PFA: Is There Any Data that Shows Paul Pogba Deserves a Spot Over Eden Hazard? And Virgil van Dijk Wins Player of the Year

Premier League Soccer News
Posted By High Press 10 on April 29, 2019

The Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) announced their Premier League Team of the Year last week and Player of the Year on Sunday.

No surprises on the Player of the Year: Liverpool center-back Virgil van Dijk won the award. He was the odds-on favorite to do so for over a month. VVD became the first defensive player to win the honor since the 2004-05 season when Chelsea‘s John Terry was recognized as England’s best footballer.

Underscoring VVD’s year, here’s a stat: NOT ONE SINGLE PLAYER HAS DRIBBLED PAST HIM IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE THIS CAMPAIGN.

Also, this:

While the Player of the Year was absent of any drama, that wasn’t the case for the Team of the Year.

Is there any data, at all, that shows that Paul Pogba was more deserving than Edez Hazard?

No.

By basically every statistic, Eden Hazard is a demonstrably better soccer player than Paul Pogba this year.

Let’s just say…Pogba’s stats don’t line up well with the above.

GoalsAssistsKey Passes/
Game		Dribbles/
Game		Dispossessed/ Game Tackles / Game
Hazard16132.63.72.30.4
Pogba1391.61.72.51.3

There are very few areas we can find that Pogba out-performed Hazard this year. While Hazard gets a slight knock defensively (he rarely wins tackles, however he’s also dribbled past less often than Pogba, .3 to .8 times per game, respectively), he far outshines Pogba offensively.

Hazard should’ve been on the team of the year.

As should’ve Mo Salah. But that’s another story for another time.

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