Player Focus: Premier League Player of the Season Candidates
Six players go to the PFA Awards 2015 on Sunday night hoping to land the Players’ Player of the Year gong. According to WhoScored rating, the top 6 Premier League players to make at least 25 appearances this season have been Eden Hazard (8.07), Alexis Sanchez (7.91), Cesc Fabregas (7.69), Santi Cazorla (7.64), Sergio Aguero (7.59) and Morgan Schneiderlin (7.52), with Diego Costa (7.53) missing out with just 1 appearance too few (24). Each has had a significant impact for their respective teams this season, and this could feasibly be the official top 6, but only 2 are actually on the PFA’s nominee list.
Here we take a look at the stats for the 6 candidates, in Hazard, Sanchez, Costa, Harry Kane, Philippe Coutinho and David De Gea, to assess the justification for each one being handed the award.
Eden Hazard
The standout candidate for this season’s gong, the diminutive winger has shone in a Chelsea team that has barely given anyone else a sniff of the title all season. He did not have the best start to the season, back when Fabregas and Costa could not stop combining to score and the Belgian managed only 1 goal and 1 assist in his first 6 appearances, but he did nonetheless maintain impressive ratings, patently still having an effect for the Blues by occupying opponents with his incredible dribbling ability.
He truly kicked on from November onwards, though, embarking on a run of 11 games in which he scored 6 goals and set up another 3, awarded WhoScored man of the match on 5 occasions. Then, in the run-in, while Chelsea have rather underwhelmed in the last month or so, fatigue taking its toll in the squad that has used the fewest players (22) in the Premier League this season, Hazard has taken it upon himself to drag his team towards the title. He has completed the most dribbles (154) and played the most key passes (88) to go with his 13 goals and 8 assists.
Without his 3 goals and 2 assists in Chelsea’s last 4 games, the Blues would be 9 points worse off, having won each of those matches by a single goal as the performances of many of their stars have tailed off somewhat. They will win the title before long, and they have Hazard, the most consistent player over the course of the entire campaign – only twice registering a WhoScored rating lower than 7 all season – to thank. As the only player with an average score over 8, he is the obvious choice to win the prize.
Alexis Sanchez
Alexis carried Arsenal through the winter months in which so many of their players faltered, and has proven one of the best Premier League signings in recent years. Without him, Arsenal simply would not be in the position that they currently find themselves.
Only Aguero (26) and Kane (23) have been directly implicated in more Premier League goals this season than the Chilean (14 goals, 8 assists), who has settled in England incredibly well. He ranks second behind Hazard for successful dribbles (102), third for shots (94), seventh for chances created (70) and second for number of times he has won possession in the final third of the pitch (25). Clearly, Sanchez has been a roaring success in London, but it is tough to see him beating Hazard.
Diego Costa
Given that this is an award voted for largely by his opponents and how horrible it must be to come up against Costa, huge credit should be given to the Spaniard for accruing sufficient votes to get into the top 6. Yes, 19 goals in his debut season for a team that will win the league is hugely impressive, but one imagines that he doesn’t make many friends on the pitch and has instead received votes out of sheer respect for the ruthlessness with which he plays.
He has been the best out-and-out centre forward in the Premier League this season, terrorising defences and picking up 5 man of the match awards along the way, whilst scoring with more than 1 in every 4 of his shots (25.3% conversion). However, dips in form that have permeated his debut campaign in England will stand between him and the Player of the Season award.
Harry Kane
What an incredible year it has been for Kane, rising from 1000-1 outsider for the top goalscorer award to second-favourite this week, he is now an England international and arguably Spurs’ most important player. He is the first Tottenham player to reach 30 goals in all competitions since Gary Lineker, despite having to wait until mid-November for his first league start of the season.
His rating in starts alone is 7.65, and for that he certainly deserves huge credit given that he has come almost from the reserves to his current position as the hottest prospect in England. Without his league-high 20 goals, Spurs would be some 22 points worse off; providing such relentless goalscoring in an otherwise rather unremarkable Spurs team has been incredibly impressive. The question for voters was whether it is more of an achievement to stand out and score in a team that has underachieved – like Kane – or to have done so in a league-winning side – like Hazard.
It is likely that it will be between these two players to win the award, and deciding which has done better this season is tough in itself, but the stats alone – signalled by Hazard’s higher Whoscored rating – suggest that the Belgian is a more worthy winner.
Premier League Player of the Season by WhoScored
Philippe Coutinho
Jamie Carragher recently claimed that John Terry’s decision to vote for Eden Hazard was merely tactical, in order to give himself and his teammates more chance of winning, and it is fairly likely that that was indeed the case. Coutinho has been wonderful to watch at times this season, scoring a couple of wonderful goals on his way to a rating of 7.32. However, a goal tally of 4 to go alongside 4 more assists are hardly the makings of a player of the season considering how attacking a role he plays.
