Premier League under-the-radar XI: Kulusevski, Caicedo, more

Soccer headlines have always been reserved for the star names: Erling Haaland, Mohamed Salah, Bukayo Saka and company rule the roost, and rightly so. But delve a little deeper and you’ll see plenty of other brilliant performances across the Premier League, many of which sadly go unsung.

Now that we’re a quarter of the way through the season, we’ve compiled an XI of players we think are flying under the radar. If you’re a fan of the clubs mentioned here, the odds are you already rave about the player in question, but wider appreciation is still lacking. Hopefully this helps put them in the spotlight.

From a pure shot-stopping perspective, Hermansen has been one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League this season.

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He has prevented 3.3 more goals than expected based on the shots he has faced. And there have been plenty of them: 58 on target to be exact. Only Brentford‘s Mark Flekken (73) has been subjected to more this season.

On the ball, Hermansen’s role has been simplified; he’s playing longer more often than he did in the Championship, but there are still flickers of quality here and there.

It has been a bounce-back season for Tete, who has started all 10 Premier League games, meaning he has matched his entire tally for 2023-24. He has earned manager Marco Silva’s favour and firmly seen off the challenge of Belgium international Timothy Castagne for the right-back spot thanks to his rumbustious, all-action performances.

He has totalled more interceptions (20) than anyone else in the team and loves a 50-yard run with the ball on occasion.

Nottingham Forest’s fantastic start to the season has been powered by a defensive resilience. They’ve gone from having the sixth-worst defensive record in the league last season (shipping 1.8 goals per game) to the second best, conceding just seven in 10 so far.

Aside from the simple luxury of more time working under manager Nuno Espírito Santo, the significant change from last season to this is the presence of Milenković in the centre of defence, who was signed from Fiorentina for £12m after a couple of good Serie A campaigns and a solid Euro 2024 for Serbia.

His start to life at Forest has been superb, dominating the box in most games, staying calm enough to help see out games and drastically improving their ability to defend set pieces.

Zabarnyi is continually present, yet somehow still continually underappreciated. He came within a game of an ironman Premier League season in 2023-24 — starting and completing 37 of 38 matches — and is back to it this term, playing every minute of the nine games so far.

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The Ukraine international is incredibly reliable at the back, secure in the passing game and has a handy knack of winning his ground duels. He can take on all kinds of forwards and has grown into the physicality of the Premier League since arriving.

Cherries fans cherish him — hence his Player of the Season award in 2023-24 — but that wider appreciation is yet to follow for now.

Aston Villa have signed two new left-backs during Unai Emery’s tenure, Álex Moreno and Ian Maatsen, but so far Digne has held them both off, forcing Moreno to depart and largely keeping Maatsen on the bench.

He’s renowned as an attacking full-back and a set-piece threat, but over the past year he has worked hard to round out the defensive side of his game and make himself a much more balanced player. This season, only one Villa player (Youri Tielemans, 17) has completed more tackles than Digne (15) and the Frenchman is top for interceptions (14).

Digne’s determination to improve and resilience to show his worth year on year is something to be admired.

Lukic represents a nice bit of forward planning from Fulham, who signed him in January 2023 in anticipation of João Palhinha’s eventual exit from the club. This season, with Palhinha gone to Bayern Munich, Lukic has been given a key role and has shone.

Defensively, he has been busy, totalling 20 attempted tackles and interceptions, and he has balanced out a midfield that has often contained an attacking midfielder playing deeper.

There are times in football when a player’s true impact can be measured in their absence, and during these past three weeks without him (he injured his shoulder on international duty), Fulham’s midfield has really toiled at times.

The ripples of appreciation for Kulusevski are getting larger, but the sheer weight of the role he carries out still flies under the radar. Now relocated into central midfield from the wing, he offers power and strength, defensive work rate, brilliant ball carrying, an eye for a pass, and a legitimate goal threat. Very few can match this array of skills.

No one at Spurs has created more shooting opportunities (51) or tallied more progressive carries (40). His performance in Tottenham’s 3-0 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford in September was one of the finest individual showings we’ve seen this season.

Caicedo carries the burden of a frankly ridiculous contract. His £115 million move from Brighton & Hove Albion placed an enormous amount of pressure on his performances — so much so that even if he is consistently playing well or very well, he’s often not getting the credit he deserves.

This season, he has been the usual frenzy of defensive activity, completing by far the most combined interceptions and tackles won (52) of any Chelsea player. Plus, he has played more passes into the final third (54) than anyone else, while only Cole Palmer has played more progressive passes than him (50). He also has two assists — both lovely through-balls for Nicolas Jackson to finish — and a belter of a goal to his name, against Manchester United.

Cast your eyes across the league and you won’t find many central midfielders outperforming Caicedo.

Forest’s win over Leicester two weekends ago generated some murmurs of appreciation for Hudson-Odoi. The winger’s career hasn’t exactly followed the anticipated fast track to stardom many imagined after he exploded into Chelsea’s first team in 2018-19, attracting the attention of Bayern Munich in the process, but carry on like this and perceptions might change once again.

He has been a standout creative presence so far, leading all Forest players in shot-creating actions (42), key passes (18) and carries into the penalty box (19). He has now scored two goals this season, both clipped, curling efforts from range — one of which was at Anfield, paving the way for a remarkable 1-0 victory over Liverpool.

You could be forgiven for thinking Lewis-Potter was a new signing at Brentford this season, given his first two years at the club were disrupted so heavily by injury. Now, finally, he’s fit enough to show his talent consistently in Year 3.

He has played in every league game so far this season, starting eight, with his best coming at the end of October as he tormented Ipswich Town defender Harry Clarke. The right-back, making his full Premier League debut, scored an own goal, conceded a penalty and was shown a red card — all due to pressure applied by Lewis-Potter. The Brentford winger has been quietly humming all season, but that was an explosion of his abilities to the extent manager Thomas Frank labelled it “probably his best game” in a Bees shirt.

Teams that toil at the bottom of the league table typically have an issue with scoring goals, but that’s not the case with Wolves at all. They’ve scored 14 — more than eight other teams, including Newcastle United and Manchester United — and Cunha has grabbed four of those.

Cunha is a manager’s dream, as he’s tremendously hardworking and superb at dropping off the line to link with midfield, and can drive with the ball at his feet over long distances. As well as goals, he tops his team for carries into the final third (27), carries into the penalty box (16) and shot-creating actions (36).

New signing Jørgen Strand Larsen has also scored four, garnering plenty of attention in the process, but Cunha has more and remains Wolves’ X-factor attacker.

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