Every Premier League club’s most overrated player of the season
Who doesn’t love jumping on the bandwagon and claiming a player is absolutely brilliant after watching 20 seconds of Match of the Day?
And the best thing about us football fans is that as soon as we’ve decided a player is class and told all our mates about it, there’s absolutely no going back – of course we’re not going to admit we’re wrong! We’ll take that opinion to the grave.
One of the side-effects of our stubbornness is that so many players are ridiculously overrated, and 90min has taken a look at the most overrated player from all 20 Premier League clubs this season. Enjoy.
For balance, we have also done an underrated list too!
‚Ooooo he comes from Real Madrid so he must be good‘. Yeahhh, how’s Dani Ceballos working out for you?
Martin Odegaard has had such an easy ride this season purely because he’s a big name and a lot of the Arsenal fan base actually rate him. Well, we’re here to tell you that he’s been rubbish.
He was brought into the club to provide a spark in midfield and instead he’s been completely outshone by a 20-year-old Emile Smith Rowe who only had two Premier League appearances to his name before the start of the season.
Some Premier League clubs have been so bad it’s difficult to even suggest any of their players have been rated. Aston Villa are quite the opposite.
The majority of Dean Smith’s side have enjoyed superb seasons, but Tyrone Mings gets so much more credit than he actually deserves.
The amount of last-ditch challenges he has to make is just testament to how often he’s caught out of position and the England defender has been carried by Ezri Konsa for much of the campaign.
Just because you’re 8ft 9in and have the word ‚big‘ constantly prefixed to your name doesn’t mean you’re a good footballer.
It’s almost like Dan Burn – sorry, big Dan Burn – is a novelty act and we all just dismiss any mistakes he makes because he’s an absolute unit playing at full-back.
The Brighton man has been no better than average this season so if we could all calm down on the praise for a bit that would be great.
Young + English = automatically brilliant. We all know that, right?
Dwight McNeil is made out to be a lot better than he actually is because he’s one of the only players in the Burnley team who knows how to do a Cruyff turn.
The youngster hasn’t had a good campaign yet he’s still lauded as the magic man in the Burnley midfield – and that really hasn’t been the case this season.
A £50m left-back? Yeah, sure.
While some players are overanalysed when they arrive at a club for a hefty sum of money, Ben Chilwell has had it easy in his first season at Chelsea.
It’s like the Blues fanbase just assume he’s been playing well because he must be brilliant if Leicester’s transfer team said he was.
Chilwell hasn’t performed anywhere near as well at Chelsea as people seem to think and he’s got a lot of improvements to make if he’s to show he was worthy of such an eye-watering fee.
Right, first thing’s first we know he’s a brilliant footballer to watch.
BUT, is he really as good as we’re all making out?
Just because a few teenagers post a picture of him on Twitter and claim ‚the streets will never forget‘, it doesn’t mean he’s prime Lionel Messi.
Wilfried Zaha has been Crystal Palace’s standout performer this season but he’s barely had a mention with all the praise being dished out to Eberechi Eze.
Good? Yes. Actual impact blown out of proportion? Also yes.
Richarlison is another player who people assume is brilliant because he cost a lot of money (and he’s Brazilian).
Seven league goals this season is pretty poor for a man who started 33 of the Toffees‘ Premier League matches, and not only has he escaped criticism he’s also been lauded for his good campaign. Really?
Fulham are a tough one to call because they had a couple of players who performed really well and the rest were rubbish.
Ivan Cavaleiro was asked to lead the Cottagers‘ line for much of the season and while we appreciate he’s not an out-and-out striker and so was thrown in at the deep end, he escaped scot-free despite some dismal displays.
Have we all just accepted that Kalvin Phillips is an international midfielder now?
Alright, so he sits in the middle of the park and breaks up play while knocking it about a little, but he really doesn’t do much more than a lot of limited midfielders do.
Phillips has received a lot of praise for Leeds‘ performances this season and to be quite honest we think it’s a bit over the top.
Good? Yes. As good as everyone makes out? No.
One of the greatest tricks in football is players convincing you they’re brilliant when in fact they’re being carried by their teammates.
Meet Caglar Soyuncu.
The Leicester man has been carried by centre-back partners Wesley Fofana and Jonny Evans at times this season, yet has still be widely praised for his stellar performances.
We’ll be the first to admit that Nathaniel Phillips stepped into the Liverpool side in their time of need and helped them secure their place in next season’s Champions League, but the hype is a bit much, isn’t it?
The fact Jurgen Klopp has still been desperate to bring in another big-money centre-back – with Ibrahima Konate’s £36m arrival recently announced – it’s clear Klopp doesn’t see Phillips as anything more than a fourth-choice centre-back at best. So let’s all calm down shall we?
Remember the bit where we said about centre-backs being carried by their teammates? Yeah, that.
John Stones has looked much better with Ruben Dias alongside him, but he’s still been prone to the odd lapse in concentration and all this talk of ‚City are finally seeing the £47.5m player they signed from Everton‘ is a massive overreaction.
Young + English = automatically brilliant. Again.
Dean Henderson certainly hasn’t embarrassed himself since becoming Manchester United’s number one goalkeeper, but he’s done little more than what would have been expected of him.
It’s difficult to recall any world-class saves he’s made that have won his side points and United will almost definitely need to upgrade this summer if they’re serious about bridging the gap between themselves and Manchester City.
Newcastle are another difficult one to call considering Callum Wilson and Allan Saint-Maximin have been rightly lauded and the rest have just, well, they’ve just been there.
Miguel Almiron is one of the few other players in Steve Bruce’s squad to have come out of this season with any credit, but four goals and one assist in 24 Premier League outings is still nowhere near good enough.
Yes he’s playing in a defensive system but that still doesn’t mean we should be going mad over five goal involvements in a full campaign.
If you were to pinpoint one of the biggest differences between the Sheffield United of this season and the one that finished in the top half in 2019/20 it would be the downgrade in their number one goalkeeper. And yet, Aaron Ramsdale was named the club’s Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year… How?
He may have had a lot to do but conceding 63 goals in 38 league games is nothing to shout about.
Moussa Djenepo has added a little more creativity to Southampton’s midfield, but he’s spent a lot of the season just running around a lot.
One goal and not a single assist in 27 Premier League appearances is quite frankly woeful – especially given how well the Saints were doing at the start of the season – and a lot of the compliments aimed his way seem a bit unnecessary.
Spurs are another club who had a few outstanding performers and the rest were hopeless.
Sergio Reguilon was one the few to come out of the season with any kind of credit, though his displays left a lot to be desired.
The youngster went missing in a lot of games and just because he’s handsome and used to play for Real Madrid doesn’t mean he should get an easy ride.
Seems a bit weird having one of West Brom’s best players on this list, but the truth is Matheus Pereira was nowhere near as good as everyone is making out.
The Baggies‘ only real hopes of survival genuinely rested on his shoulders and he just didn’t turn up on a consistent basis.
We’re not going to overlook the fact the Brazilian had some great games, but he honestly let his side down a little.
We all got a bit too wrapped up in the hysteria of West Ham potentially being in the Champions League to realise that Craig Dawson went a little bit rubbish at the end of the season.
The former West Brom man started the campaign brilliantly, though in the latter stages he made a number of costly errors that didn’t really get highlighted because of how well he’d performed on the whole.
One of life’s unanswered questions: is Conor Coady any good at football?
He’s certainly competent when played in the middle of a back-three but some of the fuss made over him is way too over the top.
He’s a decent communicator and makes some alright challenges but he really isn’t worthy of the hype and soon gets found out when he’s isolated by forwards.