Top 5 Most Disappointing Stars Who Will Bounce Back Next Season Including Arsenal, Manchester United And Tottenham Stars

Top 5: PL Stars who have disappointed but will be raring to go next season

Every season of football brings the ups and downs in the life of a footballer. Star footballers are often under heavy pressure to perform at the top level and there are some players who have succumbed to the pressure or have been out of form this season, causing massive disappointment to fans. Here is a list of 5 Premier League Stars who have had a disappointing season but will be raring to bounce back again.

5. Juan Mata

The Chelsea star who had excellent first two seasons at Stamford Bridge was seen as surplus to requirements by new manager Jose Mourinho and was relegated to the bench. The diminutive playmaker from Spain was asked time and again to contribute more defensively by Mourinho. The Spaniard had a hard time adapting to life under manager Mourinho and failed to score a single Premier League goal for Chelsea in the first half of the campaign, something which was shocking considering that he had been the Blues’ Player of the Year twice in both his previous seasons. Inability to play in the wings as a proper winger would have been the issue for Mata, who loves playing as the main creator behind the striker. As a result, Mata was sold to Man Utd and Oscar got a permanent play-maker role.

Mata’s struggles have followed him at Old Trafford where now, he is finally looking to get back to form under David Moyes who is allowing Mata more flair and freedom even at the wings.

4. Joe Hart

The English number 1 and Manchester City star goal keeper has had a very ordinary season so far. There was a time when Joe Hart used to save the Citizens with some amazing saves, which had got him into the English National team. But Hart’s dip in form led to a leaky and under confident defence as he went on to make one-to-many high profile goal-keeping errors that led Manuel Pallegrini dropping him from his starting line-ups.

Joe Hart has since tried regaining some solidity, especially after the mid-season nadir that he had reached. This rise in confidence does give us some hope that hart will pick himself up and perform well in the World Cup.

3. Mesut Ozil

Mesut Ozil’s record signing was Arsene Wenger’s record signing on the deadline day of the Summer Transfer window. The exceptionally talented German was brought into Arsenal to boss the midfield and create chances galore. Ozil seemed to do exactly that as his set-pieces and link-up play were divine in his first few games for gunners.

But shocking enough, Ozil has had a rough season thereafter. Often when Arsenal played against the title rivals, Ozil looked out of sorts and was heavily criticized for his lethargic displays. As a traditional playmaker, Ozil had no experience of extra work rate. And in Arsenal’s system of closing down opponents, Ozil seemed to be too lazy.

Despite that, Mesut Ozil’s talent has been on display and he has a fair amount of Assists to his name, most of which came in the early part of the season, after which he lost confidence while fatigue and injury hit him again and again. The fact that Ozil did not have a pre-season outing and Arsenal lacks a deep squad, meant that Ozil succumbed under pressure. But as next season looms, Ozil will thrive in a better squad and a proper pre-season.

2. Antonio Valencia

Antonio Valencia was once known as the best crosser that the Premier League has to offer. Man United’s fall from grace has a lot to do with their main wingers performing poorly. Out of all three primary wingers that United have- Valencia, Nani and Young, the Ecuador International has been the vital cog for the Red Devils’ offence, feeding deliveries to their centre forwards.
Valencia’s failure along with the inconsistencies of Nani and Young meant that Man United were stuck with a philosophy without the players to carry it out.

But in the recent Champions’ League performances against Olympiakos and Bayern Munich, Valencia seems to have picked his game up and has played with heart and desire to perform at a high level. His tracking back and marking of his full back was often missing in the major part of the season, which allowed opposite full- backs to overlap him way too often, as highlighted by Alexander Kolarov causing all sorts of problems at Etihad Stadium against the Red Devils. But then, in those two Champions League games, we saw Valencia work hard in defence as well, something which utilises his athleticism to the fullest.

1. Erik Lamela

Who but Erik Lamela? The young and exciting prospect from Argentina was bought for 30 million by Spurs to replace their talisman Gareth Bale. But fitness and injury issues and lack of adaptability made life hell for Lamela in his first season at White Hart Lane.
Lamela was known to be a key figure for Roma and on paper, he fits the bill perfectly as he is the type of winger Spurs would have wanted anyway- a dribbling heartthrob.

But instead of a heartthrob, watching him on the bench or in treatment has been an heartache for most football fanatics. Termed as the “next best thing”, Lamela is not the one who is going to give up easily. The 22 year old winger’s brother has said that Lamela won’t be quitting Spurs at the end of the season and won’t give up on his Spurs career. This came out when his brother Brian was asked over twitter whether Erik would leave Spurs if Tim Sherwood was sacked, to which he simply replied “No”. This only gives us hope that a young prospect like Lamela is only going to give us positivity in the future.