitter page.

Also, if you like this column check out my podcast. I host, This Football Life for Tifo Football which you can find here. I interview players, managers and backroom staff about their football careers.

Much of the stats and graphs I used came from Understat. It's a terrific site and resource, so check it out.