Best Players of 2016/17 seasons so far.....

The ref along with his supporting cast might have been terrible but any team that fails to defend 4-0 score line doesn't deserve to progress imo. I have never witnessed such pathetic performance from elite players who are paid millions to perform their duties. PSG was probably decent 5 minutes and horrible for another 90 minutes. I swear I've never seen such disorganized performance from elite CL team. When one takes into account that Barca didn't really play that well its a true reflection of how poor PSG was.

 

Yes, I tend to agree. That is a good summary.

 

Alex Sandro

 

To be fair, Messi created 2 clear-cut chances vs. Juventus, so defining his performance as 'poor' is harsh in my opinion. For example, if Iniesta and Suarez score their chances, Messi comes out with 2 assists, and a 'good' performance. Of course, Messi obviously was not great, but I think it's harsh to define his performance as 'poor' when he created 2 clear-cut chances against a defensively solid team.

As for the best player of 2016/17 - Messi and Hazard are the only high profile attacking players that have been great on a consistent basis, from beginning to end. Neymar and Ronaldo have been too inconsistent. Suarez has probably been more consistent than Neymar, but certainly not as consistent as Messi and Hazard.

 

I forgot to mention that Messi missed 2 months, which is significant enough to take into account. Overall, this season is very difficult to tell, not only when compared to the previous 5-8 seasons, but also when compared to any season probably. But nevertheless, in terms of level of play and consistency, I think that Messi and Hazard were the 2 best players of 2016/17. Of course, one big negative for Messi, is that Messi played big games vs. Real Madrid, vs. PSG, vs. Juventus - and Messi disappointed in each one of them.

Was Hazard good against the better EPL teams this season? He was almost invisible vs. Manchester United the other day, but what about the other big games in the league?

 

Surely those throughballs (or lack thereof) are also a function of the team mates. Both when it is going well and when it is going wrong (i.e. too few good passes, waiting too long resulting in turnovers etc.). Many of those team mates are not at a reasonable level.

This was imho also proven - or to an extent to be fair - in the two months Messi was injured and duties got passes over to Iniesta and Neymar.



Simply put: neither Suarez or Iniesta are as good as they were. Suarez his energy and wrestling (on display with the 2nd throughball) has declined a bit.

Although the pass to Iniesta could be seen from miles distance - running past Dani Alves there - this was one that only a handful/dozen at the highest level can do.

Messi himself in his younger years was often at the receiving end.

I'd say this was for a few reasons actually a (significantly) better and more dangerous performance as, say, against Real Madrid or both PSG matches.

Neymar is a hot or cold player. He has had a number of games where he had 10 completed dribbles or more (incl. one game in those two months without Messi). As if his physical and mental state varies a lot. From incredibly sharp to a bit sluggish and slow in his reactions.

 

Hazard played well against Man City. if my memory serves me well, he didn't play well either game against tottenham (he has a chance to redeem himself against tottenham in the FA cup semifinal this staurday). however, he played excellent in the 2 previous games against manchester united. he didn't play well in one of the games against liverpool, i don't remember about the other one. he man handled Arsenal, if they (Arsenal) are still being considered a big team. he also played very well against Everton earlier in the season. leading up to the manchester united game, i believe hazard had 7 goals this season against the top 7 opponents so far.

 

If Neymar, Suarez, Iniesta and co are in form then I think they can turn it around. They're one or two classes better than Juventus if everyone shows up and reaches their own reasonable level.

 

they're one or two classes above juve based on what this season???
if we look at barcelona for what they have been, they are of equal level as juve at best. i don't know if there is one period of time this season where barcelona could say that they were ever a class above juventus. and the fact that they are playing juve in their current form is unsettling. they have lost to malaga and deportivo within about the last month and they just barely beat real sociedad at home, in which they looked extremely poor.
when you say barcelona are one or two classes above, you are really basing it off of what barcelona has done in previous years. even against PSG, they didn't look that great, bar the last 7 mimutes of the game

 

1 or 2 classes above
Just love how underrated Juve is on this forum.