He has attempted the second most through balls (36) in the Premier League this season and he ranks fourth for dribbles completed (87), but his 8 goals and assists have come from 117 shots and key passes, suggesting he simply hasn’t been effective enough as Liverpool try to replace the supply lost in Luis Suarez’s departure.
David De Gea
United goalkeeper De Gea was lauded for his performance in the 3-0 win over Liverpool at Old Trafford back in December, and has since been praised persistently for doing a great deal to save United’s season. He has done well behind a shaky and injury-plagued defence that has not helped him at times, but a saves-to-shots ratio of 70.1% is only the seventh-best of first-choice Premier League goalkeepers this season, and certain moments spring to mind when he could well have fared better. He ranks eighth for saves (82), eighteenth for crosses claimed (24) and twenty-second for crosses punched clear (6) so, statistically at least, there is room for improvement.
De Gea’s stock has increased no end this season, and he is now rightly regarded as amongst the best stoppers in the Premier League, but were he to be named Player of the Season, having gained a WhoScored rating of just 6.70, it would certainly be an injustice.
Who do you think should be named Player of the Season? Let us know in the comments below
Has to be Hazard
Hazard is outstanding ! Maybe Sterling should be in candidates , anyway as a Liverpool supporter i think Coutinho had a great season but not to be named as the Player of the Season !
@Ned Wow, an honest Liverpool supporter. Wonders never cease.
Cazorla should be there. Not coutinho
@MiguelSuave i agree...Coutinho is having a good season, but it is not enough to compete with the others, and we can say the same about De Gea. I believe the winner will be Hazard, and deservedly, because he made an astonishing premier league.
@Gregs87 Really? Hazard had an astonishing season? Yes he scored 13 goals, but 3 of those were penalties. He's getting a non-penalty goal or assist every 135 minutes. On the other hand, Sanchez has a non-penalty goal ar assist every 109. Hazard has 1.4 tackles+interceptions per game, Sanchez has 3.3. Sanchez is better than Hazrd in every respect, except for dribbling, but that's good enough to give Hazard the higher WhoScored rating. Sanchez is clearly the better player, but somehow everyone believes Hazard is much better. That's not backed by the facts I'm afraid.
@What4 I agree with you. But Hazard plays for Chelsea who will win the league and own the media. Hazard has played more games than Alexis. If Alexis took penalties he would be way, way out in front of Hazard.
@What4 The POTY award isn't completely given due to stats though. It plays a big part, but whichever way you look at it, it has to be Hazards. Watching him play you see how every time he has the ball he takes a defender out of the game, plays a smart pass or runs at goal, the same cannot be said for Sanchez, who has had some poor games throughout the season, although he has also been fantastic.
@What4 Hazard has FAR more dribbles and much better passing than Alexis. The consistency shown by Hazard throughout the season means he has had an astonishing season. Give credit when it's due, jeez..
@Ferit22 Yes Hazard has been good, where did I say he hasn't? I just said Sanchez is as good, or better.
and goddamit make comments editing available, I can't correct my mistakes
"but were he to be named Player of the Season, having gained a WhoScored rating of just 6.70, it would certainly be an injustice" LOL xD I'm not saying that De Gea deserves PotY (he certainly doesn't), but pulling out your rating over here is pathetic. It's so clear that yopur rating system doesn't work for goalkeepers that it would be stupid trying to deny that. There is no balance in rating goalkeepers, they are radically underrated. It lays in the nature of their position that sometimes they just don't have any work to do during a match, so they automatically get 6.0. Another thing is that nature of their position brings more error leading to goals than other players. They ratings are most often very low if their team conceded 3+ goals, even if they could.t do anything to stop the goal. I couald go on and on...
@Zootball You are absolutely right. You can add that it is also unfair to rate substitutes as if they were first-team players. The rating will necessarily be low since they are not able to play for a long period of time. Therefore, it is very stupid to take those substitutes' ratings into account as if they played during ninety minutes; the average rating of the player will automatically be lower. The ratio of a substitute's rating must be recalculated in order to be less important in the average rating.
@Thypot Yeah, I noticed that too. Although it can be explained to some degree, because being on the bench probably means that you're not good enough. But on the other hand it's simply unfair to give low rating to players who simply didn't have enough time to accumulate let's say 7.00 rating, while other players who were playing on similar level have 7.00 just because they have been on the pitch for 90 minutes. Whoscored should figure out some better algorithm to rate them
Why is Coutinho even on this shortlist? Can anyone other than a Scouser answer that? Honestly, it should be a contest between Hazard and Sanchez, and I don't know why everyone is saying Sanchez has no chance, why? Hazard is a slightly better dribble, but Sanchez is a much harder worker.
@What4 Delusional. Just like the specialist in failure