Premier League 2018/19: The underperforming team of the season

Midfield: Mateo Kovacic – Chelsea

Mateo Kovacic has failed to make the grade at 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

Injuries and illness have wrecked Eric Dier's season

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

Mesut Ozil hasn't reached his own high standards in 2018/19

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.