Just like that, the summer months disappear and Premier League football makes its triumphant return! Sky Sports analyses which players, off the back of a lukewarm 2023-24, need to make their mark on the new campaign.
Jack Grealish
A public snubbing from England’s Euros squad this summer cut deep for Jack Grealish. He’s been very open and honest about it. But, perhaps, a summer off to reset and recharge was exactly what the Manchester City winger needed.
Besides, England’s left-wing pecking order – Phil Foden, Anthony Gordon, Eberechi Eze – was hard to argue with.
Those individuals should now be Grealish’s barometer. Both Foden and Gordon hit double figures for goals and assists across all competitions last term, while Grealish has not scored in 2024.
Injury setbacks have not been helpful, nor has the arrival of Jeremy Doku at Man City, and opinions will continually swirl about the balance of his productivity against a £100m price tag.
“I know how professional I actually am,” says Grealish but he faces a challenge, nevertheless. His City career could depend on it. Perhaps it is the opinion of Pep Guardiola that will matter most, but it’s ultimately up to Grealish himself to be the one to shape his future.
Marcus Rashford
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Marcus Rashford’s form, and focus, can only be described as transient over the past 18 months.
Once one of the Premier League’s deadliest finishers, Rashford appears distracted, devoid of confidence, and has been marred by a series of off-field wrongdoings that have led many to doubt his future at Manchester United.
With just eight goals last term, and a number of subdued performances that left much to be desired, Rashford was another to be cut from Gareth Southgate’s Euros squad. He’s also been linked with a move away from Old Trafford for the third transfer window running. And so a crossroads has been reached.
The 26-year-old should be entering his peak years. Most United fans remain on side – he is, after all, a homegrown player who has previously served his football club and community admirably.
There are some positive noises coming out of Carrington about Rashford’s rechannelled focus after a summer of rest, consolidated by a decent Community Shield performance, and he retains the backing of Erik ten Hag. “He is experienced enough to deal with this. Once he scores one, the goals will come,” his manager says.
Only time will tell if that prophecy reaches fruition.
Jadon Sancho
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
The curious case of Jadon Sancho rumbles on. It is now three years since the forward’s £80m move to Manchester United. The club have had three managers in that time, while Sancho has barely pulled on the United jersey, turning out more times for Borussia Dortmund than Ten Hag’s side last term.
More positively, the impasse with his manager – which resulted in a loan move to Dortmund for the second half of last season – appears to have softened. The pair have reflected on past issues and both agreed to draw a line in the sand.
Sancho was used as a second-half substitute in the Community Shield last weekend, showing plenty of willing to reintegrate himself, before fluffing his penalty in the deciding shootout – incidentally, at the same end of Wembley that he missed his spot-kick for England in the Euro 2020 final.
Can the boy not catch a break?
Needless to say, Sancho’s return to the United fold has been a big talking point this summer. His name has been linked with a variety of clubs who would be keen on his signature (Juventus and Dortmund among them). And yet, he still holds potential value for United. His comeback story, if achieved, would be a significant feather in the cap of Ten Hag.
Besides, the club would surely have to swallow a significant loss on Sancho’s initial fee if sold this summer. Perhaps there is hope for a positive ending to the Sancho saga yet.
Mason Mount
Mason Mount started for Man Utd in the Community Shield but was taken off after 58 minutes as Ten Hag looks to manage his return from a serious calf injury.
Suffice to say, with only 14 Premier League outings – 20 across all competitions – Mount’s debut campaign at Old Trafford didn’t quite go as planned.
And now, with the emergence of Amad Diallo and Alejandro Garnacho, as well as the ever-presence of Bruno Fernandes, Mount is surely facing an uphill battle to find a permanent spot in this United XI.
He’ll never usurp Fernandes as the preferred No 10, and so perhaps Mount’s best chance rests on Ten Hag opting to use his captain more consistently as a false 9 – surely not sustainable when Rasmus Hojlund returns to full fitness.
The 25-year-old is another to be entering the pivotal years of his career, but needs some sort of reinvention if he’s to make this, his second campaign in Manchester, more of a success than the disjointedness of the first.
James Maddison
James Maddison has not been the same since returning from a lengthy ankle injury.
He ended last season with four goals and nine assists in 28 league appearances, a tally that the forward himself acknowledged fell way short of expectations.
Clearly, Maddison’s intelligence, craft and incisiveness in possession stands him above most who claim to know the No 10 position well, combined with his ability to glide into pockets of space and keen eye for goal, but, he has to work on his durability.
Tottenham’s three-man midfield cannot afford passengers, not with the transitional style Ange Postecoglou favours. Maddison must firstly stay fit, and then endeavour to affect the game for its entirety – he rarely lasts a full 90 minutes.
Maddison needs a big season to reassert himself among the Premier League’s elite pool of attacking midfielders, only then can he hope to reenter the England fold, and fend off of Spurs’ promising young newcomers Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray, who will no doubt be after his shirt.
