The 2016/17 season is about two months old and teams across Europe are knee-deep in their campaigns across various competitions. Most teams have new managers, new players and renewed expectations to go with them and the season has not disappointed so far.
However, a select few who have not exactly had the best of starts this season. Some lit up their respective leagues last season but are yet to impress in this campaign. Here are five players that need to step up big time.
1) Riyad Mahrez – Leicester City
Cut back to the 2015/16 season and Riyad Mahrez was bamboozling Premier League defences at will. A silky touch here, a quick dribble there a stepover and a curling left-footed effort that always managed to catch the goalkeeper off guard thanks to the minimum back-lift.
It was no wonder then that he was voted the PFA Player of the Year as Leicester City raced to a maiden league title and won it with two games to spare. By the end of the season, the Algerian winger’s stats were the stuff of every manager’s dream: 17 goals and 11 assists in 36 starts in the league.
However, the new season has seen the Foxes pulled back down to earth in spectacular fashion. After an opening day loss to Hull City, they have only beaten Swansea and Burnley, losing to Manchester United and Liverpool by similar 4-1 scorelines. And a lot of it has been down to Mahrez’s poor form.
He has only managed to score one goal in six games and has zero assists. His failure from the penalty spot has also frustrated fans. The last game against United was one of his worst, failing to take a shot, failing to complete a take-on and also failed to send in a single accurate cross.
2) Paulo Dybala – Juventus
After signing Paulo Dybala from Palermo for around €32 million last season, the then-20-year-old had a stellar start to the season even though Juventus struggled. Signed as a replacement for his compatriot Carlos Tevez, Dybala soon became an integral part of the Bianconeri attack as Juventus slowly crawled their way back to the top of the table.
By the end of the Serie A season, Juventus had overhauled Napoli and won the league comfortably. And Dybala had scored 19 goals and grabbed 9 assists in 29 starts. A star was born and Juventus had signed a quality player for the future who helped them win a fifth consecutive league title.
However, in a bid to strengthen the squad and challenge on the European front, they broke the Italian transfer record to sign Gonzalo Higuain from rivals Napoli. That has now had an adverse effect on his international teammate.
So far, Dybala has not yet scored a goal and has only 2 assists to his name. The Turin giants are currently top of the league but Dybala is no longer an unknown quantity in Massimiliano Allegri’s setup.
“He is having good games but has more attention from opponents - they know him now.” – Allegri
With Higuain in the XI, he is the focal point of the attack and Dybala usually drops deep to collect the ball. There have been ideas to deploy him in a withdrawn role behind Higuain and Mario Mandzukic but that would completely alter his role and Allegri would have to sacrifice a midfielder.
3) N’Golo Kante – Chelsea
When Leicester City marched to the Premier League title with only three losses, it was labelled the greatest sporting achievement of all time. After all, how many teams win the title with 5000/1 odds?
And at the centre of it all was Claudio Ranieri’s primary weapon – N’Golo Kante. The Foxes played with a 4-4-2 formation but in reality, it seemed like a 4-5-2. As the club’s head of recruitment, Steve Walsh, explained: “We play with Danny Drinkwater in the middle and with Kante either side.”
Kante’s energy and pace allowed the Foxes to close down their opponents before they could build up attacks. Once Kante had won the ball back, the Foxes poured forward in numbers as counter-attacking goals became the norm.
But his £30m move to Chelsea has not gone according to plan just yet. As Antonio Conte struggles to find the right midfield combination, Kante has struggled to reach the heights of last season. At Leicester, he averaged 4.7 tackles and 4.2 interceptions per game. At Stamford Bridge, those numbers have fallen to 3.5 tackles and an alarming 1.8 interceptions per game.
The consecutive losses to Liverpool and Arsenal have both exposed Chelsea’s midfield woes. They afford their opponents too much space and Kante’s positioning has been questioned.
It’s not too late for Kante to find the same form that saw him win a Player of the Year nomination, though. But Conte needs to find a solution fast with none of Kante, Nemanja Matic, Cesc Fabregas or Oscar convincing so far this season.
4) Wayne Rooney – Manchester United
“Maybe he is not a no.9 anymore but he will never, with me, be a no.6. He will never be 50 metres from the goal.” – Jose Mourinho on Rooney during pre-season
It is safe to say that the first thing Mourinho did at Manchester United was to go back on his word. With Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial in the side, there was simply no place for Wayne Rooney in the forward line.
But Rooney has struggled to play in the midfield role, just as he has struggled in midfield with England. Even with expensive acquisitions such as Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Juan Mata in the squad, Rooney was tasked with playing between the lines and it has stifled both Ibrahimovic and world record transfer Paul Pogba.
So when calls for him to be dropped came from even the staunchest of Rooney supporters, the axe finally fell. He was benched against Leicester City and the Red Devils’ attacks suddenly seemed increasingly fluent and lethal. The transitions were quick, the players’ movement had improved and four goals ended the contest within the first 45 minutes.
Rooney may be the club’s captain but he may now have to be satisfied with a bit-part role. He has been in decline for a couple of seasons now but will Mourinho be brave enough to drop a club legend for good? He has done it before with Raul, Iker Casillas and Frank Lampard.
5) Cristiano Ronaldo – Real Madrid
The 2015/16 season ended on a good note for Cristiano Ronaldo. Champions League title, check. Euro 2016 title, check. UEFA Best Player in Europe Award, check! 51 goals for Real Madrid in 48 games and 3 goals at Euro 2016 had seen him assert his superiority even though age was beginning to catch up with the forward.
The injury in the final against France almost killed the dream that began in Euro 2004 when he was just an upcoming 19-year-old star. But with another trophy in his cabinet, the summer was reserved for rehabilitation.
But Ronaldo is such a physical specimen that he wasn’t sidelined for long. Scoring with literally his first touch of the season, it seemed like he was continuing from where he left off last season. However, that is all he has done in the league so far.
By his own lofty standards, this is his worst start to a season in La Liga ever since he made the then-record £80m move from Manchester United in 2009. Zinedine Zidane substituted him after a very poor performance against Las Palmas in the 2-2 draw claiming he needed him fresh for the Champions League. But in reality, it was a tactical change.
The Portuguese star no longer has the same blistering pace to beat defenders on the wing while he barely manages to complete more than a dribble per game nowadays. He may have reacted in frustration when he was substituted but he must realise that he is not bigger than the club and that he is far from playing at his peak.
Fortunately, Zidane realises that and even said: “I have to take him off sometimes. That isn't going to change what we are going to continue to do.”
