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The man that should have got into the PFA Team of the Year ahead of Paul Pogba


The PFA Team of the Year was announced on Thursday morning, with the surprise inclusion of Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba, stealing all of the headlines.


Manchester United have endured a torrid season, and their amazing run of form during Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's "honeymoon period", has been massively cancelled out with the poor run of form that they have had over the last few weeks. This resulted in several players being heavily criticised for their work-ethic and inconsistency, one of which being none other than Pogba himself.


Pogba had a very good patch of form at the start of Solskjaer's reign at United, and has now scored 13 goals and assisted another nine in 32 Premier League games, stats that any central midfielder in the league should be proud of.

However, considering that seven of those 13 goals were penalties, this goalscoring record comes as no surprise. Apart from this, Pogba has often been utterly dreadful for United this season, at times getting a WhoScored match rating of 5.97.


Once the PFA Team of the Year was announced, plenty of fans went on to criticise the decision to select Pogba ahead of plenty of other players that have performed very well this season.


One of those names is Eden Hazard. Yes Hazard might not be a central midfielder and so he would not fit in the 4-3-3 template that the PFA set, however he has racked up much more impressive stats than Pogba has done for sure. The Belgian has scored 16 goals and assisted 13, some magnificent numbers, especially considering the rut that Chelsea were in at one point in the season.

Hazard is currently the leader in goal contributions in the league, as well as being the leader in the WhoScored average rating, boasting a rating of 7.80 on average throughout the season. His blistering performances have earned him the Man of the Match award on a breathtaking 13 occasions in 34 games, more than any other player in the Premier League.


On all fronts, it was shocking to see that the Belgian was snubbed ahead of the Frenchman, especially considering that Hazard was even nominated to win the PFA Player of the Year award.

Pogba might have had an impressive patch of form at the turn of the year, but Hazard has been sensational throughout the whole season, especially when Chelsea needed him the most.

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