5 overrated players in the Premier League right now

Let me begin by dropping down a few disclaimers before I start on an article titled as the above so, that I can evade at least some of the criticisms, I may be facing for coming up with such a list.

Football, as much as it is a game involving 22 players chasing a fairly large, airy ball across a 115-by-74 yard pitch, is also a game of opinions. Each person has a stance that contrasts with another, and at the end of the day, no one is really 100% right or wrong.

This sport is also the world of mad fans who place their club at a level of importance higher than the oxygen they inhale, and anything that speaks well about their beloved crest is nothing short of gospels of truth. At the same time, anything opposite - can get downright sacrilegious as well.

Belonging to one of such "mighty" fanbases, it has never been an easy task to put pen on paper and discuss the "beautiful game" from a neutral point of view. But today, let me attempt to do so, and name the top five overrated Premier League players from the current season, one of who is a valued member of my own club (I'll keep the readers guessing who/what club that is):

#1. Alisson Becker (Liverpool)

I'm definitely going to face a lot of fire for this one, but let's just face it. Alisson Becker may be a great goalkeeper, but he is definitely not worth all the excessive glory that the Liverpool fans cover him with. The season even began with fans calling their new signing the best goalkeeper of the current generation, as if Thanos suddenly snapped the existence out of the likes of Neuer, De Gea, Buffon, Oblak or Ter Stegen, among others.

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Becker sure lived up to a lot of hype, delivering clean sheets after clean sheets and producing proper saves, but as of late, the mistakes have started increasing. In fact, had it not been for the enormous presence of Virgil Van Dijk in defense, there would have been a lot more holes in Becker's resume right now.

Some games that come into mind are Liverpool's 2-0 defeat at Red Star Belgrade in the UCL group stages, and the Premier League games against Leicester, Arsenal, and Southampton where the Brazilian shot-stopper produced a plethora of errors, much to the joy of the opponent teams.

Undeniably though, Alisson is a huge improvement from who had previously guarded the space between the sticks for Jurgen Klopp and co.

#2. Dele Alli (Tottenham)

A new six-year contract and 150+ appearances for his club, at just 22 years of age - Dele Alli may be an amazing youngster who can be touted as one of England's brightest future stars. Alli's best days until now were the 2016 -'17 season, but since then, his goalscoring boots have been eerily silent.

It is true that he has excelled at times, like Tottenham's opener this season against Newcastle, when he netted in the 18th minute, also to whip out the now-famous Dele Alli celebration that involves some unexplainable gimmick with the fingers masking over his eye.

While it was cool at first, nowadays it just adds to Alli's overrated-ness. Alli also is more of a dribbler in midfield, but he seriously lacks the pace to match his thoughts and is looking less of a trouble to opponent defenders.

Never mind all that though, with the fresh contract coming up, the youngster who already has 31 national caps certainly has it in him to live up to his hype. He needs to start doing so, soon enough.

#3. Kyle Walker (Manchester City)

Not many people will expect a player from Premier League's best side (not to mention current defending champions) in this list. But, Kyle Walker definitely has not been able to claim an adequate share of his team's success, since his £50 million move from Tottenham last summer.

A right-back by trade, Walker is still more of a defensive liability, due to his tendency to run down the flanks and engage in the attack. Given how City boasts of having an amazing attack, it is rather unnecessary for him to add to it, and hence instead he often becomes the weak link whenever the club faces a counter attack.

Walker gets out of trouble in most cases, just because of his pace, as he gets back to play a role in defense at just about the right time in most cases. And that is wrongly viewed upon as a remarkable skill to possess and hence, he finds himself rated highly, but that shouldn't be the case as Walker still gets exploited defensively, like in the lost game last December against Crystal Palace, where Walker's error in positioning played a role in Palace's second goal.

#4. Ruben Neves (Wolverhampton)-

The Wolverhampton Wanderers had a terrific season in the 2017-'18 Championships, where they eventually finished first in the race to the title and thereby won a promotion to challenge for Britain's top footballing price.

A lot of plaudits went to the midfielder from Portugal, Mr. Neves for supposedly hauling his team all the way across the safer side of the finish line. But, here we simply fail to see how it was the work of one man alone. Coming into the PL too, the Wolves have an abundance of talent in the likes of longtime Portuguese No.1 shot-stopper Rui Patricio, midfielders Joao Moutinho, Morgan Gibbs-White, Raul Jimenez, Leander Dendoncker, and so on.

Neves for his own part, has never featured (previously) in any top-flight competition other than that of his own country, and his performances in the season so far has proved more than enough that the Premier League as well, is more of an uncharted territory for him, at least for a while in the reckoning.

The Wolves' currently stand just outside the top-6 in PL charts, but most of their work this season has been done by the likes of Conor Cody, Willy Boly, Diogo Jota and so on. Sure, Neves does play a part sometimes, but not as much as he should be, considering how highly rated he is.

#5. David Luiz (Chelsea)

David Luiz probably makes it into the all-time list of most overrated footballers. Sure, on his day he makes a really solid centre-back, but the phrase to be highlighted here is "on his day" - which comes once in a blue moon. The Brazilian continues to turn in nothing more than mediocre performances for his Chelsea side and had even fallen out of the pecking order for a while.

Luiz has a penchant for spellbinding passes and possesses a freekick routine that most professional top-flight strikers can only wish for, but these are just some extra candyfloss that comes with the package and it sure masks his problems in his base trade, i.e. defending. One immediately remembers the summer of 2014 when he completed a €50 million move from London to Paris SG and almost immediately went on to become Brazil biggest liability in their shocking 7-1 loss to Germany in the World Cup semis.

Nearly five years later, we have had a shift of rulers at the helm of International football, but things with Luiz still haven't changed - except for one part. Chelsea bought him back from PSG and he continues to perform in his exact same way like back then. Can't really see where all his high rated-ness comes.

Edited by Hassan Shafiq