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While the 2018/19 Premier League season has been a hugely exciting one thanks to a tight title race and a wild scramble for the remaining Champions League spots, for some players it hasn’t been a memorable term at all.
Whether they’re players who have suddenly slipped in form, or players who made a big-money move that just hasn’t paid off, the following eleven men have had a season to forget, and have underperformed hugely throughout 2018/19.
Here are the Premier League’s underperforming XI of the season for 2018/19.
Goalkeeper: David de Gea – Manchester United
Once considered arguably the best goalkeeper in the world, many fans felt that David De Gea kept Manchester United in plenty of games during the 2017/18 season and that they likely wouldn’t have finished as runners-up in the Premier League without the Spanish #1.
That hasn’t been the case this term, though, as De Gea’s form has slipped tremendously and he’s made a plethora of errors that have cost the Red Devils hugely.
Perhaps people should’ve seen this drop in form coming given De Gea made a handful of errors during the summer’s World Cup, but it would simply have been difficult to imagine the De Gea of last season making mistakes like the ones he made against Chelsea – where he fumbled the ball into the path of Marcos Alonso – or Arsenal – in which he palmed Shkodran Mustafi’s header into the air and over the line.
Whether De Gea has simply hit a blip, or whether his head hasn’t been in the game – perhaps looking forward to a move away from Old Trafford – is a question mark, but for a man considered one of the best keepers in the world, 4 errors leading to goals in league action alone simply isn’t good enough.
Left-Back: Marcos Alonso – Chelsea
Most of Chelsea’s squad have come under some criticism at times this season – except Eden Hazard, of course – but left-back Marcos Alonso has been a serial under-performer throughout 2018/19, with a lot of Blues fans calling for him to be dropped after poor showings against the likes of Everton, Manchester City and Tottenham.
This is a strange one because at times, Alonso has looked pretty formidable – he’s managed to score 2 league goals and make 4 assists, after all – but for the most part he’s looked out of his depth as a full-back playing for a club challenging for a Champions League spot.
What’s the explanation for this? The most likely one is that Alonso – who was used by former boss Antonio Conte primarily as a wing-back – just isn’t suited to the more traditional full-back role that current manager Maurizio Sarri has deployed him in.
Even if this is the case, though, it’s hard to dispute the fact that the Spaniard has underperformed hugely this season.
Centre-Back: Shkodran Mustafi
Arsenal have had an inconsistent season for the most part – looking brilliant at times but massively vulnerable at others – and it’s their back line that has come under fire the most. It should come as no surprise then that the defender who’s made the most appearances for the Gunners this season – Shkodran Mustafi, who’s played 30 of Arsenal’s league games – makes his way into this underperforming side.
Quite how Arsenal ever paid £35m for Mustafi in 2016 has been baffling Gunners fans all season as they’ve seen him make a shocking amount of errors this season, some of which have cost his side important points.
He’s rarely looked comfortable and mistakes such as his foul on Harry Kane – which allowed Tottenham to escape their game with Arsenal in March with a point – and his errors against Crystal Palace in April, which clearly cost Arsenal the game, were essentially unforgivable.
After that disastrous game against Palace, boss Unai Emery came out to defend Mustafi – stating that he’d played “consistently” throughout the season – but for many fans, that “consistency” meant consistent underperformance. It’d be a surprise to see him starting for the Gunners next season.
Centre-Back: Yerry Mina – Everton
Colombian centre-back Yerry Mina had a fantastic World Cup last summer, surprisingly popping up to score 3 goals, and there was probably a fair argument to be made that he was his country’s best player during the tournament.
When it was reported that he’d be leaving Barcelona, plenty of big clubs were linked with his signature – so it came as a surprise when it was Everton who signed him in a deal worth around €30m.
Mina was supposed to shore up a back-line which had looked decidedly dodgy throughout 2017/18, but unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case at all. Due to injuries, it took him until November to make his Premier League debut and since then he’s barely played at all – starting just 9 games as he’s failed to make an impression at Goodison while his fellow defenders Michael Keane and Kurt Zouma have been fantastic.
It’d be unfair to blame Mina for failing to dislodge either man given their form, but when he has played, the Colombian hasn’t looked up to scratch anyway, as he looked miles off the pace in the Toffees’ games with the likes of Brighton, Liverpool and Newcastle. Given the money that Everton paid for him, it’s hard to look at him as anything but a bust.
Right-Back: Kieran Trippier – Tottenham
Few players came out of the 2018 World Cup with their reputations enhanced more than Tottenham’s right-back Kieran Trippier. Not only did he score England’s goal in their semi-final defeat to Croatia with a beautiful free-kick, but his delivery – be it from crosses or dead-balls – was fantastic throughout the tournament, as was his defensive work.
Trippier started 2018/19 brightly for Tottenham, too – firing in a fantastic free-kick against Fulham in the second game of the season – but since then his form has seemingly fallen off a cliff, and in all honesty it’s hard to work out quite what’s gone wrong for him.
At times it seems like he’s forgotten his defensive duties entirely – the likes of Bernardo Silva and Eden Hazard have ran him ragged – but it’s not just his defensive work that’s suffered.
Not only has Trippier made 2 fewer assists than he did in 2017/18, but he’s also been dispossessed more, has been more unsuccessful in his dribbles, has committed more fouls, and scored a disastrous own goal against Chelsea in February. Hopefully – for Spurs and England fans – this is just a blip for him, but he’s definitely underperformed in 2018/19.
Midfield: Mateo Kovacic – Chelsea
Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri’s tactics have come under fire on plenty of occasions during 2018/19 and the player who’s received perhaps the most ire has been midfielder Jorginho. Strangely though that feels a little unfair – sure, Jorginho might be the embodiment of ‘Sarri-Ball’, but he’s actually played pretty well for most of the season. On the other hand, Sarri’s faith in Mateo Kovacic has been utterly baffling.
