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Football News: Premier League Disappointments

Premier League Disappointments
Image from: sportskeeda.com

This has been a season where some unexpected players have impressed me in the games I have watched, and some have really surprised me just how bad they are, so I thought I would put a list together. Though this will not be the kind of list I usually make, a shopping list which I then leave behind before going to the shops and end up coming back with the completely wrong things. This list will be even less useful! I will start with the players that have been particularly bad, and only pick one player per team, even though I could have easily picked half of the Chelsea team alone:

Branislav Ivanovic, Chelsea.
He has been outstanding this season for all the wrong reasons, in a team that has been playing badly as a whole. It has taken some doing to be the worst player on the pitch in a team that consists entirely of players that are playing badly, but Ivanovic has managed to do it. If you did not know much about the Premier League and someone showed you all the games this season and then asked you to pick out which player was recently playing non-league football, you would probably plump for Ivanovic this season. Yet, for some unearthly reason, he played every game until picking up an injury on international duty.

Wilfried Bony, Manchester City.
I know this may be harsh, as he has been suffering with malaria, but the facts are that it is his general demeanour on the pitch since he joined Citeh last January that has got him in this list. Bony just looks lost, like a spectator that has sneaked onto the pitch and nobody has noticed and now he is worried someone will realise and hook him. The Bony that played for Swansea City looked confident and strong, a real potent attacking threat, the Bony that is playing for Man City looks anything but. Hopefully, for his sake, his two goals and assist vs Bournemouth will kick start his season and City career.

Calum Chambers, Arsenal.
This one was a difficult one, there are a number of players that are not playing well, Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini spring to mind, but no one really expects more of those two. Chambers, on the other hand, is a top prospect but is not showing it at all this season, playing well below the level I would expect, but he is not getting enough games to really grow into his role. While I still like him as a player, right now he does need to step up his game and show he was worth the money paid for him to bring him in from Southampton.

 

Wayne Rooney, Manchester United.
This came down to a choice of two, Memphis Depay or Rooney, as to who was particularly playing poorly. In the end, though I do think Rooney is playing better than Depay overall, it came down to the level expected of the two. Depay is new to the league, still young and learning, so his poor performances and attitude are just pipped by Rooney. As an established international player, settled into both the country and the club, as well as the captain, more is expected, yet little is coming from him. There are times when he looks like a fat, sweaty, pub footballer running around aimlessly with little effect on the game.

James Milner, Liverpool
After joining on huge wages and being given the vice-captaincy of the club, a lot was expected of Milner following his arrival from Manchester City. While he has shown lots of energy and work rate, the only thing that has become clear is that he is not a central midfielder by any stretch of the imagination. In a team playing with such a lack of passion and struggling so badly before Brendan Rodgers was sacked, any player working as hard as he does should have stood out for the right reasons. Instead he has been so utterly awful that all his hard work has been wasted. He has a lot to prove over the course of this season.

Harry Kane, Tottenham Hotspur.
This feels a little unfair, as he is not really playing badly as such, just way below the level he set for himself last season. While Erik Lamela has probably been Spurs' worst player this season, in most games, that is the level we have grown to expect from him since he joined the club. Kane though, well he exploded last season and looked like he was going to be something special, while this season he has struggled badly. His link up play and work rate are still there, but he is not a goal threat so far this season, he needs to rediscover his scoring touch fast if Spurs are to finish top 4.

Tim Howard, Everton.
After his heroics in the World Cup in 2014, he has looked like half the player. It is like he has the cigars out to celebrate the plaudits he received and has yet to get back to work following the party. While he has never been near the level of the truly top class keepers, such as David De Gea, now there are times when you wonder if his level is even near the level of the Premier League.

Victor Wanyama, Southampton.
This came down to three candidates, but the other two, Maarten Stekelenburg and Virgil van Dijk are both new to the club and so deserve the benefit of the doubt. Especially van Dijk, who it is arguable has only disappointed me because his quality was so built up by both the media and our resident Celtic editor, who continually raved about him. Incidentally he also raved about Wanyama before he joined Saints. Wanyama I do feel sorry for, to be honest, he worked well with Morgan Schneiderlin, who was the central figure in the Southampton midfield and ran it. Without him, Wanyama looks lost, a bit of a headless chicken chasing around in the wrong areas making rash decisions with no one covering for his mistakes.

 

Jack Colback, Newcastle United.
Hard work is no substitute for quality, you need both together at this level, sadly Colback is lacking in quality. He chases around like mad, but offers nothing, either in terms of defensive cover or attacking threat. It is little wonder the Toon concede so many with him protecting the back four, as he is constantly caught out of position chasing around madly. It is the same going forward, he charges around making runs, but they are just thoughtless runs, hither and thither, with no intelligence shown. It takes some doing to stand out as poor in a team with such a hopeless defence, but Colback, despite all his effort, does so.

