The Premier League Overrated XI Featuring Arsenal, Manchester United Youngsters & Liverpool Stars Amongst Them

There are quite a few players who are expected to play well and contribute heavily and are rated high and well in the media and the football world. But many times players don’t live up to the expectations and sometimes their abilities aren’t up to the mark. Here is a team of players who are overpriced for their talents or overrated for their abilities in the Premier League.

Goalkeeper:

Joe Hart

The Manchester City keeper is still considered among the best in the league but his performances have been far from consistent. Being England’s number one, he needs to stay number one for his club as well instead of losing out to Pantilimon last season or Caballero possibly this season.

Defenders:

Rightback: Glen Johnson

One wonders how Glen Johnson still fits in Brendan Rodgers’ scheme of things. He got lucky both at club and international level with injury to Jose Enrique forcing Flanagan to play Left Back and him retaining his Right Back role and Kyle Walker’s injury absence in the World Cup. He barely has any end product to his attacks while he doesn’t defend as consistently as his counterparts.

Centerback: Matija Nastasic

The Manchester City centre back has talents but they aren’t overwhelming. He is a good young player but heavily overrated because he plays for an ambitious clubs. Often makes errors and struggles to break in to the eleven, Nastasic seems to be on his way out of Etihad.

Centerback: Martin Skrtel

The Liverpool Centre Back made the starting eleven consistently. But one thing that is obvious is that he was extremely lucky many times in the league where his recklessness was not spotted by the referee. Often a sloppy defender in the box with shirt pulling being the only way he knows to mark a player as well as a bunch of own goals to his name, Skrtel made the team because of his offensive presence during attacking set pieces. With Lovren in the team and Sakho back to fitness, Skrtel will be benched unless Liverpool want to concede another 50 goals this season.

Leftback: Luke Shaw

It is unfair to put the “Overrated” tag on a youngster who had no part in extracting the amount of transfer fee Man Utd paid to get him. Teams were looking to grab him for under £4m in 2013, when one season changed his and the Saints fortunes as he was sold for a steep fee in the region of £30m. He is young and has a lot to learn and rating him so highly by United can be dicey as he is still raw. He fetched the price of a world class left back in his prime and the English youngster is barely close to being that level as of now.

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Midfielders:

Paulinho

The Spurs midfielder was expected to drive the team from the middle of the park when he was roped in by Daniel Levy. But he has largely been average show in the league. He came with a strong Confederations Cup tournament to his name but he failed to live up to the expectations. Young Nabil Bentaleb started ahead of him under Sherwood while he was soon dropped by Scolari during the World Cup as well. Paulinho needs to work on his composure and rediscover his form to push away this overrated tag.

Jack Wilshere

The lesser said, the better about Wilshere not finding his feet in English football. People still seem to base the country’s future on his shoulders. He had one stellar season when he was much younger and some injuries to his name and now it seems he hasn’t developed at all even after a couple of seasons of being fit. Yes, we do see glimpses of his flair and we know he can do it consistently if he focuses, but he just doesn’t seem to do so. His recent smoking incidents ignite no confidence regarding his focus. Now with Gerrard retiring from international football and Lampard soon to retire, can we trust Arsenal’s prodigy or rather ex-prodigy to run the midfield for England? No, not yet.

Adel Taarabt

The QPR attacking midfielder has talents with the ball and can score goals. He has flair and the physical ability to sustain in the league, but there needs to be an end product to his activities on the pitch. Mazy runs with a lame shot on goal or unwanted selfishness reduces the fear factor that the defenders have on him. His tantrums, lack of work rate and vision have become a burden on Harry Redknapp who once said that Taraabt could become like Zidane or Di Canio if he focuses.

Scott Sinclair

He made a big money move to Manchester City from Swansea a couple of seasons back but barely featured for them. He was loaned to West Brom this past season and he again failed to either keep himself fit or break into the team. Sinclair has simply faded from the scene, which only means that he was a big fish in a small pond.

Wilfried Zaha

Sir Alex’s last signing before he retired, Zaha barely featured for Man Utd before being loaned out to Cardiff. He was all set to break into the line-up and improve as a player but instead we saw young Januzaj do so. Zaha’s off field behaviour is also questionable as well. It remains to be seen if he is value for the money that Man Utd paid for him which looks unlikely as Januzaj has become the new prodigy and has taken over his place.

Striker:

Andy Carroll

Carroll showed promise when at Newcastle but his move to Liverpool stagnated his career as he failed to fit into the Anfield club. Carroll’s move to West Ham looked promising but the struggling club paid a lot of money for him, which got even worse when he was on the treatment table for almost the entire season last time around. His fitness issues seems to be the only thing consistent in his current career. He needs to focus, and start performing for the club that stretched it’s budget to have him in the team and base their whole game around him.