| Club | Position | ATT | DEF | OVRL | VPG | Possession |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenal | 1st | 6.73 | 2.86 | 4.33 | 256.96 | 60.3 |
| Man City | 2nd | 7.27 | 3.75 | 5.00 | 263.67 | 64.5 |
| Man United | 3rd | 3.44 | 3.5 | 1.83 | 196.33 | 51.6 |
| Tottenham | 4th | 5.14 | 3.17 | 2.64 | 249.09 | 50.3 |
| Newcastle | 5th | 3.61 | 3.69 | 2.4 | 216.6 | 51.3 |
| Liverpool | 6th | 4.79 | 3.39 | 3.14 | 238.48 | 58.7 |
| Brighton | 7th | 4.88 | 3.09 | 3.24 | 238.7 | 59.2 |
| Brentford | 8th | 2.52 | 3.12 | 1.79 | 142.41 | 43.8 |
| Southampton | 20th | 2.43 | 3.04 | 1.63 | 266.24 | 46.7 |
Here we have the top 8 and the 20th placed teams in the English Premier League as of March 30th, 2023.
In the table above, we can see the current position of the team in the Premier League table, value created per minute in attack (ATT), value per minute in defence (DEF), overall value per minute (OVRL) which also factors in more ambiguous data points such as fouls and cards, how much value they generate per goal (VPG) and their possession per game.
The most interesting aspect of this table is the correlation between the ATT VPM and the VPG. Having a high VPG is generally fine as long as you have a high ATT VPM which we can see with both Arsenal and Manchester City. However having a high VPG and a low ATT VPM is not preferable as we can se with Southampton.
Values are reliant on volume and success of actions. Manchester City has the highest volume of ATT actions due to their high possession but they also have a success rate of actions so their ATT VPM will be high. They do enjoy a lot of the ball but they still generate a solid DEF VPM because despite having a lot less minutes defending they have a high success rate of their actions.
If we look at Manchester United, they have 52% possession which means the time spent defending and attacking is more even than teams like Arsenal and City. This is also representative in the value they generate in both attack and defence. United actually generate more value in defence than attack which means their defensive actions have a higher success rate than their offensive actions. Now if we relate that to their VPG, we can see it is quite low compared to the teams around them because offensively they lean more towards volume than success rate of actions so this represents a more direct style than the high possession teams. So here having a middle of the pack ATT is fine because their DEF is quite good and their VPG is on the lower side.
What might catch the eye is the low OVRL that United has. This will generally represent poor discipline when ATT and DEF are quite good. United commit a large amount of fouls and pick up more cards than most of the other teams around the top. They even have two red cards which is quite high for the league.
Brentford are another good example of the relationship between ATT VPM and VPG. Their values share the epitome of a patient counter attacking team who are content for the opposition to dominate possession but are set up well to counter attack in lethal fashion. So they have a low ATT for a team in the top half but their low VPG shows how efficient they are with their chances and a solid defence keeps them in the contests.
Success can come in different forms and styles but value wise a team ideally should start with a solid DEF value of around 3 or higher with a higher ATT value in the 5s or above with a VPG not being too high relative to the ATT value. Of course the balances will look different depending on whether a team is a swift counter-attacking team or more possession based, or a high pressing team or has a more patient approach.
