It's official: Manchester United captain Harry Maguire is the most miserable player in the Premier League

Manchester United captain Harry Maguire
(Image credit: Getty)

Poor Harry Maguire. The Manchester United and England star is often mocked for his facial expressions.

Whether it's the viral photo of the defender leaning across a barrier to talk to a girl in the aftermath of England's 2018 World Cup win over Colombia or Gabby Logan asking him about what it's like to have "a big head" in an interview, old 'Slabhead' must feel like an easy target. 

He's not having the best of seasons at Old Trafford – and now the Yorkshireman has topped another unwanted poll after crashing out of the Champions League second round. 

Researchers at TonerGiant applied an AI emotion recognition analysis tool to footballers' Instagram accounts, running their photos through the machine to work out if they looked happy or sad during the 2021/22 season.

It will come as little surprise to Red Devils fans that their captain fantastic was deemed to be the most downbeat player analysed, with happiness levels in photos of him scoring 23.4 out of 100. That's -43.9% lower than the happiness levels of the average footballer. 

In fact, Liverpool and Manchester United players are the moodiest per Premier League club, with average happiness levels of their players at 33.1 and 34.9 out of 100, respectively. No prizes for guessing the happiest club, Manchester City, whose players rank at of 52.7 out of 100 on the happiness scale of their pictures.

Maguire isn't alone with his frown in the England camp, either. Arsenal centre-back Ben White ranked over a third unhappier than your average player – perhaps thanks to his penchant for uploading photos of himself snarling over attackers to compensate for his "soft" reputation – while Hendersons Dean and Jordan both ranked highly for unhappiness. 

Chelsea midfielder Mason Mount is apparently England's smiliest footballer – though whether that changes in the midst of Chelsea's current off-field woes remains to be seen. 

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Mark White
Content Editor

Mark White is the Digital Content Editor at FourFourTwo. During his time on the brand, Mark has written three cover features on Mikel Arteta, Martin Odegaard and the Invincibles, and has written pieces on subjects ranging from Sir Bobby Robson’s time at Barcelona to the career of Robinho. An encyclopedia of football trivia and collector of shirts, he first joined the team back in 2020 as a staff writer.