The Premier League Player of the Season shortlist of eight names, to be decided by a split vote between the general public and a panel of experts, has generated debate and disappointment. Several high-quality campaigns went unrecognized. Here are five notable absences from the nominees.<\/p>\n
Dominik Szoboszlai has produced the best season of his career amid Liverpool’s difficult title defence. While the club\u2019s wider struggles have limited his visibility, Szoboszlai has repeatedly stood out. His campaign combined stints at right back, right wing, defensive midfield and the No.10 role. Six Premier League goals and five assists only partially reflect his influence; his indefatigability, power and technical class have been clear throughout a largely all-action season.<\/p>\n
William Saliba\u2019s omission is striking given Arsenal\u2019s defensive consistency this season. David Raya and Gabriel have earned nominations, yet Saliba has been ignored despite playing the same number of Premier League games as Gabriel and offering similarly defiant performances in central defence. His attacking output may be less eye-catching, but looking at the underlying defensive numbers there is little to separate Arsenal\u2019s two defensive pillars.<\/p>\n
Rayan Cherki will at least appear on the Young Player of the Season list and is widely tipped to prevail there, but some argue he deserved consideration for the main prize. The France international has not always been an automatic starter, yet Manchester City have looked sharper with him in the XI. Four goals and 12 assists in the Premier League underline a debut year that has been both productive and entertaining.<\/p>\n
J\u00e9r\u00e9my Doku has emerged as one of Manchester City\u2019s most feared attacking options in recent months. Recency bias plays a part, but his explosivity and athleticism have produced decisive contributions. With 10 goal involvements in the Premier League he has supplied clutch moments and has shown on his day why he is regarded as one of the division\u2019s most threatening wingers.<\/p>\n
Jo\u00e3o Pedro has also stood out for Chelsea amid another turbulent campaign. Through two managerial changes and a season of highs and lows, Pedro\u2019s individual performances have been consistently strong, making his absence from the shortlist a notable omission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Five players who missed out on the eight-name Premier League Player of the Season shortlist. Revealed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13816,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,190,175,238,172],"tags":[1081,1162,1637],"class_list":["post-13817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-chelsea","category-liverpool","category-manchester-city","category-epl","tag-adaptation","tag-analytics","tag-assists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}