Premier League's overrated XI

So this is the start of a series of articles I'm going to do, where I pick a team of players in the Premier League who fit into a certain category. Ideas I've had include: bargain transfers  from that summer, worst haircuts, South American players, worst players, strangest names, baldies... the lot. I'm also open to any suggestions from you for a category I could work through.

 

Now, I've seen a few articles by people if they had to pick an XI of the most underrated players in the Premiership. I'd like to be more nit-picky and do the opposite- pick a team of the most overrated players. So here goes:

 

Goalkeeper

Brad Friedel
A lot of pundits have been giving Friedel some credit lately for keeping Hugo Lloris out of the Spurs team, but I think that's more down to misguided decisions from AVB than anything else. In Friedel's 10 games in the Premiership this season, he's conceded 16 goals - not the best average of 1.6 per game - in fact, the only time Lloris started, in the league, was the only time Tottenham kept a clean sheet. At 40, I think Friedel's too old despite making a few decent saves in recent matches, but he hasn't been able to keep any sort of consistency and I think Villas-Boas should stick with Lloris for the long-term.

Defence

Glen Johnson
A lot of people talk about Johnson being the best right-back in the Premier League, I would disagree, because whilst he gets forward a lot to support the attack, he's not the best tackler from what I've seen of him and is liable to leaving the flank vulnerable.

Rio Ferdinand
Ferdinand is often considered a bit of a no-brainer for this Manchester United team, but really that's because the likes of Vidic, Smalling and Jones aren't available and for what he has in experience, he loses somewhat in his lack of pace- the Tottenham game back in September being the prime example when the likes of Bale just walked through him. The fact that United have the 7th worst defensive record in the Premiership tells you that they need to find a replacement for Ferdinand soon.

John Terry
In a similar way to Ferdinand, John Terry has lost that little bit of pace and he's not the same player he was 2 or 3 years ago. He used to be brilliant at immediately spotting the trouble, running to the danger area and heading it away, whereas now when I've seen him he has been caught in no-man's land a few times when he goes for the headers. He's still a great leader, but not as sharp.

Patrice Evra
He's supposedly 'answered his critics' by scoring a couple of goals this season but for me that doesn't make his defensive issues redundant. His slips have indirectly cost United several goals so far this season, it's becoming a little too easy for a right-winger to beat him and I don't think he's still got the pace.

 

Midfield

Raheem Sterling
I realise how controversial this choice is, and I think to break into the Liverpool first team at the age of 17 and be regarded as a first team player there speaks volumes for him. However, I don't think he is quite as good as people say he is, and if he wasn't a local teenager I'm not sure Liverpool fans would have quite the same affection for him. From 10 games so far this season, he's not got any assists and has only scored 1 goal, and I think he'd just be regarded as another average player if he was 25 and had signed for them for £15 million, but the fact he's come through the academy and is still so young means he gets a lot of extra credit.

David Silva
He was an assist machine last season, but his precision pass for Dzeko on Sunday aside, he's hardly produced the same quality this year- he's only had 1 assist other than that from 8 Premiership games. Again, I think he's a good player and in some respects you have to be a good player to be overrated, but I think his successes from last season means people aren't judging him this year as much as his wages dictate they should.

Lee Cattermole
It's always important to have a midfielder in your team that is strong in the tackle, but in my opinion Cattermole crosses that line by some distance. He's been sent off already this season and whilst you want to intimidate your opposition to some extent, you don't want to give away silly free-kicks. People like him for his ability to get stuck in but I think the majority of his tackles are irrational and he takes about as much away from his team as he adds in my opinion.

Shinji Kagawa
So far, I don't think the Japanese international has justified his £20-odd million transfer fee. With 3 goals and assists combined, he's contributed to little more than 10% of Manchester United's Premiership goals this season and with the likes of Rooney, Cleverley, Scholes, Young, Nani, Anderson and Valencia already in the Red Devils squad, I would question whether they really needed another attack-minded midfielder, yet Ferguson has started him more often than not.

 

Attack

 

Hugo Rodallega

He's now at Fulham on ludicrously high wages, but the Colombian has only scored 24 goals from 117 Wigan games which isn't good enough when you acknowledge that he is considered by many to be a main striker. Why he was linked with a move to Arsenal or Liverpool, I don't know.
Fernando Torres

He might not be in the same situation as he was a couple of years ago when he went something like 10 games without a goal, but 4 goals from 11 games this season isn't the return you'd expect from your £50 million striker; Chelsea fans seem to be simply grateful that he isn't on a goal drought. With so many quality players now like Mata, Hazard and Oscar playing in behind him, and him being the main man up front now Drogba has gone, he should really be banging in about 25 goals a season.

Subs:

Ali Al-Habsi
Aleksandr Kolarov
Martin Kelly
Adel Taarabt
Samir Nasri
Kenwyne Jones

Manager: Roberto Mancini

So there you have it... my overrated Premier League XI. If you have any suggestions for another XI to work out, send 'em my way, either by twitter: @_thescore
Or by email: sutton.thescore@gmail.com

I'll see you all next time for the all-time most disappointing XI... the Jason Lee award.