The Premier League Benched XI: Featuring Manchester United Left-back, Arsenal Winger, And Others

The Premier League Benched XI

The Premier League pays footballers probably the best salary on an average, some stats in the Serie A a few months ago said the player getting the highest salary was Daniel De Rossi with £110,000 a week, which is almost 1/3^rd of what Wayne Rooney gets at the moment. The Premier League also has the best players in the world and they always want to prove just how good they are but sometimes it doesn’t go that way.

Way too often a player signs for a club and hopes to play a lot of games for them but ends up doing nothing and sitting on the bench more often than not, without much to do or say here is the bench XI or “I will rarely get to see first team action” XI from the Premier League.

Michael Vorm

One of the best keepers from last season was involved in a rather crazy transfer who included Ben Davies going to Swansea with Vorm who was never going to be the number 1 with Hugo Lloris playing out his skin there. Vorm hasn’t really done anything at Spurs, except make money while sitting on the bench.

Kurt Zouma

Probably one of the best young centre backs in the world and he rarely gets a chance to play. Chelsea paid the big bucks to sign him but they play him sparingly and won’t even loan him out sot that he can get some experience, what a waste of money and talent.

Eliquim Mangala

Another beast of a French defender, Mangala has played a few games for Manchester City but looks nothing like the player City thought he would be. They paid a bunch of money to sign him but he has looked better on the bench rather than on the field for the Citizens.

Mataja Nastasic

Another centre back from Manchester City. Nastasic was considered as one of the best young centre backs in the world last season but this season it seems that it is all over for Mataja at City and he seems destined for a move away from the City team and from their bench as well.

Luke Shaw

Manchester United smashed a transfer record to buy the youngster from Southampton but a host of injuries and poor performances have left Luke Shaw looking more for his seat on the bench rather than for a place in the starting XI.

Mousa Dembele

Mousa Dembele was in the top 100 players in the world in 2012, he can’t even get into the Tottenham team at the moment. Dembele seems to have gone off the boil and it seems the bench is more used to him that the Spurs fans seeing him play.

Samir Nasri

The always benched player, Nasri might have angered a lot of Arsenal fans for moving to City but he did win a couple of league titles with the club. Just how much he contributed to those wins, um well, he was warming up while Sergio Aguero was banging in the goals, so that counts.

Gabreil Oberton

Newcastle seemed to have revived the career of the Frenchman after he left Manchester United and joined the Magpies but it all hasn’t worked that well this season with him making only a handful of appearances for the club.

Adnan Januzaj

The world was at his feet last season, he was Manchester United’s go to guy last season, he was the one player international teams were fighting over, this time he is a benched player and it seems Louis Van Gaal doesn’t rate him that highly as well.

Rickie Lambert

Joining your boyhood club after playing in so many leagues must have been a joyous moment for Lambert; he was signed by Liverpool and was expecting to do more than being a lamp post on the bench or making a cameo appearance here and there for the club. Lambert should have been used more often but it seems Brendan Rodgers wants to ensure his striker is fit for the end of the season.

Joel Campbell

One of the stars of the World Cup for the Costa Rica team, Arsene Wenger stated that Campbell would be a big part of the Arsenal team this season, what he did not say was that Campbell would be a big part of the bench. Arsene does not know what to do with the Costa Rican but not playing him isn’t helping anyone.