The ‘worst’ Big Six XI of the Premier League season

Will Ford
Maguire De Gea Lindelof Man United

Every member of the Big Six has a representative in the ‘worst’ XI of the season, but there are no prizes for guessing who dominates…

We’ve based it entirely on the WhoScored ratings, so don’t shoot the compilers. This is the ‘best’ XI, if you’re interested.

 

GK: David de Gea (Man Utd)
It will be a hard truth to accept for Manchester United fans that their star of the last decade, a man who’s won four Matt Busby Player of the Year awards, is now the worst Big Six goalkeeper. But then your goalkeeper being your best player for the last decade is already a pretty bitter pill to swallow.

 

RB: Kyle Walker (Man City)
Liverpool and Chelsea obviously have brilliant right-backs, but Walker will be mightily disappointed to be bottom of a pile featuring Emerson Royal, Cedric Soares, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Diogo Dalot.

 

CB: Harry Maguire (Man Utd) 
Everything is his fault even though most things aren’t. Probably not good enough to be the captain of The Greatest Football Club, but then United definitely aren’t really that and it was also their decision to make him captain.

 

CB: Victor Lindelof (Man Utd)
The key last summer – or at least one of the keys – for United, was finding a partner for Maguire; Lindelof, Bailly and whoever else were not fit for purpose. They still aren’t.

 

LB: Luke Shaw (Man Utd)
Shawberto Carlos at the end of an excellent international tournament after his best season for Manchester United, the left-back has somewhat reverted to his Old Trafford norm this term.

 

CM: Harry Winks (Tottenham)
Winks said in mid-February that he feared his Tottenham career was “dead and buried” before Antonio Conte arrived and started him in seven of his first ten games in charge. He’s started just one of the nine games since he made those comments and we a) find that very funny, and b) feel quite sorry for him.

 

CM: James Milner (Liverpool)
He’s played as though he’s both 36 and 18 for the last decade, but is now actually 36 and plays purely as though he’s 36.

 

CM: Alex Oxlade Chamberlain (Liverpool)
The truth is he was just about good enough to play for Liverpool when he joined in 2017 and now just isn’t. He had a big chance to stake his claim in midfield with the departure of Georginio Wijnaldum and has failed with a bit of a whimper.

LW: Timo Werner (Chelsea)
Three goals in two games, including one in the Bernabeu, means the lad’s on a hot streak. ‘Give him enough chances and he will score’ is an oft-used Werner-ism – and is true, as it is for the vast majority of humanity.

 

ST: Marcus Rashford (Man Utd)
A saint off the pitch and absolutely rubbish on it. Guys, it’s OK to separate the two. It’s also OK to wish him well more than most because of what he does off the pitch. If you’re not rooting for Rashford, we’re not rooting for you.

 

RW: Nicolas Pepe (Arsenal)
For a player you bought for a club-record fee two-and-a-half seasons ago to play just 133 minutes of Premier League football since October really is quite something.