From Christian Pulisic to Mesut Ozil and Joe Hart: The Premier League’s outcast XI that cost a staggering £248m to assemble
CHRISTIAN PULISIC will hope his lively cameo against Southampton has done enough to convince Frank Lampard in from the cold.
The American winger came off the bench to register an assist in the 4-1 victory against the Saints in his first appearance in four league matches.
Prior to the game on the south coast, the 21-year-old hadn't been seen in the top-flight action since August with Mason Mount, Ross Barkley, Willian and Pedro all favoured over the £58million star.
Pulisic was also left out of Chelsea's 18-man squad for last week's Champions League victory in Lille and has already been linked with a loan move away.
He is just one of the stars struggling to make an impact for their clubs this season and that has inspired SunSport to create our own Outcast XI.
Joe Hart
The former England No1 has endured a nightmare time at Burnley since completing a £3.5m move from champions Manchester City last year.
After being shipped out of by Pep Guardiola in 2016, Hart spent a year at Serie A side Torino before joining West Ham for the 2017/18 season.
He was given the chance to revive his Premier League career at Turf Moor, but he was dropped by Sean Dyche on Boxing Day and failed to make an appearance for the rest of the campaign.
Eight months later Hart was handed a rare start for Burnley as they lost 3-1 to Sunderland in the League Cup second round, with the 32-year-old conceding three goals from four shots.
Shkodran Mustafi
The much-maligned German was made the chief scapegoat for Arsenal last season as the Gunners missed out on a top-four finish.
Unai Emery was desperate for Mustafi to leave this summer after telling him he had no future at the Emirates following a series of costly individual errors.
But the defender turned down a Gunners exit and he has yet to be rewarded with a minute of Prem football this campaign, despite replacement David Luiz conceding three goals to Liverpool in August.
Mustafi may soon give Emery no choice to re-instal him in the heart of Arsenal's defence, with the centre-back keeping three cleans in three appearances this season.
Thursday's 4-0 thrashing of Standard Liege saw him glide to a third straight shutout following comfortable trouncings of Nottingham Forest and Eintracht Frankfurt.
Ben Gibson
The 26-year-old can at least warm up the bench with Burnley teammate Joe Hart following a similar tale at woe under Sean Dyche.
Gibson joined the Clarets in 2018 from Middlesbrough for a joint club-record fee of £15million.
But he made just one Premier League appearance under Dyche during his maiden season and has yet to be seen at all this year.
Marcos Rojo
The Argentine faces another glum season at Old Trafford after failing to secure a move away in the summer.
And Rojo has a host of competition at centre-back that includes record £80million signing Harry Maguire, in-form Victor Lindelof and starlet Axel Tuanzebe.
The Portuguese international has been given minimal chances to force his way into Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side during two Europa League outings.
But upon his first start of the season in the 1-0 win over Astana, Rojo was slated for the “most pointless rabona ever”.
Phil Foden
The Manchester City wonderkid has been forced to wait for regular action this season after Pep Guardiola delivered his own version of “you win nothing with kids”.
The Spanaird knows his brightest young talent merits far more game time than the 11 Premier League and Champions League minutes he has had off the bench this season.
And England boss Gareth Southgate wants to see Foden getting more chances at City before he gives him the same opportunity for his country.
The 19-year-old midfielder, who was part of the same World Cup U17 winning side as Callum Hudson-Odoi and Jadon Sancho, was also blocked from securing a loan to either Rangers or Roma.
Victor Wanyama
The Kenyan midfielder, 28, looked poised to quit Spurs before the end of the European transfer window.
Celtic were heavily linked with a loan deal, while Club Brugge failed to lure him to Belgium despite having a £12million offer accepted.
He made his first appearance of the season as a late substitute in the defeat to Leicester, and failed to impress as he started the disastrous penalty-shootout defeat to League Two Colchester.
Xherdan Shaqiri
Shaqiri started just 11 Premier League matches in 2018/19 following a surprise £13.5million from relegated Stoke ahead of the campaign.
The 27-year-old is desperate to win his place back in the Liverpool team and even rejected a Switzerland call-up to impress Jurgen Klopp.
The midfielder has already publicly revealed his frustrations at warming the bench at Anfield following just one start in 2019.
He has also played just 11 minutes across two substitute appearances so far this Premier League campaign.
Mesut Ozil
The 30-year-old has been frozen out at the Emirates this season despite rejecting the suggestion from the club that he could leave on loan.
Ozil's future was plunged into further doubt after Unai Emery left out the German for the third week in a row for the 1-0 win over Bournemouth.
The midfielder has made just two starts so far during the current campaign as boss Emery ignores the fact he is the highest-paid player at Arsenal on £350,000-a-week.
After he again failed to even make the bench for the Europa League win over Standard Liege, Emery told his out of favour superstar that he does not deserve to be starting.
Kelechi Iheanacho
The former Manchester City striker was named in SunSport's Worst Team of the Season back in May and has failed to turn round opinions since then.
The Nigerian scored just once for the Foxes in the Prem last term and the 23-year-old was left out Brendan Rodgers' squad entirely for the 2-1 defeat at Liverpool.
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Cenk Tosun
Everton were so desperate to part ways with their misfit striker that he was included as part of a package to sign Wilfried Zaha in the summer.
Despite hoping to fight for his place under Marco Silva, Tosun wasn't even on the bench for the 1-0 defeat at Burnley and is reportedly a target for Qatari side Al Gharafa.