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Premier League Flop XI 2017-18

<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">We’ve seen enough debate on what the best Premier League XI for the season is&period; It’s time now to move over the Salahs and De Bruynes&comma; and take a look at some players who were expected to shine&comma; but ended up falling smack down on their faces&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Here’s the Premier League flop XI for the 2017&sol;18 campaign&period; There could be a lot of names thrown other than the ones mentioned here&comma; but hey&comma; that’s something we’re not going to be able to avoid&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><b>Goalkeeper<&sol;b><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><b>Joe Hart &lpar;West Ham United&rpar;<&sol;b><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The former England number 1’s fall from grace has been spectacular&period; After being ousted by Pep Guardiola at Manchester City&comma; he spent an underwhelming season at Torino in Serie A last season&period; This season&comma; he was signed by West Ham as a potential upgrade to Adrian&period; Unfortunately&comma; he has been anything but that&period; He conceded ten goals in his first three league appearances&comma; and has had to share responsibilities with Adrian&comma; making 19 appearances compared to the Spaniard’s 17&period; Hart has failed to shine big-time&comma; and has made a lot of untimely and basic errors&period; It will be very surprising both to see him feature for England in Russia this year&comma; as well as keep goal at Man City ever again&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><b>Right-back<&sol;b><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><b>Cedric Soares &lpar;Southampton&rpar;<&sol;b><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Soares started the season in dreadful fashion and in December&comma; had more individual errors leading to an opposition goal than any other player&period; He has steadied the ship since&comma; but has still not lived upto his own heights from the previous season&period; With The Saints looking very likely to get relegated&comma; Soares’ inclusion in this team is more than justified&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><b>Centre-back<&sol;b><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><b>Victor Lindelof &lpar;Manchester United&rpar;<&sol;b><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Manchester United spent £35 million to bring in the Swede from Benfica in the summer&comma; and he was tipped as the able partner for Eric Bailly at the heart of the defence&period; After an error-strewn start though&comma; he was quickly replaced by Chris Smalling&period; He is still young and could yet be a star at Old Trafford once he gets used to life in the Premier League&comma; but certainly a lot more was expected from him this season&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><b>Centre-back<&sol;b><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><b>David Luiz &lpar;Chelsea&rpar;<&sol;b><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">After being an integral part of the title-winning team last season&comma; Luiz seems to have had a falling out with Antonio Conte&period; He has played only 10 teams in the league&comma; and despite reportedly being out with an injury&comma; there are question marks over his absence&period; He has been replaced by Andreas Christensen in the starting line-up&comma; and the Dane doesn’t look like being displace anytime soon&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><b>Left-back<&sol;b><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><b>Luke Shaw &lpar;Manchester United&rpar;<&sol;b><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Shaw has fallen prey to Mourinho’s dislike&comma; and is almost set to leave Old Trafford in the summer&period; Makeshift left-back Ashley Young has been preferred to the Englishman&comma; who has made only nine league appearances despite being available for most of the campaign&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><b>Central midfield<&sol;b><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><b>Renato Sanches &lpar;Swansea City&rpar;<&sol;b><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">On loan from Bayern Munich&comma; Sanches was expected to be one of the brightest prospects in the Premier League this season&period; Instead&comma; he turned into quite the opposite&period; He dreadful right from the start&comma; and was notably substituted at half-time against Chelsea after passing the ball to the advertising boards on the side of the pitch&period; After 12 league appearances&comma; he suffered a hamstring injury in January and is now back in his hometown of Portugal to recuperate&period; From what we saw of him&comma; it is unlikely he’ll be playing either for Bayern or for Swansea next year&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><b>Central midfield<&sol;b><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><b>Paul Pogba &lpar;Manchester United&rpar;<&sol;b><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">This may be a controversial addition because there is no denying Pogba’s talent&period; But he has been below-average at best over the course of the season&comma; despite showing flashes of brilliance here and there&period; Jose Mourinho still hasn’t found his best position&comma; and the Frenchman has found it difficult to exert his influence on games when it has mattered most&period; And of course&comma; he cost United £90 million&period; Six league goals is hardly any way to repay such a ridiculously gargantuan amount of money&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><b>Central midfield<&sol;b><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><b>Tiemoue Bakayoko &lpar;Chelsea&rpar;<&sol;b><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Chelsea spent around £40 million on bringing Bakayoko to the club from Monaco&period; After impressing in the Champions League last season&comma; he was seen as an upgrade to the outgoing Nemanja Matic&period; He has been anything but&period; The Frenchman has just not been able to get to terms with Premier League football&comma; and has been lethargic and demotivated right from the start&period; Despite being afforded opportunity after opportunity by Antonio Conte&comma; there have been no signs of improvement&period; Clearly&comma; someone needs to step in and shake him up a bit&comma; because at the current rate&comma; he will be shown the Stamford Bridge very soon&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><b>Forward<&sol;b><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><b>Mame Biram Diouf &lpar;Stoke City&rpar;<&sol;b><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Stoke really needed Diouf to step it up this season&comma; with the club facing relegation&period; The likes of Jese&comma; Xherdan Shaqiri and Joe Allen have certainly worked to create opportunities to score&comma; but their striker has been missing chances at the rate of knots&period; Diouf has scored six league goals so far&comma; but should have had a whole lot more&period; The Potters will be playing in the Championship next season&comma; and should be on the lookout for a better striker if they want to return to the top-flight soon&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><b>Forward<&sol;b><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><b>Christian Benteke &lpar;Crystal Palace&rpar;<&sol;b><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">From Diouf we come to a striker whose poor form didn’t fatally impact his team’s fortunes in the end&period; But it easily could have&period; Benteke was clearly going to be the main man for Palace&comma; having scored almost a third of their Premier League goals the season before&period; But incredibly&comma; the Belgian has found the back of the net only three times this campaign&period; It’s not like he’s been injured either&period; He has just not been converting his chances&comma; some of which have been extremely easy&period; This was a big reason for The Eagles’ dreadful start to the season when they lost their opening seven matches&period; Fortunately though&comma; the likes of Luka Milivojevic&comma; Wilfried Zaha and James McArthur have taken up the goalscoring responsibility and taken Palace through to safety&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><b>Forward<&sol;b><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><b>Alexis Sanchez &lpar;Arsenal&rpar;<&sol;b><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Even though he had an unbelievable season at the Emirates&comma; it became very apparent to everyone that Sanchez wanted to leave Arsenal&period; He scored seven goals in 19 league appearances for The Gunners&comma; but even his own club’s fans were asking for his sale due to the negative vibes he was carrying&period; He made the switch to Manchester United in January&comma; citing the reason to win more silverware&period; He has been Mourinho’s first-choice left-winger from the off&comma; but has failed to deliver&comma; scoring just twice for his new club thus far&period; It remains to be seen if he can pull it back next year&comma; but this season&comma; he has definitely been a huge flop&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&NewLine;

Hardik Patel

Hardik Patel is a Digital Marketing Consultant and professional Blogger. He has 16+ years experience in SEO, SMO, SEM, Online reputation management, Affiliated Marketing and Content Marketing.

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