Top 5 Underrated Premier League Players

‘Underrated’ is a strange term in football, because players that are widely termed as underrated therefore stop being underrated. Claude Makelele was the classic example, and the likes of Pablo Zabaleta, Lucas Leiva and James Milner are obvious candidates for this role amongst current players – no-one considers them anything other than very good footballers.

Therefore, here’s a list of five genuinely underrated players – often in smaller sides, in unfashionable positions, and surrounded by more renowned teammates.

Steven Davis, Southampton

As a general rule, Northern Irish players in the Premier League tend to be underrated. Whereas English players are hyped up early, and Welsh, Scottish and Irish players sometimes get attention by impressing in decent international sides, Northern Irishmen often go under the radar. Aaron Hughes and Gareth McAuley fit into this category too: solid, dependable and quiet footballers who are more consistent than spectacular – Hughes, at one point, was one of the Premier League’s finest centre-backs.

This might be a huge generalisation, but Davis supports this idea. At 30 and something of a veteran, Davis has never received plaudits to suggest he’s anything other than a hard-working, functional all-round midfielder, but the more you watch him, the more you admire his vision, his movement off the ball, and his ability to prompt clever passing combinations with more illustrious teammates.

It feels patronising to praise his work rate, but in a Southampton side based around pressing in midfield and quick transitions from defence to attack, Davis fits into the gameplan wonderfully, and his ability to play either through the centre, or out on the right, makes him extremely useful. Morgan Schneiderlin, Victor Wanyama and Dusan Tadic have rightly been praised this season, but Davis is an excellent midfielder too.

Riyad Mahrez, Leicester

Leicester City’s first season back in the Premier League has been somewhat uneventful – at least until Nigel Pearson started manhandling opposition players – but one of their wingers has looked extremely dangerous throughout the. Riyad Mahrez should be in the Premier League next year, even if Leicester are not.

The French-born Algerian winger has generally started on the right flank, and has been crucial in a relatively basic approach: sit deep, counter-attack quickly down the flanks, and put dangerous balls into the box. Leicester often spend the majority of matches on the back foot, meaning Mahrez has relatively few chances to impress with his attacking skill, but he’s always lively. In this week’s narrow 2-1 defeat at Arsenal, he was Leicester’s most dangerous player, and the Foxes benefited from Algeria’s surprisingly early Africa Cup of Nations exit – although Mahrez performed well individually.

He’s interesting in a statistical sense, too. Mahrez plays a high number of through-balls: only David Silva and Cesc Fabregas have played more, which suggests he’s not a pure winger, while he creates chances more frequently than Oscar or Wayne Rooney. Like many young wingers, his end product must improve, but Mahrez has the potential to become a very fine player.

Paul Dummett, Newcastle

Dummett often looked somewhat tentative last season – and sometimes simply out of his depth – but his development has been hugely surprising and he’s been one of Newcastle’s more dependable performers this season, which has yet to be acknowledged on a national level.

Dummett is a strange footballer: physically unremarkable, not particularly technical, and yet he’s turned in some fine performances this season. Generally deployed at left-back, he’s rarely allowed opposition wingers to get the better of him – with his performance against Raheem Sterling in November particularly impressive. At centre-back, he helped thwart Edin Dzeko and Stevan Jovetic effectively in the 2-0 Capital One Cup victory at the Etihad.

In the long run, Dummett could turn out to be more of a centre-back than a left-back – he doesn’t have the attacking dynamism that managers want in full-back positions, and is more likely to impress with his consistency and his reading of the game. A left-footed centre-back always seems somehow refined on the ball, although Dummett could afford to keep his distribution a little more simple, as his longer balls are often wayward. Still, his improvement in other areas means there’s every chance he could surprise in this respect, too.

Ki Sung-Yeung, Swansea

Ki is, put simply, an extremely good footballer, and has been excellent throughout his three seasons in the Premier League.

He’s perfect for Swansea’s gameplan, because he’s basically about good positioning and short, reliable passing to ensure his side retains possession, but there’s another side to his game, too. He’s commanding in the air, strong but composed when tackling, and can provide a goalscoring threat, having managed four this season.

Ki’s intelligence enables Swansea to push forward, too – other midfielders can break forward in the knowledge that Ki will be holding a good position in front of the defence, while his reliability also enables the full-backs to push forward in the knowledge someone is covering if the opposition launch a quick counter-attack.

It sounds simple on paper, but Ki barely puts a foot wrong, and never has a bad game. With his ability to deputise at centre-back too, it’s slightly surprising bigger clubs haven’t considered recruiting him – he’d be an excellent squad player for Arsenal or Manchester United.

Joel Ward, Crystal Palace

Another dependable, highly useful footballer capable of playing in various roles, Ward has played left-back, right-back and in the centre of midfield this season – and was a centre-back at the start of his career – but he always looks most comfortable on the left of defence, where he’s positionally reliable and a fine tackler.

Ward hasn’t missed a minute of Premier League football this season, and it’s easy to understand why. He’s a good old-fashioned full-back that tucks inside and remains tight to his centre-back, rather than constantly wandering up the pitch and leaving the opposition space to break into. This works nicely for a Crystal Palace side that is essentially still in the Tony Pulis mould, even if Neil Warnock and Alan Pardew have been in charge this season.

Ward looks good technically at first glance, although realistically he’d need to be more productive in the final third to be recognised as a genuinely top-class full-back – and, in this respect, perhaps constantly switching positions over the past 18 months hasn’t helped his game. It’s tough to become a better crosser when fielded on your ‘wrong’ side, or in the centre of midfield.

Nevertheless, he remains a fine defender – and with Liverpool and Arsenal in the next two games, his defensive abilities will be given a stern test.

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