I've listed some of the best players of the season so far below. Who have I missed? Who shouldn't be included? Give me your thoughts in general. Players of the season so far 2013/4 Goalkeepers Vincent Enyeama (Lille and Nigeria) Victor Valdes (Barcelona and Spain) Hugo Lloris (Tottenham and France) Bernd Leno (Bayer Leverkusen and Germany) Marc-Andre Ter Stegen (Borussia Moenchengladbach and Germany) Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich and Germany) Morgan de Sanctis (Roma and Italy) Fullbacks David Alaba (Bayern Munich and Austria) Fabinho (Monaco and Brazil) Leighton Baines (Everton and England) Mathieu Debuchy (Newcastle and France) Davide Santon (Newcastle and Italy) Dani Alves (Barcelona and Brazil) Filipe Luis (Atletico Madrid and Brazil) Daley Blind (Ajax and Holland) Dmitry Kombarov (Spartak Moscow and Russia) Daniel Carvajal (Real Madrid and Spain) Ricardo Rodriguez (Wolfsburg and Switzerland) Pablo Zabaleta (Manchester City and Argentina) Centre-backs Mehdi Benatia (Roma and Morocco) Thiago Silva (Paris SG and Brazil) Simon Kjaer (Lille and Denmark) Laurent Koscielny (Arsenal and France) Dejan Lovren (Southampton and Croatia) Phil Jagielka (Everton and England) Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus and Italy) Leandro Castan (Roma and Brazil) Diego Godin (Atletico Madrid and Uruguay) Gerard Pique (Barcelona and Spain) Vedran Corluka (Lokomotiv Moscow and Croatia) Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund and Germany) Dante (Bayern Munich and Brazil) Defensive midfielders Jeremy Toulalan (Monaco and France) Fernandinho (Manchester City and Brazil) Gareth Barry (Everton and England) Daniele De Rossi (Roma and Italy) Esteban Cambiasso (Inter and Argentina) Paul Pogba (Juventus and France) Gabi (Atletico Madrid and Spain) Sergio Busquets (Barcelona and Spain) Pontus Wernbloom (CSKA Moscow and Sweden) Nuri Sahin (Borussia Dortmund and Turkey) Central midfielders Arturo Vidal (Juventus and Chile) Philipp Lam (Bayern Munich and Germany) Yaya Toure (Manchester City and Ivory Coast) Miralem Pjanic (Roma and Bosnia) Joao Moutinho (Monaco and Portugal) Marco Verratti (Paris SG and Italy) Blaise Matuidi (Paris SG and France) Steven Gerrard (Liverpool and England) Michael Carrick (Manchester United and England) Kevin Strootman (Roma and Holland) Andrea Pirlo (Juventus and Italy) Gokhan Inler (Napoli and Switzerland) Ivan Rakitic (Sevilla and Croatia) Luka Modric (Real Madrid and Croatia) Xavi (Barcelona and Spain) Attacking midfielders Aaron Ramsey (Arsenal and Wales) Mesut Ozil (Arsenal and Germany) Ricardo Alvarez (Inter and Argentina) Isco (Real Madrid and Spain) Koke (Atletico Madrid and Spain) Cesc Fabregas (Barcelona and Spain) Toni Kroos (Bayern Munich and Germany) Rafael Van der Vaart (Hamburg and Holland) Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Borussia Dortmund and Armenia) Wingers Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich and France) James Rodriguez (Monaco and Colombia) Antoine Griezman (Real Sociedad and France) Gareth Bale (Real Madrid and Wales) Eden Hazard (Chelsea and Belgium) Adam Lallana (Southampton and England) Sidney Sam (Bayer Leverkusen and Germany) Arjen Robben (Bayern Munich and Holland) Danny (Zenit and Portugal) Lucas Piazon (Vitesse and Brazil) Dusan Tadic (Twente and Serbia) Forwards Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid and Portugal) Lionel Messi (Barcelona and Argentina) Luis Suarez (Liverpool and Uruguay) Edinson Cavani (Paris SG and Uruguay) Neymar (Barcelona and Brazil) Alexis Sanchez (Barcelona and Chile) Max Kruse (Borussia Moenchengladbach and Germany) Wayne Rooney (Manchester United and England) Alessio Cerci (Torino and Italy) Carlos Tevez (Juventus and Argentina) Emmanuel Riviere (Monaco and France) Gervinho (Roma and Ivory Coast) Jose Callejon (Napoli and Spain) Hulk (Zenit and Brazil) Thomas Muller (Bayern Munich and Germany) Strikers Diego Costa (Atletico Madrid and Spain/Brazil) Falcao (Monaco and Colombia) Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Paris SG and Sweden) Sergio Aguero (Manchester City and Argentina) Giuseppe Rossi (Fiorentina and Italy) Olivier Giroud (Arsenal and France) Rodrigo Palacio (Inter and Argentina) Gonzalo Higuain (Napoli and Argentina) Alfred Finnbogason (Heerenveen and Iceland) Fredy Montero (Sporting Lisbon and Colombia) Stefan Kiessling (Bayer Leverkusen and Germany) Mario Mandzukic (Bayern Munich and Croatia) Robert Lewandowski (Borussia Dortmund and Poland)
My thought exactly. Surely Coleman has been a better RB than Debuchy so far this season...? Also, should Lloris be included before Howard?