Signed on loan from Real Madrid following the transfer of Thibaut Courtois in the other direction, Kovacic has been deployed as part of a midfield trio from the start in 21 Premier League games this season, with a further 10 appearances from the substitutes’ bench – usually to replace Ross Barkley, who has also tended to replace Kovacic in the matches the Croatian has started in a weird trend.
In those games Kovacic has scored a total of zero goals and has registered just 2 assists, and there have been plenty of occasions in which it’s been hard to understand exactly what the midfielder brings to the table.
It’s no wonder that Chelsea fans have been frustrated with him – particularly when he’s been picked ahead of Ruben Loftus-Cheek on so many occasions this term.
Midfield: Eric Dier – Tottenham
Tottenham’s holding midfielder Eric Dier was one of England’s World Cup heroes last summer thanks to his game-winning penalty in the shoot-out against Colombia, but largely through no fault of his own, he’s had a hugely frustrating follow-up season, looking off the pace for the majority of his 19 Premier League appearances.
Dier has shown flashes of good form on occasion; he scored the winning goal in Spurs’ October victory over Cardiff and memorably scored against Arsenal in December’s North London derby too, but injuries and illness have restricted him to the point where he’s usually been a bystander, and his form in 2019 in particular following bouts of appendicitis and viral infections has been woeful.
Most recently, Dier was given his first pair of starts in some time against West Ham and Bournemouth, but made no impact in the former and then was nearly sent off for late tackles in the latter before being substituted at half-time. A summer of fitness should fix his issues ready for next season, but 2018/19 has definitely been a year to forget for him.
Midfield: Mesut Ozil – Arsenal
Few Premier League players have come under fire quite as much as Arsenal’s German midfielder Mesut Ozil this season, and in all honesty it’s hardly surprising.
It’s not that Ozil has been terrible throughout 2018/19; in fact, he’s actually had some excellent games, such as his contributions to victories over Leicester and Bournemouth. But the frustrating thing with Ozil is that he’s capable of so, so much more.
For a player once considered to be amongst the very best in the world in his position, 5 goals and 2 assists in 24 Premier League appearances just isn’t good enough.
More to the point, Ozil has completed just 45 key passes all season, has made a total of just 11 shots on goal, and has been dispossessed on 34 occasions – all statistics that would’ve been unthinkable when the German was in his prime.
Too many times we’ve seen Ozil look like a bystander in big games for the Gunners this season; a side like Unai Emery’s who are chasing Champions League qualification need their big players to step up to the plate and Ozil just hasn’t done that.
It’s been a season of underperformance for him and it’s no surprise that current reports suggest the club will look to offload him in the summer.
Forward: Alexis Sanchez – Manchester United
Reportedly the Premier League’s highest earner – making somewhere between £410,000 and £500,000 per week depending on the source – Manchester United’s Alexis Sanchez has endured an absolutely torrid time at Old Trafford this season, looking like a complete shadow of the man who was once a genuine world-class performer.
Sanchez has started just 9 games in the Premier League – making a further 11 appearances from the bench – and he’s scored just 1 goal and made 3 assists.
He’s actually played a total of just 877 minutes – that’s less than the much-maligned Fred and the apparently outgoing Juan Mata – which makes you wonder quite why the Red Devils went to such lengths to sign him in the first place.
Fans might point at Paul Pogba as an indicator of what’s gone so wrong for United this season, but at least the Frenchman played excellently during Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s early days as caretaker boss.
Sanchez struggled under Jose Mourinho and hasn’t made an impact under Solskjaer either. Not only is he one of this season’s most underperforming players, but he’ll probably go down as one of the league’s worst ever signings, too.
Forward: Alireza Jahanbakhsh – Brighton
Brighton have struggled for goals all season, managing just 34 of them – the least of any side who haven’t been relegated – and part of that has to be down to the form of their record signing, Iran’s Alireza Jahanbakhsh, who was signed for an undisclosed fee – reportedly a club record – last summer from Eredivisie club AZ.
Jahanbakhsh had a pretty impressive record in the Netherlands – scoring a great total of 21 goals in 33 games for AZ in 2017/18 – but it’s been pretty clear from the off that he just isn’t up to the standard needed in the Premier League.
The Iranian forward hasn’t scored or made one assist in a total of 18 appearances this term, which is hardly surprising when you consider he’s had just 19 shots on goal – 12 of which came from outside the box.
The Iranian’s creative game has hardly been much better – he’s made just 5 key passes all season and his pass success rate of 68.3% is one of the lowest in Brighton’s first-team squad, too. To see Chris Hughton look to offload him this summer wouldn’t be at all surprising.
Forward: Riyad Mahrez – Manchester City
Riyad Mahrez might be set to pick up another Premier League winner’s medal – his first with Manchester City after achieving the feat with Leicester in 2015/16 – but his contribution this season has been nowhere near the massive one he made when he was one of the Foxes’ key men during that famous season.
After sealing a £60m move to the Etihad in the summer – making him the most expensive African player in history – Mahrez may have expected to become one of Pep Guardiola’s key men, but instead he’s been a bit-part player, starting just 13 Premier League matches and making a further 13 appearances from the bench.
It’s not that Mahrez has played badly when he has appeared – 6 goals and 3 assists is a decent return – but he just hasn’t been able to force his way into City’s first XI for a prolonged period, essentially due to the excellent form of City’s other wide forwards such as Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva.
For a player who’s capable of so much more, this can’t have been what the Algerian expected when he made the move last summer.
