Every club’s best and Wirtz player: Man Utd problem, his January replacement and £55m Newcastle man flops | OneFootball

Manchester United have a problem player, but his mooted ‘surprise’ January replacement has the joint-worst record in Europe’s top five leagues this season.

Is ‘personal goal difference’ a thing? Probably not. But it absolutely can be when in need of content ideas in that awkward period between an international break and the Premier League’s return. The gooch, if you were.

We have looked at each club’s best and worst player in terms of the goal difference they have accrued during their time on the pitch this season, with 100 minutes the cut-off point for inclusion.

Arsenal

Best: Gabriel Magalhaes and David Raya (+15) Neither player has missed a minute for a side which has scored 20 goals and conceded just five after 11 games. That absurd Chelsea record is still on the agenda.

Worst: Cristhian Mosquera (+1) It really was an exceptional signing but Mosquera has suffered for his craft as third-choice centre-half, even if none of the three goals Arsenal have conceded with him on the pitch could be at all attributed to him. Gabriel ended up on the floor for two of them (Nick Woltemade and Brian Brobbey).

Aston Villa

Best: Lucas Digne (+6) The one Premier League game Digne didn’t start this season resulted in a 3-0 defeat to Crystal Palace at Villa Park. He remains really quite crucial to Unai Emery.

Worst: Tyrone Mings (-5) The former captain did not miss a minute of Villa’s five-game winless start, then was forced off through injury shortly before Ollie Watkins equalised against Fulham in their first win of the season.

Bournemouth

Best: Alex Scott (+4) It was enough to catch the eye of Thomas Tuchel.

Worst: Marcos Senesi (-4) The Italian has played all but 12 minutes of Bournemouth’s Premier League campaign so far; the Cherries just so happened to mount their stirring comeback against Fulham in October immediately after Senesi came off.

Worst: Keane Lewis-Potter (-4) Keith Andrews has spoken about his delight at having “options” at left-back, but Lewis-Potter – rather understandably as a natural forward playing out of position – seems to struggle bringing that balance to the team.

Brighton

Best: Georginio Rutter (+6) It does seem to make Brighton tick when Rutter plays – even if the £40m record signing forward has scored precisely none of their 17 goals.

Worst: Kaoru Mitoma (-2) It sums up Brighton perfectly that Mitoma’s six starts have delivered two defeats, two draws and two wins, those victories coming against Manchester City and Chelsea.

Burnley

Best: Zian Flemming (+2) The one Burnley player with a positive individual goal difference; only Erling Haaland has scored more Premier League away goals than Flemming so far this season.

Worst: Maxime Esteve (-9) Not only has he been on the pitch for every goal Burnley have conceded, Esteve was also taken off five minutes before Jaidon Anthony sealed victory over Sunderland in August.

Chelsea

Best: Trevoh Chalobah (+12) Guilty of some “absolutely awful defending” recently and increasingly scapegoated by supporters used to a certain vintage of centre-half, but the numbers suggest Chalobah still has a role to play.

Worst: Romeo Lavia (-2) Wherefore art thou always sodding injured, Romeo? The midfielder still hasn’t completed a full 90 minutes for Chelsea since joining in August 2023.

Crystal Palace

Best: Jean-Philippe Mateta (+7) In that ludicrous Bournemouth game alone, Mateta ought to have taken his positive personal goal difference into double figures.

Worst: Justin Devenny (0) That is testament to Oliver Glasner and a defence which has conceded fewer goals than every team barring the top two.

Everton

Best: Tim Iroegbunam (+4) It is little wonder David Moyes loves a player who has only been on the pitch for a single conceded Everton goal this season.

Worst: Michael Keane (-3) The manager does also adore apparent Everton jinx Keane, who will probably end up as their top scorer.

Fulham

Best: Harry Wilson (+2) The boy absolutely loves a goal against Brentford.

Worst: Timothy Castagne (-7) That’s really not great. Nor is having the worst PPM (0.29) of any non-Wolves player so far this season. Castagne last featured in a Premier League win in April.

Leeds

Best: Brenden Aaronson (-1) Rodrigo, assisted by Weston McKennie and under the management of Sam Allardyce, scored the last Premier League goal Leeds mustered without Aaronson on the pitch.

Worst: Joe Rodon (-10) One of 23 ever-presents in the Premier League, but the only one foolish enough to play for Leeds.

Liverpool

Worst: Florian Wirtz (-4) It is only by virtue of having played more minutes that Wirtz edges ahead of Conor Bradley and Giorgio Mamardashvili, which neatly underlines how Liverpool have struggled to replace key players in net and at right-back. But those numbers are particularly stark for nine-figure signing Wirtz, who still awaits his first Premier League goal or assist.

Manchester City

Best: Jeremy Doku (+16) Manchester City have not lost a Premier League game Doku has started since March. Liverpool felt the Belgian’s entire wrath and the only players in Europe’s top five leagues with a better personal goal difference all turn out for Bayern Munich.

Worst: John Stones (-1) “The club will decide what is best for John, we will see how he performs,” said Pep Guardiola of a player who “has not had the consistency” in terms of game time due to injuries. And it has shown.

Manchester United

Best: Casemiro (+8) The football undeniably left him but has emphatically returned. The only defeat Manchester United have suffered with Casemiro starting this season was on the opening weekend against Arsenal.

Worst: Manuel Ugarte (-7) That is a remarkable swing which emphasises the significant drop-off in quality between the club’s two foremost holding midfielders. Ugarte – and more specifically Ruben Amorim’s insistence on leaning on the Uruguayan as a perennial substitute – has become one of Manchester United’s biggest problems.

Newcastle

Best: Jacob Murphy (+2) There might be no better, more effective or important Newcastle player than the one Rafael Benitez signed from the Championship eight years ago. And that is damning, no less so because…

Worst: Anthony Elanga (-5) It does feel like £55m should buy you really rather a lot more. The lack of competition at that price point always was a bit of a red flag.

Nottingham Forest

Best: Taiwo Awoniyi (+1) Labelled “a bit of an unsung hero at times” by Sean Dyche, that could be a union which brings the best out of Awoniyi again.

Worst: Matz Sels, Nico Williams, Nikola Milenkovic and Elliot Anderson (-10) Four ever-presents largely paying for the crimes of Evangelos Marinakis and Ange Postecoglou. Of course one of them is a legitimate £100m talent.

Sunderland

Best: Dan Ballard (+6) That just feels right for 2025’s Radhi Jaidi.

Worst: Jenson Seelt (-2) That’s a fairly harsh reflection of a player who went off through injury at 0-0 of a 3-0 thrashing of West Ham, then played the majority of a 2-0 defeat to Burnley before leaving for Wolfsburg on loan.

Spurs

Best: Guglielmo Vicario (+9) Some doubts remain but Gary Neville reckons “the goalkeeper looks a lot better” and “more solid than he has been” recently.

West Ham

Best: Callum Wilson (+1) West Ham have won two of the three Premier League games Wilson has started this season. Nuno Espirito Santo has seen the light.

Worst: Max Kilman and Jarrod Bowen (-10) Two players whose standing with the West Ham fanbase is pretty much diametrically opposed, but still the Hammers persist with the clearly detrimental Bowen.

Wolves