The 2015/2016 English Premier League season had a lot surprises on offer. It was the season that Leicester City did something that has never been seen before in this history of football; winning the premier league in their second season in it. Another team that made giant strides in the competition is West Ham United. It was a constant threat to the big wigs. It held its own in the cup competitions and went ahead to finish 7th, securing a place in the Europa league.
But all these achievements seemed like a facade in the 2016/2017 campaign. They have been putting up consistent wobbling performances, and are likely to finish outside the top 10. Their current position is 15th on the log, which is a complete departure from recommended soccer bets for today and what happened last year. The question is: why this type of performance?
Dimitri Payet
The best pundits have always maintained that while football is a team exercise, the individual efforts of outstanding footballers will always be the thin line that differentiates the big teams from the small ones. The sale of Luis Suarez by Liverpool was catastrophic so is the sale of Dimitri Payet. The inspiration he brings to the team, the anxiety that opponents suffer when they see him on the pitch, and his very important goals, are no longer there. The worst is that none like him was brought in to replace him. Sofiane Feghouli and Gokhan Tore are good, but not on the same level with Payet.
One may argue that he was there for the first half of the season. But the transfer troubles were already a distraction so what we saw in that first half was not the relaxed Payet we used to know. Check the number of points Payet gained for them in his heydeys.
Change of Style
Whenever you see a team in the English Premier League that builds its philosophy on possession and passes, without great initiative on when to shoot or when to make those long passes, they tend to develop issues easily. English teams know how to scotch the life out of tiki-taka football proponents. That explains what Arsenal has been suffering over time. Manchester City has also suffered this in the current season. West Ham United took to too much possession this season. This may be in the bid to make them unpredictable as they thrived on the counter last season. But this is backfiring.
Injuries
The long periods spent by Andy Carroll, Diafra Sakho and Aaron Cresswell on the sidelines are also very instrumental. We can wish away the small injury period suffered by André Ayew, but Carroll and Sakho are important starters in the team. However, the most excruciating is that of Cresswell. Here is a defender who made more assists than all the other players in the team except Payet at the start of the season. When such a player is lost at the same time with Payet, the team definitely will suffer.
How the new signings haven’t panned out
The duo of Sofiane Feghouli and Gokhan Tore has been used together in the bid to make up for the loss of Payet. But, when two attacking forwards are thrown in at the same time, the defence suffers. This is a job Payet alone would have held down, sparing one more man for the defence.
When a team has all these problems bedevilling it at the same time, it will need serious intervention to keep performing at the top level.
