Man Utd youngsters bag two end of season Premier League awards
It's awards season in the Premier League following the culmination of the 2019/20 season. Jordan Henderson was named the Football Writer's Association player of the year having captained Liverpool to title success and it's as good a time as any to look at the WhoScored.com Premier League individual awards for 2019/20.
Split into five categories - Player, Young Player, Signing, Breakthrough and Most Improved - it's time to recap the campaign...
Player of the Season - Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)
Some argue that Kevin De Bruyne was unfairly overlooked for the FWA Player of the Season and while the Belgian was unable to guide Manchester City to the Premier League title, the creative dynamo was far and away WhoScored's top rated player in 2019/20. The City star yielded a WhoScored rating of 7.97 as he had a direct hand in more goals (33 - 13 goals, 20 assists) than any other player, and was one of three to reach double figures for both goals and assists.
✅ Most direct goal contributions (33)
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) July 27, 2020
✅ Joint most assists in a PL season (20)
✅ Most key passes from open play in a PL season (104)
✅ More clear cut chances created than Palace (33)
⭐️ @ManCity's @DeBruyneKev is our Premier League player of the season, and it isn't close!
De Bruyne was the only player to make in excess of 100 key passes, creating 136 goalscoring chances in total, including a season record 10 in their final day 5-0 win over Norwich, and created more clear-cut goalscoring opportunities (33) than any other Premier League player, one more than Crystal Palace managed in total (32). With 10 WhoScored man of the match awards to his name, the 29-year-old was a deserving winner of this accolade.
Young Player of the Season - Marcus Rashford (Manchester United)
To qualify for the Young Player of the Season award, players had to be agred 21-and-under on the day the 2019/20 Premier League season started on August 9th 2019. As such, Marcus Rashford is a deserving winner of this gong. The young Manchester United forward was unlucky to miss out on the WhoScored Premier League team of the season, with Sadio Mane pipping the England international to the left wing spot, but the campaign was a memorable one for the now 22-year-old.
Indeed, Rashford netted 17 times and provided seven assists for United, forming an impressive attacking understanding with fellow academy product Mason Greenwood, January arrival Bruno Fernandes and Frenchman Anthony Martial. Only De Bruyne (10) won more WhoScored man of the match awards than the youngster, while only Jamie Vardy (18) and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (17) scored more clear-cut chances than Rashford (16), who earns this award with a WhoScored rating of 7.35.
Signing of the Season - Allan Saint-Maximin (Newcastle)
Premier League teams spent big last summer. Newcastle made Joelinton their club-record capture and while the Brazilian has struggled in England, the same can't be said for fellow summer arrival Allan Saint-Maximin. The Frenchman joined from Nice and had the desired impact for the Magpies. Injuries restricted the Frenchman to just 23 league starts, yet the 23-year-old is firmly a fan favourite on Tyneside.
Three goals and four assists may not be the desired return for Saint-Maximin, but he's certainly been effective at exciting the Newcastle fans. Despite registering just 54.8% of possible Premier League minutes this term, only Adama Traore (184) and Wilfried Zaha (163) completed more dribbles than Saint-Maximin (121) this season and supporters will be excited at what is to come from the former Nice man in 2020/21. And with a WhoScored rating of 7.29, Saint-Maximin is our Premier League sigining of the season of those to feature in at least 20 appearances, thus denying Bruno Fernandes the accolade.
Breakthrough Player of the Season - Mason Greenwood (Manchester United)
For this award, we looked at players aged 23 and under who didn't make more than 10 league appearances for any top-flight league side around the world in 2018/19 and go on to make more than 15 Premier League appearances this season. As a result, Mason Greenwood earns the WhoScored Breakthrough Player of the Season award with a rating of 6.73.
The 18-year-old made 31 league appearances in total, 12 of which were starts, as Greenwood excelled in Manchester United's attacking foursome. 10 goals and one assist to his name is a fine return for a player so young, with that commendable goal tally reinforcing a statistically calculated WhoScored strength of 'finishing'. Undoubtedly the most deserving winner of this accolade.
Most Improved Player of the Season - Adama Traore (Wolves)
For the most improved player of the season, the parameters are that the player in question must have played 20 Premier League appearances in both the 2018/19 and 2019/20 season. For that reason, then, Adama Traore secures this award. The Wolves speedster was crucial in Nuno Espirito Santo's side finishing the campaign seventh.
With four goals and nine assists to his name, the Spaniard considerably bettered his total of one goal and one assist the previous campaign as he established himself as a key man for Wolves. He completed more dribbles (184) than any other Premier League player this season and a WhoScored rating of 7.49 was an improvement of 0.90 from 2018/19 (6.59).
