Rumors of the Premier League’s demise are way off base, but it is true that a few big Premier League clubs have been a bit disappointing in the Champions League this year. Here are five individual players who have been flopping in the 2025/26 UCL campaign; four of them have been eliminated already.
Newcastle CM Jacob Ramsey
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Jacob Ramsey definitely had a Champions League season to forget, and he is one of a few players who were miserably poor in Newcastle United’s humbling 7-2 defeat to Barcelona in the decisive 7-2 defeat at the Spotify Camp Nou.
The 24 year old center midfielder undermined what was actually a great defensive campaign with a disasterclass of a performance, gifting a goal to Raphinha. But the real issue in that game and overall was Ramsey’s inability to help the team in possession. He could barely progress the ball at the Champions League level, and his playmaking statistics were among the worst in the entire competition, especially for someone who is supposed to be a more attacking minded player.
Chelsea CB Trevoh Chalobah
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Chelsea 100 percent need to upgrade their defense, and Enzo Maresca saw these issues coming from a mile away. The former Chelsea manager was very much not fooled by Trevoh Chalobah’s purple patch against inferior competition to start the season, and he was definitely among those exposed badly by PSG in the knockout stages.
Chalobah struggled mightily in all six of his Champions League starts this season. He was a total non factor defensively, unable to nick the ball off the best forwards in European football. There are levels to this game, and Chalobah is several levels below the Champions League.
Chelsea GK Filip Jorgensen
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Of course, Filip Jorgensen was even worse. He started in three Champions League games for Chelsea, with manager Liam Rosenior inexplicably making him the No. 1 for the first leg of the Champions League Round of 16 against reigning winners PSG.
Jorgensen went out and lost them the game. Apparently, Rosenior thought that Jorgensen would give them a crucial upgrade on the ball, but it was his mistakes as a passer that lost the game for Chelsea. In total, Jorgensen saved only about 37 percent of the shots he faced and averaged 2.40 goals per game in the 2025/26 Champions League season. That is historically horrible.
Liverpool RB Jeremie Frimpong
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Jeremie Frimpong has yet to truly show his best stuff in a [Liverpool](https://walkon.com/) uniform, and even Dutch manager Arne Slot has to be beyond frustrated with Frimpong’s inconsistency on offense and obvious weaknesses defensively that make Trent Alexander-Arnold look like, ahem, prime Dani Carvajal in comparison.
The former Bayer Leverkusen man is the one player on this list who is still alive in the competition, but he really has to step it up. Frimpong has done nothing to support the Liverpool attack this season, which is a shock. He is barely getting the ball forward, and he is leaving Mohamed Salah hung out to dry with close to zero creative production at just 0.4 key passes per game across six starts.
Manchester City CM Bernardo Silva
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Bernardo Silva is finished at the highest level of football. His handball that doomed Manchester City’s tie against Real Madrid may have been a cheeky idea in his mind, but it was absurdity at its worst; it would have been far better for Silva to have just let that shot go.
But all season long, Silva showed that his too slow for the Champions League. Normally a key contributor for Man City, Silva ended up being the liability whom Pep Guardiola entrusted all the way to losing. Silva can still play pass and will work hard, but he was getting gashed and overrun by fast midfielders defensively while playing so poorly on the ball at the elite level that he averaged a ghastly 0.1 dribbles completed per game. Even Mo Salah is cringing at that.
Joe Soriano is the editor of _The Trivela Effect_ and a FanSided Hall of Famer who has covered world football since 2010. He’s led top digital communities like _The Real Champs_ (Real Madrid) and has run sites covering Tottenham, Liverpool, Juventus, and Schalke. He also helped manage _NFL Spin Zone_ and _Daily DDT,_ covering the NFL and pro wrestling.