Aaron Cresswell, West Ham United.
While no one has been consistently poor for the Hammers this season, Cresswell has clearly slipped below the standard he maintained last season. He looks far from the player that pundits were raving about last season.

Neil Taylor, Swansea City.
There are quite a few players in the Swansea ranks that could have been given this dubious honour, as the whole club have dropped off badly in recent weeks. Even in the early part of the season, Taylor looked a player out of his depth, like he is in the team purely to keep up the quota of Welsh players, if I was being unkind. Positionally he leaves a lot to be desired and offers little in the way of attacking threat or quality on the ball. He badly needs Andre Ayew in front of him to occupy the opposition.

Dwight Gayle, Crystal Palace.
After the weekend's performance, it became clear that Gayle had to be the one chosen. While he has pace and works hard, he lacks any kind of footballing intelligence, as he showed with his sending off and the run which forced the penalty to be retaken and then to repeat it, well that was just idiotic. He cost his team badly.

 

Brad Guzan, Aston Villa.
The Villa keeper has been the worst of a very bad bunch this season, one of many players having an awful season. To be fair to the American shotstopper, it must have destroyed his confidence the way Tim Sherwood dropped him last season for Shay Given and then spent the summer trying to replace him. Although, top class players would respond by raising their game, rather than folding the way Guzan has.

Xherdan Shaqiri, Stoke City.
It is not that Shaqiri has been particularly bad, he has been in and out of the side through injury, but he has offered little when playing. For such a massively hyped player, who the club spent the summer chasing so hard, that is just not enough. With the quality he has, he needs to do a lot more, to take charge of games. To be fair to him though, he is new to the league and needs an injury free run to really show what he can do.

Jack Rodwell, Sunderland AFC.
There were a lot to choose from here, the Mackems have been pretty much all round awful, not just this season, but for a number of them now. Rodwell takes my choice as a player that is expected to be so much better than the likes of Lee Cattermole, who has never offered anything other than workrate and the ability to pick up stupid cards. Rodwell, on the other hand, is supposed to be a quality player but has yet to show any sign of that since joining from Manchester City. He still looks like a player who has yet to find his natural position, as he never looks entirely comfortable or sure positionally.

Wes Morgan, Leicester City.
This was the hardest choice of all, the way Leicester are going, it is difficult to pick anyone out as truly disappointing, but it had to be a part of the defensive unit, as keeping clean sheets seems to be impossible for the Foxes. As captain, Wes Morgan has to take the major portion of the blame for the poor defending. He should be the one organising the back line and ensuring the team are not conceding as many each week. No matter how good the forwards are, you can not afford to give a two goal headstart to every opponent.

Saido Berahino, West Bromwich Albion.
Under Tony Pulis, pretty much anyone could have got the nod as disappointing, to the point I considered picking the manager himself! He has destroyed any excitement that can be taken from watching the Baggies, with their system now about as interesting as Pulis himself. Berahino I have chosen because the attempts to force his way out in the summer have left him with a debt to repay the club. He has shown no signs of showing they were right to fight to keep the young forward. In fact, so far this season he has looked like he wants to be somewhere else. Anywhere else.

 

Victor Ibarbo, Watford.
Ibarbo has been so highly rated and hyped for so long, I was really looking forward to seeing what he was all about when he joined Watford in the summer. I am still waiting to see. Just like he was at AS Roma, where he is on loan from, and his country, Colombia, he has struggled to be any more than an impact sub. An impact sub with little impact, sadly. Watford desperately need him to start adding goals to his game.

Alexander Tettey, Norwich City.
For a player described as a 'defensive midfielder' he offers very little in the way of defensive responsibility. Norwich, in general, look a bit out of their depth in the Premier League, relegation last time around has clearly hurt the Canaries, and they look like a Championship team punching well above their weight. Manager Alex Neil is clearly counting on hard work and fighting spirit to make up for their lack of any real quality to their play. While Tettey has not been as poor as the defensive unit as a whole have been, there is little expected of them, as they are clearly not Premier League quality, particularly the truly awful Steven Whittaker, who is competing for the title of worst Premier League player of all time every single appearance he makes. Tettey, on the other hand, has shown flashes of ability in his time. Unfortunately those flashes are few and far between.

Matt Ritchie, AFC Bournemouth.
It was difficult to single out anyone as underperforming in this team, I am not even convinced Ritchie is actually underperforming either, it is just that he is so ridiculously overhyped by commentators that he is not living up to their overblown claims. Yes, he has a decent left foot, yes he does work hard. Given time and space he can produce with that left foot of his, but he never creates his own time and space through clever movement or trickery. Until he figures out how to get himself time and space on the pitch through movement, his lack of pace and trickery will mean he is forever a peripheral figure in matches.

Written by Tris Burke October 21 2015 06:05:15