Wouldn't include Pique amongst the centre backs list. Miranda has been the best centre back in La Liga for quite some time. I would include him for sure. Also, I would include the likes of Samir Handanovic, Willy Caballero and Thibaut Courtois in the goal-keepers list.
Strootman and Modric are too low, and scoring a few PK goals doesn't make Vidal the best CM at the moment imo.
How close did Lukaku get to the list? Also, for me Jordan Henderson has been at least as good as Gerrard.
Agree with everyone on Coleman, watching Everton he has clearly been better/healthier than Baines, who I am not sure deserves it. Also don't think Hummels and Cavani have been good/healthy enough to be on the list at this point.
My personal opinion is that it beings and ends with Suarez right now.. . Leading number of goals scored and he didn't even play the first 5 games due to suspension.
No Van Persie in either top strikers/FW ( but Gervinho? Montero there?) It's so funny to see Lam as CM? I would not even call him as DM In fact he was playing like 7,8 games as Libero/DM in (new Bayern) 4 1 4 1 formation, and then back to his CB role for 4,5 games
Not only that but he has created seven clear cut chances – tied for the Premier League lead with Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsey. http://www.bsports.com/extratime/creativity-in-the-premier-league-nasri-suarezs-lead
Daniel Sturridge ought to be in the strikers list too. He's third in England scoring despite being injured right now, and is just as responsible for Liverpool being in second place as Suarez is, as Sturridge carried the team when Suarez was suspended. 11 goals in 14 games in all competitions.
As a Napoli fan there is no way Inler belongs anywhere near this list. Behrami has been way better. I'd also take off Pirlo and Pjanic and add Borja Valero and Totti. Also Giandomenico Mesto has been fantastic this season until he got injured. I'd also consider adding Hellas Verona's Rafael who's been fantastic in goal this year
Pretty close. I do think it's difficult to judge with Everton. Yes, they've done well but they're fifth at the moment, four points ahead of Spurs who've just sacked a manager. A lot of how well they seem to have done is based on relatively low expectations.
Adrian Ramos right now is tied in first place with Lewandowski for the top goalscorer in Bundesliga. I might be biased about Juan Guillermo Cuadrado, but i think he also deserves a mention
If you mentioned these players from Ligue 1, than you should mention Vincent Aboubakar (FC Lorient and Cameroon). Plays for a sh!t club, but has more goals than Falcao (11 to 9), contributed the league record of 42% of goals for his club, has the highest efficiency in the league and has arguably been the best striker in the past two months in France. Penalties aside he has actually scored as much goals as Ibrahimovic. He has wihtout doubt been better than Falcao. So either drop Falcao (who has been pretty terrible for Monaco lately BTW) or add Aboubakar. In general I see some misinformed choices from Ligue 1, as Idrissa Gueye (Lille and Senegal) is missing, while Blaise Matuidi or Joao Moutinho makes your list. Thiago Silva makes the list but I can name two-three players who have been better than him in Ligue 1 like Dilobodji, Kjaer, Ecuele Manga. Fabinho makes your list (an obvious mistake), not Kurzawa (who has been far superior at Monaco), not to mention players who have been far better like Lucas Digne (PSG), Serge Aurier (Toulouse) or Pape Souare (Lille). The list seems to include players from France based on names / PR, not actual onfield quality of play.
Falcao form haven't been terrible, he just missed 4 games due to injury. Before that he was the top goalscorer, its not fair to judge his form based on last game when he just come off an injury
His finishing has been wayward though (even before the injury). He started off red-hot, but has faded since then (since October at least - he has been below par since then save for 1-2 games). And anyone watching the Ligue 1 would confirm that Aboubakar has been better this season than him. Performanwise, statistically, observationally. I'm just saying: either add Aboubakar or drop Falcao. (Funnily enough just saw that Falcao is worth 60 mln EUR, while Aboubakar 2 mln EUR)