Which players let their teams down during this weekend’s action?
Another weekend of Premier League action has now drawn to a close, save for Monday night’s clash between West Bromwich Albion and Manchester United, and there were a few disasters along the way.
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Sunderland were the most eye-catchingly poor team of the weekend, somehow contriving to lose 8-0 at Southampton, so it is only right that their players dominate this team – but Liverpool and Arsenal, amongst others, also put in shaky displays.
This is our worst XI of the weekend:
GK) Vito Mannone (Sunderland)
Former Arsenal goalkeeper Vito Mannone was, undoubtedly, left exposed as his teammates downed tools in the second half at St. Mary’s – but the Italian also has to shoulder his portion of the blame for allowing Jack Cork’s weak shot to cross the line and passing the ball straight to Dusan Tadic for a goal.
RB) Wes Brown (Sunderland)
It’s hard to pick which Sunderland player was the worst at St. Mary’s, but former Manchester United man Wes Brown has to be a contender – he was run ragged all afternoon.
CB) Dejan Lovren (Liverpool)
Liverpool spent £20m on centre back Dejan Lovren from Southampton this summer in the hope that he would glue together their shaky defence, but the Croatian was dreadful at Loftus Road, utterly dominated by the ordinary Bobby Zamora.
CB) Santiago Vergini (Sunderland)
Absolutely hopeless – the fact that his comedy own goal was arguably not even the worst moment of Vergini’s afternoon just about sums up the Argentinian’s torrid display on the South Coast.
LB) Jose Enrique (Liverpool)
Came into the Liverpool team for the injured Alberto Moreno but, on this evidence, he won’t be holding onto his shirt – awful in possession and not much better defensively, Enrique had a nightmare.
DCM) Mathieu Flamini (Arsenal)
Flamini simply isn’t the defensive midfielder that Arsenal are looking for, he allowed Mohamed Diame to physically dominate him all afternoon and, whilst he was fouled, his reaction for the equalising goal was pathetic.
CM) Steven Gerrard (Liverpool)
The Liverpool captain is increasingly looking like a player whose quality is on the wane this season – whilst he improved after the break at Loftus Road he was appalling in the first half, giving the ball away constantly and offering no defensive cover.
CM) Lee Cattermole (Sunderland)
Simply downed tools when it all started going wrong for Sunderland in the second half at Southampton – if you can’t rely on Cattermole’s heart, what does he have left to offer?
ARM) Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal)
Simply had an absolute nightmare for Arsenal as they were held to a frustrating draw by Hull City at the Emirates Stadium, giving the ball away seemingly every single time he touched it.
ALM) Charles N’Zogbia (Aston Villa)
The Frenchman was hauled off at Goodison Park by manager Paul Lambert to the sound of ironic cheers from the visiting supporters, a fair reaction to his anonymous and lifeless display.
SC) Mario Balotelli (Liverpool)
As poor of an individual performance as you are ever likely to see, Balotelli missed two absolute sitters and everything that was good about Liverpool seemed to end when he got the ball. Woeful.