After 2 consecutive 4-0 wins fantasy premier league GW3 transfers will be focused on the 2 Manchester United midfielders. We take an in depth look at the 2 players to help you make a decision
Fantasy premier league GW3 transfers – Pogba or Mkhitaryan?
Here were going to look at a comparision between the 2 using various stats and graphics. There’s a summary at the end if you don’t want to go through the detail. Were going to concentrate on the first 2 games of the season rather than last seasons stats. The arrival of Matic has given Pogba more freedom to go forward and Mkhitaryan seems to have developed into a crucial part of Mourinho’s armoury. Contrary to last season. Pogba has always had gametime security and now Mkhitaryan seems to have gained it. However I would say in terms of other player options Mkhitaryan is easier to rotate than Pogba
Fantasy premier league points
So similar points total if made up in a different way, Pogba primarily through goals and Mkhitaryan through assists
Underlying stats
So Pogba probably ahs the better stats of the 2.
whoscored heat maps from GW2
Paul Pogba
Mkhitaryan
So Mkhitaryan is a player who has more touches further up the field.
Pass and position maps
from 11tgen11
v Swansea GW2
v West Ham
These generally back up the heat maps showing that Mkhitaryan’s touvhes are further up the field than Pogba
Summary and thoughts
So starting from a gametime perspective I have to believe that Pogba will be rotated less and play the 90 minutes more as he’s harder to replace than Mkhitaryan. Obviously Pogba can’t play every game but I could imagine the domestic cups being no go’s for him.
The information in the above graphics is a bit counter intuitive and is only 2 games data. Both of which were 4-0 wins against defensively ordinary sides. However as I said above I’m not sure we learn that much from last season.
So the counter intuitive bit is that Mkhitaryan plays further up the field but Pogba has more shots in the box. I think the difficulty is that alot of United’s goals have been set pieces or where play has been broken up high up the field leading to a quick counter. Pogba is an excellent box to box midfielder and recovers the ball well. Therefore in those situations he’s not at too much of a disadvantage to Mkhitaryan.
Mkhitaryan has some set piece responsibility but we’ve also seen Pogba take some direct free kicks. Pogba is also excellent in the air so is a good player for attacking set pieces as we saw with Bailly’s goal against Swansea.
So for me at the moment it comes down to which type of player you like the most. I would generally prefer the more advanced player especially if he has some set piece responsibility too. So I would probably go for Mkhitarayan. However Pogba’s ability to get into the box on the counter and play the killer pass also makes him an attractive proposition.
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