5 of the most overrated players still plying their trade in the Premier League

The Premier League is the most popular football league in the world, without a doubt. The division boasts some of the most prized assets of world football and is definitely one of the most attractive leagues for players.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne, David De Gea and a long list of high profile names adorn the jerseys for various Premier League teams with the huge wages and mind-boggling transfer fees paid by the clubs also having their fair share of the newsreel and adding pomp and pride to the title.

Here, let's take a look at those players, who are still on the books of the top 6 premier league sides, but do not deserve to be there after multiple disappointing outings not worthy of the hype they deserve.

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#5 Theo Walcott

Arsenal fans thought they had landed the next Thierry Henry when they signed English football's hottest prospect from Southampton, around 10 years back.

The 17-year-old, who was listed in England's squad to travel for the World Cup in Germany, showed early glimpses of promise and fizzled out.

At the moment, Theo Walcott is way off the pecking order for Arsenal's starting eleven. The fairy tale has not gone the way it was supposed to go.

His horrible reading of the play and his frustrating tendency of straying offside despite having the pace to keep any defender on their toes have raised scrutiny from all sides.

Theo Walcott can still be a useful outlet for a mid-table squad, but staying at Arsenal doesn't help his cause or the team's, and any outside chance of Theo making the 2018 World Cup would depend on whether or not he seals a move away from the Emirates.

#4 Jesse Lingard

The dab merchant, Lingard has done nothing to justify his £100k-a-week salary

A fan-favourite at Manchester United due to his goals at Wembley in crucial cup ties, it's time now that everyone takes a look and realizes that the baby-faced Jesse Lingard is actually just short of 25 years of age and hasn't yet proven to be the prospect he once looked like he would be.

After spending four seasons away on loan, Lingard had only scored his first goal in United colours in the 2015-16 season, even though he had been in and around the squad from the 2011-12 season.

Lingard is at maximum, a good cup player who can play the occasional match when United require some fresh legs to cover ground and press hard. He is yet to prove his quality in the Premier League apart from spurts of form that he has shown and hasn't taken the umpteen chances he has obtained, purposefully.

He can be a regular starter at a lower mid-table premier league club, and that is what he should rightfully be doing if he is to finally realize the early potential, rather than being a surplus to the requirement, squad player with the once in a blue moon show of flair in a club of the stature of Manchester United.

Lingard deserves credit for his work rate and tenacity, but his lack of end product and lack of creativity in the final third has led to severe criticism, and with no significant improvement over the seasons, it is safe to say that Lingard has reached his peak.

#3 Eliaquim Mangala

Mangala in action

Once the most expensive defender in British football, Eliaquim Mangala is now a fringe player at Manchester City, with only 2 appearances to show for in the Premier League, this season.

A hefty signing from Porto and touted to be the next superstar defender of French football along the lines of Lilian Thuram and Marcus Desailly, Mangala had a streak of horrible performances after his big money move to the Etihad and was subsequently dropped and became a forgotten figure at Manchester City. Whether it was the pressure of the price tag or a failure to adjust to the Premier League remains unknown. All we know is that the beast of a defender he looked at Porto, was no longer to be seen.

He was sent on loan to Valencia last summer, hoping that the move would ignite his career, but it again proved to be a very below par season for the Frenchman, with a red card against Barcelona for a horrible tackle on Luis Suarez being the highlight of his season. Valencia's fall into the lower half of the La Liga table was comparable to Mangala's own fall from grace, but unlike Valencia, there doesn't seem to be a revival on the cards for Mangala this season.

Back at Etihad this season, it looks like Mangala will be offloaded at any opportunity after being deemed surplus for requirements for quite a while now. Not the career trajectory that was expected of the big burly defender after his showings at Porto. Unless he can impress in his meagre appearances for the club, of course.

#2 Dejan Lovren

International Champions Cup: Liverpool v Barcelona

In April 2017, when Dejan Lovren was given a new 5-year deal to stay at Anfield, the football community online had a romp to laugh at, and why not? Lovren had been the scapegoat of many a Liverpool falling and was a symbol of shambolic defending errors at Anfield, and instead of being demoted to the bench and signing a new centre-half, Lovren's place at the centre of Liverpool's defence was cemented with a new 5-year deal.

The ridicule of the footballing community has been proven to be with sufficient reason too, as Lovren continued his woeful form this season, letting the wonderful attacking trident of Liverpool down on numerous occasions.

The fact that Dejan Lovren receives higher wages than Toby Alderweireld, arguably the league's best defender, represents the pathetic state of transfer activity at Liverpool and their inability to lock down targets such as Virgil van Dijk, leading to them killing their own title chances before it was born.

A decent defender on his best day, Lovren was a good strongman at Southampton, but he never had the stature to play for a big club. The money that was spent on him by Liverpool, making him Liverpool's most expensive defensive buy, always looked like a panic buy more than anything else, with his performances in a red shirt proving all the critics who deemed this move unwise, right.

Klopp should be aware of Lovren's defensive shortcomings by now and ideally should be looking for a replacement in the market before Liverpool's league and cup campaigns get tougher and more worrying.

#1 Francis Coquelin

Francis Coquelin

It baffles the author that Francis Coquelin is still a Premier League footballer who gets regular game time.

Coquelin has played as a right-back, a central midfielder in a two-man pivot, as a holding midfielder, as a centre-back in a back three and has been a loyal servant to Arsene Wenger, but he hasn't been able to be a mainstay in any of these positions, showing his shortcomings technically and with regards to reading of the game.

A player, whose career highlights would involve throwing his jersey along with Olivier Giroud at the end of a 4-4 draw only to realize that there would be extra time following the draw, and tumbling down to the floor after being clobbered by a prancing Eden Hazard en route his famous goal against Arsenal. A player who is yet to register a goal in the Premier League. A player who lost his cool and put his team in jeopardy in a North London derby where he should have considered himself lucky to be on the field, playing at the first place.

Need I say more?

Francis Coquelin is a representation of Arsenal's lack of desire to win which has been criticised in recent seasons and is a product of a very rough period in the Arsenal academy, known for producing technically gifted players. Coquelin should take any big money move he gets from China or the USA with hands wide open and make a move before things go further downhill and humiliating for Wenger and the player himself.