Manchester City forward Phil Foden won all of the individual awards in 2023/24 but has been rubbish in 2024/25, which got us thinking about disappointing player of the year defences.
There have been a few bad ones and Foden is right up there. Here are four of the worst in Premier League history.
Phil Foden (2024/25)
It has been a very unusual season for Manchester City. After scoring 36 in 45 in 2022/23 and 27 in 31 in 2023/24, Erling Haaland is currently on 21 goals after 28 Premier League matches. That is a very impressive record but when you set such high standards, coupled with Mohamed Salah’s outrageous form, nobody is impressed anymore.
Another City player who has set a ridiculously high standard is Foden, who claimed the PFA Players’ Player of the Year, FWA Footballer of the Year and Premier League Player of the Season for his performances in 2023/24. He was crucial in the title win over Arsenal, earning Pep Guardiola’s men 19 points through his goal involvements, significantly bagging a brace in the 3-1 win over West Ham on the final day.
After a disappointing European Championship campaign with England, Foden struggled to get going until a flurry of goals in January, only to hit a brick wall again. In City’s first 19 league games, the 24-year-old’s only goal contributions were an assist from a corner against Wolves and a scrappy consolation at Aston Villa. Questions were being asked about the supposed best player in the Premier League but he was getting off lightly, possibly due to the overall shortcomings of reigning champions City, missing their spine in injury-stricken Ballon d’Or winner Rodri.
You would like to think the reigning Premier League Player of the Season had it in him to somewhat carry an out-of-form team, or at least maintain his own performance level while those around him falter. Foden has been unable to do that, with his and City’s title defence not going to plan.
Foden is in the spotlight after a poor performance in Thomas Tuchel’s first England match against Albania. The City star had the opportunity to prove himself as the Three Lions’ best right-winger with Bukayo Saka injured but failed spectacularly and people are now wondering why Tuchel even called him up. Was he deserving of a call-up based on his form? Absolutely not. There is not one person who can say he has been better than Morgan Gibbs-White.
He has played on the left, middle and right for England but Foden has never made an impact for his country, unlike the aforementioned Saka – whose form as a teenager in the worst Arsenal side for decades puts Foden’s 2024/25 effort to shame. If Saka can play at an elite level surrounded by mid-table Premier League players, why can’t Foden do the same surrounded by *checks notes* players with multiple Premier League titles?
City can finish the season well, secure a Champions League spot and Foden can bag another three league goals to make it ten in total, but those two things coming to fruition will not make his player of the year defence a success.
Eden Hazard (2015/16)
What a player this guy was, by the way. Eden Hazard was at his mesmerising best in Chelsea’s 2014/15 title-winning campaign under Jose Mourinho but he decided to take year off as a reward, which helped Mourinho lose his job and the Blues record the third-worst finish from a reigning champion in Premier League history.
Chelsea strolled to a third league title under The Special One and Hazard was the undisputed best player in the division. His 14 goals and nine assists did not tell the whole story of a player doing Lionel Messi-like things and playing in a way a generation of football fans had never seen before in England.
My word was he absolutely useless the following season. The reigning PFA Players’ Player of the Year, FWA Footballer of the Year and Premier League Player of the Season – for the reigning champions – endured a year of justified criticism. The Belgian did not score a goal in any competition until his 30th appearance at the end of January, which was a sympathy penalty against MK Dons in the FA Cup fourth round.
His first Premier League goal came at Bournemouth in April, when he managed to score a brace and he finished the campaign with four. Hazard was one of three players branded ‘rats’ by an infamous fan banner.
For all of his shortcomings in 2015/16, Hazard still managed to score one of the most iconic goals of the campaign to end Tottenham Hotspur’s title challenge and make Leicester City unlikely champions. That sweeping finish at Stamford Bridge will be replayed for years and years.
Oh, and after that abysmal campaign, Hazard was back to his best. He scored 16 times as Chelsea won the league with 93 points under Antonio Conte.
Riyad Mahrez (2016/17)
Rubbish player of the year defences coinciding with rubbish Premier League title defences make sense and that is certainly the case with both Hazard in Leicester City’s triumphant campaign and Mahrez the season after.
Mahrez was magnificent in Leicester’s absurd title win in 2016, being named PFA Players’ Player of the Year as Jamie Vardy won Premier League Player of the Season and FWA Footballer of the Year. The Foxes pair were joined in the Team of the Year by team-mates Robert Huth and N’Golo Kante. The latter would leave the club in the summer for Chelsea, winning consecutive titles with different teams. He remains the only player to ever do this in the Premier League (we are absolutely not having Mark Schwarzer).
The Algerian winger and Vardy stayed put and Leicester did not come close to retaining their title, losing on matchday one at newly-promoted Hull City and finishing the campaign with 44 points in 12th – the second-worst title defence behind Leeds United in 92/93, though they were defending a Division One crown. We are still counting it. Still not counting Schwarzer though.
Individually, Mahrez was nowhere near the level we enjoyed watching in 15/16, scoring six and making three assists in 36 appearances. It was a very difficult year for the King Power club, doing the unthinkable by sacking Claudio Ranieri after just five wins from 25, which resulted in them being a point above the relegation zone. Craig Shakespeare steadied the ship and the Foxes reached the quarter-final of the Champions League.
Mahrez improved in 2017/18 and earned a move to perennial Premier League winners Man City after registering 22 goal involvements in 36 games.
Jordan Henderson (2020/21)
Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson was very good in the Reds’ first-ever Premier League title-winning campaign in 2019/20 but it does feel weird looking back and seeing he was named FWA Footballer of the Year over Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane or Roberto Firmino. Let’s play devil’s advocate and say it all boils down to English bias.
Henderson’s decline in form after being named FWA Footballer of the Year does not hold a candle to the rest of these individual award defences and we will try not to make it a case of being, ‘Actually, he shouldn’t have won it in 2019/20′.
But the interesting aspect about the Henderson narrative is that he probably should not have won it in 2019/20. The England international benefitted from being an important player in a monstrous XI, where every single person did their bit and then some. This individual award felt more like a symbol of how brilliant Jurgen Klopp’s team was and if we are going to give the devil his due, Henderson was a huge player and played very well.
After romping to their first Premier League title, Liverpool were absolutely horrendous behind closed doors in 2020/21. Their imperious Anfield form became flimsy, with Burnley being the team to end a 68-game unbeaten run at home, which just happened to open the floodgates. They would lose five more in a row, including a 4-1 humiliation against Man City and 1-0 defeat to Fulham, who would get relegated with 28 points.
Henderson failed to lead and inspire as he did the previous campaign but Liverpool somehow managed a third-place finish with 69 points. If the Henderson award in 2019/20 was more an ode to the team, then the Reds’ league title defence can do some carrying in his inclusion here.