Kalvin Phillips
Kalvin Phillips‘ fall from grace over the past two years has been quite astronomical. Signed by Man City for £45m in July 2022, he has featured a total of 16 times in league competition, 14 from the bench.
One must question the strategy behind City pursuing a deal for Phillips in the first place. His confidence appears destroyed, not helped by a particularly underwhelming loan move to West Ham in the latter part of last season.
Phillips is not a Guardiola-style player – the manager has admitted as much – far less technical than any midfielder that has thrived during the Spaniard’s reign. Phillips, still only 28, is now sadly embroiled in a personal war of attrition.
Perhap one of the game’s finest up-and-coming managers Kieran Mckenna will be his saving grace, with news of a season-long loan move to Ipswich only surfacing this week.
Certainly Phillips’ industry, coupled with an obvious point to prove, will serve the Premier League newcomers well as they attempt to navigate their first top-flight season in 22 years. His nouse will help too.
On paper, this feels like a reciprocal match.
Darwin Nunez
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
It’s now or never for Darwin Nunez at Liverpool.
Good will from fans, based on undeniable entertainment value, remains strong but Arne Slot must revitalise a career that has reached a critical juncture.
Nunez has become one of the most frustrating figures of the expensive Liverpool remodel, erratic and impatient, offside more times than any other forward in the league last season (33, five ahead of Chelsea’s Nicolas Jackson).
Luckily for Nunez, Slot’s arrival has come at the perfect time. Clearly Jurgen Klopp’s tolerance for wasted chances was wearing thin by the backend of last season because Nunez was benched for his farewell game against Wolves.
After all, this is a player Liverpool invested £80m in only two years ago. His price tag is too high to simply be considered a ‘project player’, besides, Slot needs a functioning and dependable No 9 to aid his cause as the club transitions away from Klopp rule.
Slot’s task is to succeed where the German failed, and extract full value from a player who has only managed to show glimpses of his vast potential.
Christopher Nkunku
Christopher Nkunku has looked like a star for Chelsea – at least in pre-season. After his £52m signing from RB Leipzig last summer, the versatile forward scored three times on the Blues’ tour of the USA before suffering a serious knee injury in their final friendly.
Nkunku never really recovered from that blow, making just two starts in his debut season as he struggled to regain his fitness. But the France international is back for the new campaign – which he once again started by scoring three times on a tour of the US.
This time, Nkunku is fit as the real matches roll around – starting with Enzo Maresca’s first game, at home to Manchester City on Sunday, live on Sky Sports.
Can Nkunku replicate his pre-season form in the Premier League? Chelsea certainly need that to be the case – after all, Cole Palmer can’t do it all by himself.
At 26, Nkunku is already one of the oldest players in Chelsea’s squad. If he can combine a leadership role with the goals he produced regularly at Leipzig, Maresca will have a very useful tool at his disposal.
Rico Henry
As Gareth Southgate spent most of Euro 2024 trying to solve the issues created by England’s lack of width, the question on supporters’ lips was: ‘Where are all the left-backs?’
Luke Shaw was only fit for the latter stages of the tournament, while Southgate chose to leave Ben Chilwell and Tyrick Mitchell at home, instead deploying the determinedly right-footed Kieran Trippier at left-back.
Perhaps if Rico Henry had been fit, the situation may not have been quite as desperate. After establishing himself as one of Brentford’s best players during their first two seasons in the Premier League, the 27-year-old missed almost the entirety of the 2023/24 campaign thanks to a serious knee injury.
Henry was conspicuous by his absence for Brentford in pre-season, meaning it is unclear whether he will be ready to hit the ground running at the start of the season after so long on the sidelines.
But Henry has already declared his ambition of breaking into the England squad for the 2026 World Cup. A big comeback season in 2024/25 would certainly put him in the new manager’s thoughts.
Ryan Sessegnon
Talking of left-backs whose England ambitions have been curtailed by injuries, how about Ryan Sessegnon? The Fulham academy graduate made his debut just a few months after his 16th birthday and never looked back, racking up 120 appearances for the west Londoners.
Sessegnon even managed to score 16 goals for Fulham during the 2018/19 season, despite spending much of his time at left-back. It was no surprise when Tottenham paid £30m to bring him to north London at the age of just 19.
At that point, it seemed like an England call-up was just a matter of time. Instead, Sessegnon started just 41 games during his five years at Spurs, with a succession of injuries stalling his development.
Five years after investing £30m in Sessegnon, he was released by Spurs this summer. After spending time training at Crystal Palace, the 24-year-old chose to return to where it all began – Craven Cottage.
Before setting his sights on Antonee Robinson’s place in the team, Sessegnon must maintain his fitness across the course of the season. But if he achieves that, Sessegnon could become a valuable asset for Marco Silva.
Source : Sky Sports
