For fun, I recently used a stats app Chris introduced me to to deliver a Premier League XI most closely aligned, in terms of style, to a Lincoln City starting XI.

The app doesn’t compare attributes; it takes playing styles and offers up comparisons, based on complex stats models, between players. When we signed Deji Elerewe, Chris Laming from our podcast used it to check the central defenders most like him in terms of style. I’m using it for far less serious purposes!

Having laid out how the tool works and explored our first XI, this second part is where things get even more playful. Rather than focusing on what the data says in isolation, this is about seeing how our current squad maps onto the top tier of the English game, and what that tells us about the type of team we are actually building.

Using the same profile-based comparisons, I have taken each role within City’s ‘second’ XI (which is just another set of players, not absolutely the reserves, as that’s an outdated term) and matched it to the Premier League player whose statistical shape most closely resembles it this season. This is not about star power or transfer fantasy, but about function, responsibility, and how players operate within a structure.

The result is a Premier League XI in spirit rather than status, a team that mirrors how we play, how we move the ball, and how we try to control games. Some of the names are predictable, others less so, but all are there for the same reason; the numbers say they do similar jobs in similar ways to our current squad.

Think of this as a second translation exercise rather than a wishlist, a look at what Lincoln City football looks like when scaled up to the highest level.

This time, there is no keeper, as the stats model doesn’t count keepers, so we’re jumping straight into the defence. At the end are the players whom I haven’t counted in the first two teams. The percentage is the closeness, in style, our player has to their top-flight counterpart.

Defence

Josh Honohan – Tyrick Mitchell (Crystal Palace) – 65.8%

We haven’t seen Josh yet, so I used his Shamrock Rovers stats. He had featured mainly as a left wing back for them, hence his similarity to Mitchell.

I’ve actually quite enjoyed putting this together as I didn’t know who half of the Premier League players were. Unlike Honohan, Mitchell is very much left-sided, so he wouldn’t properly fit on the right side, which I have him in here for illustrative purposes.

Adam Jackson – Dan Burn (Newcastle United) 73.66%

I bet Jacko would love this. I’m pretty sure he’s a Middlesbrough fan, so to know he’s closest to a Newcastle player must be frustrating. Almost as frustrating as spending much of this season on the sidelines, which is sadly where our longest-serving player has been.

33-year-old Burn is a recent England cap, so perhaps Jacko would swap places, but the black and white would have to be changed to red.

Deji Elerewe – Josko Gvardiol (Man City) 66.55%

Disclaimer: Elerewe was closer to Alderete and Ballard of Sunderland, both of whom featured on the first list I did for Hamer and Bradley, so I went to the next one down, the Croatian Gvardiol at Manchester City.

Man City’s Player of the Season last time out only compares with Elerewe’s Bromley style as, like Honohan, there wasn’t enough Lincoln City data to make a comparison, but the numbers suggest he will be competing with Hamer, like-for-like, in terms of style, meaning more of the same from his League Two days.

Ryley Towler – Leny Yoro (Man Utd) 67.75%

I can nearly name all of the Manchester United squad from the early nineties, but there have been a few new names for me this time out, Yoro being one.

It’s surprising that a right-footed centre back has come up for Towler, although I did pick his centre back in a three position for comparison, rather than left back. With United playing a four, this pick was even more interesting.

There were nine League One players ahead of Yoro in terms of similarity, which was interesting.

If I’d taken Towler as a left back, West Ham’s Oliver Scarles would have been the closest match.