A study released by a football-odds site has unveiled their results for the most disliked players of 2023/2024 with the number-one spot going to Tottenham Hotspur’s Christian Romero, followed closely by AFC Bournemouth’s Milos Kerkez and again with Hotspur’s Son Heung-Ming.
With the Premier League having already passed earlier this year, popular gambling chain Betmasters have commissioned a study into who’s expected to be the most ‘frustrating’ players of the next league.
This frustration scale from 1-100 looks at player statistics like fouls, red & yellow cards, offsides and dispossessions – along with what are known as ‘big chances’, where a player was expected to score in a certain situation but slipped up and let the team down.
Romero is seen at the top of the list, with the highest frustration score of 72.3 caused by a total of six failed big chances along with a staggering 31 fouls, seven yellow cards and an own goal during a match with Arsenal in 2023
James Loxdale, a sports analyst at Betmaster Ireland said: “This study ranks players based on the moments that make fans gasp, groan, and hold their breath during those near-misses and fouls that leave us on the edge of our seats.”
Just below Romero is AFC Bournemouth’s Milos Kerkez, sitting at 67.52 with 25 fouls, 10 dispossesions, an own-goal and several yellow cards to his name.
With next year’s Premier League kicking off in August, these stats will be used to help create betting odds for teams and provide team managers a better understanding of what’s going wrong with the team.
Coming up the rear in third place is another Hotspur, Son Heung-Min with a surprisingly low 60.68 frustration score despite having over 40 dispossessions, 20 offside calls and seven big chances missed. His clean track record for yellow and red cards allowed him to stay away from the top spot.
Other big names like Sheffield United’s Oliver McBurnie (55.95), the only footballer to get two red cards during the season.
Fulham’s Raúl Jiménez (54.9) and Burnley’s Dara O’Shea (54.33) also crept into the top spots, with subsequent players including Aston Villa’s Matty Cash and Crystal Palace’s Jordan Ayew – being at the top of the charts due to over 70 dispossessions – averaging in the 50s or lower.
The study was conducted through info gathered on the Premier League site and follows three main rules when considering how to calculate each player’s statistic
Loxdale said: “This ranking helps us understand the pressure and unpredictability that characterise Premier League football.”
The metric is put together through eight different factors that all contribute a score from 1-10 (with 10 being the best) and was not applied to players without more than 1000 minutes of match time to ensure an accurate result.
This metric varies how impactful a factor can be depending on how significant it was in changing the course of a game/club, and It’s weighted percentages can be seen below. These contributing factors were then combined to create a final ‘frustrating’ score for each respective player.
• Offside 5.9%
• Fouls 5.9%
• Dispossessed 5.9%
• Yellow cards 5.9%
• Red cards 17.6%
• Own goals 29.4%
• Big chances missed 17.6%
• Hit the woodwork 11.8%
Image credit: Daniel
Join the discussion