Stats

As the Premier League season wound down, polls such as this indicated that neutrals preferred to see Liverpool win the title. Some pundits claimed that this tendency was owing to sympathy that Liverpool hadn't won the title in 29 years, or perhaps to an affinity for Liverpool’s playing style or their affable manager Jurgen Klopp. 

There is another explanation that has received no attention whatsoever, namely that spectators judge Liverpool’s record to actually be superior to Manchester City’s. 

It's been about a year since Zlatan Ibrahimovic debuted in MLS with two dramatic goals to help the LA Galaxy top new cross-town rivals LAFC. Despite the Galaxy's horrid defense, Zlatan kept the team in the playoff race for much of the campaign. He ended the season with 22 goals and 10 assists in just 27 matches. That was with avoiding turf and recovering from the injury he arrived in the U.S. with.

While the statistics that attackers generate greatly lend themselves to the formulation of lists such as this, things get a little more ambiguous where defenders are concerned.

Big European clubs have a large war chest to use for summer and winter transfers (usually). This massive amount of money is used to either fill a void left by a player leaving, add players to complement the current team or to improve squad depth. 

Usually, the expensive signings are meant to move straight into the starting lineup. Sometimes, new signings don’t always settle or play well and can spend some time on the bench. Here are some players with a high transfer market value that're rarely getting game time.

Here are the most expensive players on the bench.

It was around this time last year that we introduced Bruno Zuculini to you, our weary audience, as the maddest lad of them all. The Argentine spent the first half of the 2017-18 season at Hellas Verona, collecting three red cards and four yellows in just 15 starts. He was promptly sold to River Plate before he could build on his phenomenal record over the following months.