Sport
The 5 most underperforming players in La Liga this season
Every year, some of the best players in the world arrive in La Liga but not all the new signings are live up to expectations. Barcelona and Real Madrid are the richest teams in the world and have lots of money to spend in every transfer window, though often signing new players can be a bit of a hit-and-miss. Who are some of the most underperforming players at this moment?
Diego Costa – Atlético Madrid – 31 years old
Diego Costa returned to his former club, Atlético Madrid, in January 2018, for a transfer fee of £59.40m. Despite the Colchoneros having a reasonable season so far, Costa should be scoring more goals than he did the first half of the campaign. So far, Costa scored a miserly 2 goals, one of them a penalty, in 11 La Liga games. It’s been rather disappointing compared to his previous seasons, when Costa was scoring goals regularly.
Not only is he underperforming for his club, also for the Spanish national team. The Brazilian-born striker, but Spanish international, hasn’t featured for his national team since Russia’s FIFA World Cup in the summer of 2018. Though, he did withdraw from the squad’s UEFA Nations League games in September 2018 for personal reasons.
It appears like Diego Costa isn’t the same player anymore as the one who left in 2014. The 31-year old then was the team’s top scorer the season Atlético won the league. Costa scored 27 goals that season, 1 less than Lionel Messi (28 goals) and Cristiano Ronaldo (31 goals). Can the Atlético striker still turn around his disappointing season?
Hector Herrera – Atlético Madrid
Hector Herrera joined Atlético Madrid after they lost Rodrigo Hernandez to Manchester City last summer. The Mexico international enjoyed great success at Porto and appeared to be ready to take the next step to a bigger team. As a central midfielder he scored 27 goals in 164 appearances in Portugal.
In 12 Primera Division games, the 29-year old wasn’t even able to score a single goal. Clearly, Hector Herrera hasn’t been able to replace the impact of Rodrigo Hernandez and Diego Simeone expected him to have a bigger influence on the squad. Will Herrera be able live up to the expectations after being one of the most underperforming players of the first half of the season?
Eden Hazard – Real Madrid
Eden Hazard was the biggest summer signing for Real Madrid, announced as the latest Galactico joining the club. But half a year later, Eden Hazard, whose value has plummeted £27 million since the beginning of the season, has been underperforming to say the least. In 8 La Liga games, the Belgian international was only able to net one goal. Definitely not a sufficient return to justify playing whilst wearing the iconic ‘number 7’ at Los Blancos.
The 29-year old was one of the best players in the Belgium national team at the World Cup in Russia, leading his country to second place. Belgium are one of the favorites to win Euro 2020 this summer, partly because of star players like Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku and Eden Hazard.
The Belgian international is currently injured and it is still early days to judge his passage at Real Madrid. Everybody knows what the older Hazard brother is capable of and the Real fans still expect him to explode once being injury-free. The ex-Chelsea player could still lead Real Madrid to their first Primera Division title since 2017, finally getting rid of his ‘underperforming’ tag. The title race in La Liga is very tight at the moment. In fact, it’s been years since the top half of the table has been so tightly packed.
Gonçalo Guedes – Valencia
The Portuguese winger arrived at Valencia last year as a very promising youngster. These promises turned out to be false, for the time being. The ex-Benfica and PSG player only scored 10 goals in 64 appearances since his arrival in 2017 and hasn’t scored yet this season.
The now 23-year old has been mostly injured during his time at his club and hasn’t played many matches with the Portuguese team either. Atlético Madrid player João Félix is now considered to be “the next Ronaldo” and one of Portugal’s biggest hopes for the future, though Felix prefers to play as an attacking midfielder rather than as a winger.
Nabil Fekir – Real Betis
Nabil Fekir joined Real Betis after two amazing seasons at Olympique Lyon. Fekir scored 54 goals in 144 appearances in a Lyon jersey. Betis only paid £17.78m to bring him to Spain, but Lyon will receive 20% of any future sale of the player and as part of the deal.
The French international has had a difficult time in Betis and was only able to score 4 goals in 16 La Liga appearances. Nabil Fekir is only 26 years old and still has time to prove himself in Spain after going to an adjustment period. Maybe the player with Algerian roots can eventually become a leader on the pitch and we can take him of this ‘underperformers’ list.
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