Apart from the fans of Manchester United, Everton, Chelsea and Manchester City, Brendan Rodgers' Liverpool are surely the neutrals' favourites to claim the Premier League title.
With Steven Gerrard rejuvenated in a new deep-lying role and SAS firing together at a rate not seen since the Ian St John and Roger Hunt days, the Reds have thrilled fans and trounced the opposition in their first title challenge since 2009.
But what is the favoured line up of Liverpool fans and how has the popularity of some of the Reds' players fluctuated over the course of a successful season?
The team at Beat Your Manager! Fantasy Football have the answers and it makes for interesting reading.
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Liverpool fans' most popular starting XI during the season has been Simon Mignolet in goal with a back four of Glen Johnson, Martin Skrtel, Mamadou Sakho and the man who might launch a singing career Kolo Touré. The most sought after midfield four consists of Steven Gerrard, Philippe Coutinho, Lucas and Jordan Henderson. The front two needs little introduction!
- It's no surprise that Gerrard and Suarez (the player that has surprised John Giles most this season) are the joint most popular players as the graph below reveals. It also shows how the popularity of the ten most selected Liverpool players has fluctuated since the start of the season...
- Raheem Sterling is not in that top ten yet but his popularity has rocketed since the first half of the season. Since December his popularity among Liverpool fans has risen from 35 per cent to 73 per cent, while Jon Flanagan (from 2 to 53) Aly Cissokho (from 13 to 46) have also jumped significantly.
- In terms of formations, over 40 per cent of Reds supporters have picked 4-4-2 as their preferred formation, with 4-2-3-1 only backed by 10 per cent of fans.
Beat Your Manager! Fantasy Football is an app similar to “Football Manager for live football”, where you manage your favourite Club and pick lineups, bench, formations and substitutions, all in real-time. When fans play the game, the Beat Your Manager team can get a picture of the popularity of different players, by looking at how frequently they are selected for the lineup.
