The Premier League is filled with world-class players who regularly receive plaudits from the media and fans alike.

The likes of Virgil van Dijk, Declan Rice and Rodri Hernandez have consistently been touted as PFA Player of the Year frontrunners as their performances have been influential to their teams’ title pursuits. 

Players from outside of the traditional ‘big six’ like Ollie Watkins, Dominic Solanke and Jarrod Bowen have also been regularly spoken about for their incredible goalscoring seasons so far. 

However, many players in the league have had an underrated season across 2023/24 – in the sense that they have provided significant contributions to their team, but their efforts have gone under the radar. 

Here we will look at the less talked about exceptional campaigns that certain players have produced over the season so far. 

Douglas Luiz

Douglas Luiz has been one of the driving forces behind Aston Villa’s UEFA Champions League charge this season. Unai Emery’s team are offered at 6/5 in the Premier League odds to earn a place at Europe’s top table and the Premier League tips suggest that only Tottenham Hotspur could stop them. 

While top scorer Watkins has dominated the headlines in Villa’s UCL pursuit, Luiz has arguably been just as vital in keeping up the pace with Spurs. From his deep-lying midfield role, he scored nine times and assisted in five of the opening 28 league games.

Out of possession, Luiz is one of the most deadly threats in the league as he regularly makes late runs into the box to score goals. On the ball, he has proven to be extremely reliable too as he held a season-long pass completion percentage of 89.6% before the March international break. 

For comparison, Rice who Arsenal signed for £105 million – who has regularly been touted as the best all-round midfielder in the league – has only managed six goals and five assists throughout the opening 28. He has also only marginally been superior when it comes to passing with a percentage of 91% completed.

The fact Luiz has managed superior offensive numbers while playing for a more defensively-oriented team than the big-money star is a clear indicator that his season has not received the recognition it deserves. 

Pascal Gross

Pascal Gross primarily plays in a deep-lying position which is similar to Luiz’s and perhaps that represents a theme.

The purely offensive players force themselves into the headlines as the main scorers for their teams and the top ball-playing defenders are often credited for their imperious performances too. However, the midfielders who contribute to just about everything on the pitch are sometimes overlooked. 

Brighton’s German technician is another great example of that. He was the league’s leading assist-maker after 28 games played with 10 to his name, yet it would be tough to find credible comparisons to the renowned greatest creative players in England. 

Gross also netted four times in his 26 appearances before the season’s final international break, which – like Luiz – means his direct goal contributions are greater than the widely acclaimed world-class Rice’s. 

Ultimately, the stars from the biggest clubs typically receive the most plaudits for consistent performances and this means that some players’ stellar efforts are not fairly recognised. 

Luiz and Gross are two excellent all-round midfielders who are enjoying the greatest seasons of their careers although they will likely have little to show for it besides their clubs’ achievements.

They have been the Premier League’s most productive ‘number eights’ in 2023/24 and they arguably deserve to be in the conversation for the PFA Team of the Year as a result. The Villa and Brighton pair have had comfortably the most underrated campaigns of any players across the league.