The ‘worst’ Premier League XI of the season

Will Ford
De Gea Man United

We have brought you the Premier League XI of the season, the young team of the season; now it’s time for the ‘worst’ – constructed from WhoScored’s player ratings for those who have made 20 Premier League appearances or more, limited to one player per club.

 

Goalkeeper: David de Gea (Man United)
David de Gea being Manchester United’s highest earner felt a bit mad even when he was their best player. In the last two-and-a-half months he’s started six of 18 games and earned £8,333 per minute of football played, or £138 per second. Now it’s ludicrous.

Only two goalkeepers to have started over ten Premier League games have a lower save percentage than De Gea’s 67.1% – Vicente Guaita (65%) and Alex McCarthy (64.2%). Dean Henderson (76.6%) – tiny though he is – is second only to Nick Pope (77%). Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made the right call; now it’s time to get rid altogether.

 

Right-back: George Baldock (Sheffield United)
If we hadn’t limited this XI to one player per club, it would be dominated by Sheffield United. Baldock would have been joined by Enda Stevens, John Egan, John Lundstram and Rhian Brewster. Still, at least they have got a wonderkid, for now.

 

Centre-back: Semi Ajayi (West Brom)
West Brom have kept four clean sheets in the seven games Ajayi hasn’t started this season. The only other two clean sheets – in the 29 Premier League games he has started – were in the 1-0 win over Sheffield United and the 0-0 against Burnley, when Ajayi was sent off in the 30th minute. Turns out it’s always better not having him on the pitch, even when it means you have a man less.

 

Centre-back: Conor Coady (Wolves)
Coady retains his place. He’s never going to come out well in the WhoScored ratings, given the metrics they use. He typically leaves the defensive dogsbody work to the likes of Willy Boly and Romain Saiss, though the switch to a back four means he does have to do a bit more of that. And he did on Sunday, until he was cursed by Gary Neville’s effusive praise and flailed at the feet of Manchester United’s Tottenham’s Harry Kane.

 

Left-back: Jamal Lewis (Newcastle United)
It’s one thing to be understudy to Andrew Robertson, it’s quite another to be cleaning the boots of Matt Ritchie or Paul Dummett. The former Norwich full-back nearly joined Liverpool in the summer, but instead moved to St James’ Park. He will likely have been pleased with the decision having started 20 of Newcastle’s first 26 Premier League games – the man who did join Liverpool, Kostas Tsimikas, has played just five league minutes all season – but Lewis will be less happy with no starts in the last ten.

 

Central midfielder: Jairo Riedewald (Crystal Palace)
Signed as a 20-year-old in the summer of 2017, Riedewald started the first game of Frank de Boer’s tenure – a 3-0 home defeat to Huddersfield – before seeing the manager who brought him to the club sacked four games later.

He started just ten Premier League games that season and the two that followed combined, before making an actual – if not great – impact with 18 starts this term.

 

Central midfielder: Nampalys Mendy (Leicester City)
He didn’t do too badly as Wilfred Ndidi’s back-up. Leicester didn’t look at the time as though they missed their primary midfield dynamo too much, until he returned and we all realised they really did. Mendy’s 2.66 tackles and interceptions per game compared to Premier League leader Ndidi’s 6.85 is the perfect illustration of the difference in quality. Mendy is the supermarket knock-off to the brand label Ndidi.

 

Attacking midfielder: Alex Iwobi (Everton)
“It’s crazy when everyone tells me all these stats like the appearances and caps I’ve got. I’ve had a decent career so far considering my age,” Iwobi said when he was told he’s made 154 Premier League appearances.

You’ve got 13 goals and 18 assists in that time, mate. You cost Everton £28million and you’ve got two goals and two assists in 54 appearances. It’s really not been that “decent”.

 

Attacking midfielder: Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Fulham)
Loftus-Cheek appears to represent the last vestiges of the promising but flawed players of the Chelsea Academy, before it started churning out undoubtedly brilliant footballers. Before Mason Mount came Lewis Baker, before Declan Rice came Josh McEachran, before Billy Gilmour came Nathanial Chalobah.

They – like Loftus-Cheek – were tipped for great things, but fell by the wayside for one reason or another. Mainly, one suspects, because they weren’t quite as good as they were made out to be. That would be an unfair take on Loftus-Cheek – he has the ability – but frustratingly fails to make the most of it.

When asked about his Chelsea future, Thomas Tuchel said he was “quite a fan” when Loftus-Cheek first started making appearances in the Blues first team and likened his playing style to Michael Ballack. But that was over five years ago now and that’s the point – it shouldn’t take that long for a player to realise their potential, even with his terrible injury problems in mind.

Loftus-Cheek Fulham

 

Attacking midfielder: Erik Lamela (Tottemham)
He scored a rabona and *checks notes*… no, that’s literally it. This is his eighth season at Spurs and while that goal made up for a hell of a lot of uselessness, it really is a wonder he’s lasted this long.

 

Striker: Neal Maupay (Brighton)
He has scored eight Premier League goals (which is more than Timo Werner or indeed anybody at Chelsea) but xG suggests he should have scored closer to 14. He has not scored at all in the last four months and has logged only two assists all season.

 

F365 Features David De Gea

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