The best players in the world 2018

Other one, David Silva:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/02/sports/manchester-city-liverpool-david-silva.html

Is there actually something to back up his supposed importance?

Or is it, as the article hints it, that Iniesta is now semi-retired?

That KDB is missed is now obvious, esp. in the CL and the bigger domestic games.

As I said before I'm sure this is an important aspect of the entertainment industry as a whole, at many levels and dimensions. From the 80 million Koreans to the Francophonie. It influences transfer fees and wages as well.

Meanwhile, you rate Belgian and Dutch players lower than where they generally are on those very same 'mainstream' lists (I'll not rant again about your general historiography). Your own created overview proves so, pretty much all of these players. This is a market of only 20-25 million.

So is Marca's list worse? I don't know. PDG also showed me some of his ideas (he asked for mine) and with him the pendulum swung to the other end.

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One specific example of an agenda driven media narrative is the nonsense that the Brazilian (!!) Allison Becker changed Liverpool's defense. Not true, this almost immediately happened halfway past season (0.63 goals per match against in the league after 4 February). That then a top class goalkeeper adds a few more goals improvement above a below-par goalkeeper is unsurprising.

This reminds me of how VdS perennially got the short end of the stick because there was Ferdinand (and Vidic) playing ahead of him, but another part of that truth is he was nevertheless way more frequently tested as Buffon during his undefeated runs.

Luckily, there are also corners of the 'serious' media now recognizing/storying NED has a tradition of players/figures helping to kickstart eras and 'dynasties'. I can see there is some minor truth in the theory that a 'neutral', half-decent, opinionated and slight anti-authoritarian image can strike the right chord among journalists, in particular if they are 'journalists' and not reporters.

 

The L'Equipe teams of 2018 (3 January 2019).



For those who do not have the paid version, TYPE TEAM: Oblak - arnold vdjik varane Marcelo - modric kante - mbappe messi hazard cristiano ... TEAM B (according to the votes): lloris - kimmich ramos silva lucas - pogba debruyne - salah neymar griezmann kane .... TEAM C: courtois - carvajal godin koulibaly (umtiti) sandro - rakitic matuidi coutinho - mane cavani firmino

https://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Article/L-equipe-type-monde-2018-de-l-equipe/973562


They have muted down the number of French players (the world champion) in the team... (also only one German in all the teams)



This from the readers of 'Algemeen Dagblad' in Netherlands (41000 votes)

 

Interestingly from a statistical perspective the top ten across four of the bigger name awards had almost identical top ten's which is pretty unusual, ignoring the places which is very subjective and just looking at names (equally subjective I know).

FIFA award was by season and the earliest and had the following:

Modric, Ronaldo, Salah, Mbappe, Messi, Griezmann, Hazard, De Bruyne, Varane, Kane

UEFA Award again by season had same list with the exception of Ramos in for Kane.

The last two awards that were by calendar year, namely the Ballon d'or and World Soccer award and had the same top ten as the FIFA, basically meaning that bar Ramos / Kane swap in the UEFA award the top tens were identical, that is the closest I have seen the lists ever. I did my top ten a week before FIFA annoucned thier list and had the same as the FIFA list so maybe this year a top ten was the clearest its been?

Also the fact the Ballon d'or and World Soccer award by calendar had same top ten as UEFA award was indication that no one had an electric start to 2018-19 season and entered the top for WS/B D'or.

 

Maybe, but that hasn't happened pretty much every other year where there has been a fair few differences...as I said, I did my list, which is always pretty different but this time was exactly the same....I can see your point though.

 

I have made a particular ranking based on:
• Ballon d'Or.
• The Best.
• FIFPro.
• UEFA Awards.
• World Soccer best player of the year.
• Top 100 FourFourTwo.
• Top 100 The Guardian.
• ESM 2017-18 Season (team of the year, teams of the month, total votes).
• Whoscored and Sofascore ratings (national leagues 2017-18, Champions League 2017-18, Europa League 2017-18 and World Cup 2018) with corrections for collective classifications, matches and minutes played.

The top 100 that results from the combination of these data is the following:

1.- Modric.
2.- Cristiano Ronaldo.
3.- Messi.
4.- Salah.
5.- Griezmann.
6.- Mbappé.
7.- De Bruyne.
8.- Hazard.
9.- Varane.
10.- Neymar.
11.- Kane.
12.- Marcelo.
13.- Ramos.
14.- Kanté.
15.- Cavani.
16.- De Gea.
17.- Luis Suárez.
18.- Rakitic.
19.- Umtiti.
20. David Silva.
21.- Coutinho.
22.- Agüero.
23.- Kroos.
24.- Mané.
25.- Pogba.
26.- Dybala.
27.- Godín.
28.- Casemiro.
29.- Jordi Alba.
30.- Kimmich.
31.- Ter Stegen.
32.- Firmino.
33.- Lewandowski.
34.- Oblak.
35.- Walker.
36.- Isco.
37.- Carvajal.
38.- Dani Alves.
39.- Van Dijk.
40.- Lukaku.
41.- Mandzukic.
42.- Piqué.
43.- Sterling.
44.- Keylor Navas.
45.- Courtois.
46.- Busquets.
47.- Eriksen.
48.- Chiellini.
49.- Icardi.
50.- Allison.
51.- Iniesta.
52.- Otamendi.
53.- Hummels.
54.- Thiago Silva.
55.- James Rodríguez.
56.- Tripper.
57.- Mertens.
58.- Koulibaly.
59.- Pjanic.
60.- Ederson.
61.- Bale.
62.- Persisic.
63.- Fekir.
64.- Reus.
65.- Lovren.
66.- Thauvin.
67.- Giménez.
68.- Stones.
69.- Buffon.
70.- Lloris.
71.- Benzema.
72.- Tadic.
73.- Insigne.
74.- Lucas Hernández.
75.- Fernandinho.
76.- Pavard.
77.- Leroy Sané.
78.- Higuaín.
79.- Immobile.
80.- Aubameyang.
81.- Meunier.
82.- Saúl.
83.- Kolarov.
84.- Payet.
85.- Dele Alli.
86.- Ozil.
87.- Jorginho.
88.- Banega.
89.- Azpilicueta.
90.- Filipe Luis.
91.- Bernardo Silva.
92.- Verthongen.
93.- Skriniar.
94.- Arturo Vidal.
95.- Di María.
96.- Koke.
97.- Vrsaljko
98.- Mina.
99.- Dzeko.
100.- Depay.

 

#RealMadrid's loss vs #RealSociedad reflects a decline in their league underlying xG numbers.

Avg xG difference (xGD) w/Zidane in 2018: 1.01
Avg xGD w/Lopetegui: 0.78
Avg xGD w/Solari, until Villarreal game: 0.18

Data from @BetweenThePosts and @11tegen11 tweets & articles. pic.twitter.com/LW2bs4Ax3p

— José C. Pérez (@jcperez_) January 6, 2019

Zidane and Ronaldo were smart enough to abondon the ship

 

This might be interesting from that respect (obviously still with a few caveats and heavily dependent on the model used - problem remains that individualized 'bottom-up' stats in football remain heavily interdependent, unlike baseball)

Here's something I've always observed from watching Fabregas over the years: he's very good at completing difficult passes. Cesc outperforms @WillTGM's passing model the most, and attempts difficult passes for someone who isn't cross-dependent. This was his forte at Chelsea. pic.twitter.com/VhgKvwg8zp

— Ashwin Raman (@AshwinRaman_) January 9, 2019

David Silva is at 1.04 (estimated) overperformance. He isn't marked in the graph but the creator has published the underlying data and numbers (click tweet).

 

This is also good stuff and done by someone who clearly had a really good thought about this and feel for what the visuals and data signifies.

1082906896355463169 is not a valid tweet id

 

Interestingly Real Madrid had the most expected point last year in La Liga and Barcelona overachieved heavily. You might remember some last second flukey wins early in the season.

https://understat.com/league/La_liga/2017

 

OFFICIAL: The 2018 UEFA Team of the Year. pic.twitter.com/gRjF9JWOW5

— Squawka Live (@Squawka_Live) January 11, 2019

Before confusion arises: this is a public poll, not made by 'experts', UEFA or managers as is sometimes thought (maybe a mix-up with the 'squad of the season', which is made by a technical panel).

Percentages here:
https://toty.uefa.com/

Not surprised by Neymar not making it and splitting votes (has made it only once in his career despite a few factors going for him), but maybe more surprising Sergio Ramos is so damn popular?

On the other hand, Real Madrid has now almost as many inclusions as Bayern, Juventus and Milan combined since 2001.

Spaniards in general very popular with more inclusions as Germany and France combined (and at just a half dozen distance when Italy is added to those two).

Chelsea overtakes Arsenal as the English club with the most inclusions.

 

Real also more CLs than all of them combined since 2001.

 

Yes true and that part is not surprising. It is also known they have many fans worldwide (per research), and just looking at social media followers then they have also many more as those three clubs put together (~20% more in 2014 and 2015). That's a rough indication.

Looking at the number of finals played then the difference becomes 10 vs 5 in favor of 'the three'. There are years where the losing finalist has the same or more inclusions as the winner. 2001, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2012.

 

The team looks reasonable except for two RM players imo. Marcelo and Sergio Ramos likely didn't deserve to make it this year based on their performances.

 

Marcelo is arguably a deserved inclusion for what he did in the first half of the calendar year (was the standout player in his position)

Ramos however has looked like one of real Madrid’s worse players since the beginning of this season (even worse than Luca modric)
It’s time i think he called it a day or else he is in danger of tarnishing his legacy