 

Well in their own league they are unbeatable at home, won all games so far, but not so much away (with some of the top ranked opponents still to come). 64 goals scored in 32 games are more terrestrial figures compared to recent history.
Meanwhile in the Champions League they aren't all-conquering at home; vs Sevilla, vs Lyon.

Let's also not forget that FC Barcelona's budget is literally twice as high as the one of Juventus (factor 2.07 to be precise). With that in mind I'm not really disrespectful nor do I underrate them.

 

Barcelona has ZERO chances in my opinion. I agree with Puck on the following: Barcelona is, by whatever the margin, a superior team. I disagree, however, that Barcelona is "one or two classes" above. In any case: Barcelona is terribly inconsistent as of late, it's very unlikely that Barcelona will score 3 goals and that Juventus will score zero goals - it's impossible in my opinion.

Mascherano has been a defensive liability at least for 2 consecutive seasons now, in my opinion. I am convinced that had Barcelona spent some money on a player like Mats Hummels, to then relegate Mascherano to a bench-role; Barcelona would not have had the shocking defensive collapses that have been a problem throughout this season. Mascherano is a likeable personality, but it's time to be realistic about the fact that he is a liability in this moment of his career: too short, too slow, and his concentration switches 'off' far too often.

 

Juventus under Allegri has usually started of seasons poorly while peaking later on. If Juve were to face both Lyon and Sevilla right now we would very likely defeat them (which we have already). Anyways I don't really see how that's relevant as we could also say we beat Porto away who are historically much stronger at and have just rolled over Barca 3-0 on aggregate while rendering the greatest attack in history useless.

 

the greatest attack in history??? i don't know about that, wasn't it mentioned that barcelona lost to both inferior teams like deportivo and malaga in the last month. which they lost to malaga 2-0? again, people need to see where barcelona is now and let go of the perception that we have of them. had juventus kept barcelona to zero goals in 2015, when they won the treble, then maybe we can talk about the greatest attack in history. let's see how well juventus does against a team like real madrid.
by the way, from the looks of it, it does look like juventus is just about asstrong as any other team in the champions league, so far. so i wouldn't be surprised if they won it all

 

you are spot on with mascherano and that's something i noticed very early in the season.
but i wish mascherano was the only problem. their defense in general is not great. whether it's because of playing 3 at the back with no proper wing back, i don't know (at times they played 3-3-1-3, with messi behind the forwards), lack of structure, etc. it needs to be fixed (perhaps you have a better theory)
and just look at their midfield. with an ageing iniesta and xavi long gone, it will be extremely difficult to find players who can match the expectations. although rakitic is a pretty good midfielder overall, he has no where near the attacking capabilities as xavi and iniesta that we have grown accustomed to at barcelona. then you have gomez (ohh brother).the midfield and defense at barcelona has been very weak (by their expected standards), and if neymar or messi is unavailable, who do they have filling those positions.
this is the first time where i am actually worried over the level of players that barcelona have.

 

MSN in the eyes of most football fans is the greatest attack in football history. Regardless of whether or not Barca is doing poorly (by their own standards in the past decade) that comes down to their horrible defense and having an aging midfield. I mean up til now most on this forum have considered Messi the best player of the season while keeping Suarez and especially Neymar close to him.

If were going to bring up Barca losing 2-0 against Malaga that can easily be countered with them beating the likes of Sevilla 3-0 and PSG 6-1 within the last 2 months.

 

Juventus deserves a lot of credit regardless of how inconsistent Barcelona has been this season. Credit where it's due.

 

Obviously to make a top 20 list you're going to list players almost exclusively from Real, Barça, Chelsea, PSG, Juve ... Here's a couple of players who I haven't seen mentioned who deserve a little recognition ... Jan Oblak - ATLETICO MADRID, Bernardo Silva - MONACO, Anthony Modeste - FC KÖLN, Romelu Lukaku - EVERTON