The best players of the season 2020/21.

I finally put together my initial list of the best players of the season. It's not finished yet but is in a roughish order.

GK (16)

Jan Oblak (Atletico Madrid and Slovenia) 38 games, 0 goals

Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid and Belgium) 38 games, 0 goals

Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich and Germany) 33 games, 0 goals

Gianluigi Donnarumma (Milan and Italy) 37 games, 0 goals

Ederson (Manchester City and Brazil) 36 games, 0 goals

Edouard Mendy (Chelsea and Senegal) 31 games, 0 goals

Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa and Argentina) 38 games, 0 goals

Mike Maignan (Lille and France) 38 games, 0 goals

Keylor Navas (PSG and Costa Rica) 29 games, 0 goals

Alessio Cragno (Cagliari and Italy) 34 games, 0 goals

Stefan Ortega (Arminia Bielfeld and Germany) 34 games, 0 goals

Koen Casteels (Wolfsburg and Belgium) 32 games, 0 goals

Peter Gulacsi (RB Leipzig and Hungary) 33 games, 0 goals

Antonio Adan (Sporting Lisbon and Spain) 32 games, 0 goals

Agustin Marchesin (Porto and Uruguay) 33 games, 0 goals

Jose Sa (Olympiacos and Portugal) 29 games, 0 goals




FB (25)


Joao Cancelo (Manchester City and Portugal) 28 games, 2 goals

Kyle Walker (Manchester City and England) 24 games, 1 goal

Luke Shaw (Manchester United and England) 32 games, 1 goal

Achraf Hakimi (Inter and Morocco) 37 games, 7 goals

Theo Hernandez (Milan and France) 33 games, 7 goals

Robin Gosens (Atalanta and Germany) 32 games, 11 goals

Angelino (RB Leipzig and Spain) 26 games, 4 goals

Raphael Guerreiro (Borussia Dortmund and Portugal) 27 games, 5 goals

Vladimir Coufal (West Ham and Czech Republic) 34 games, 0 goals

Ben Chillwell (Chelsea and England) 27 games, 3 goals

Reece James (Chelsea and England) 32 games, 1 goal

Kieran Trippier (Atletico Madrid and England) 28 games, 0 goals

Jesus Navas (Sevilla and Spain) 34 games, 0 goals

Marcos Acuna (Sevilla and Argentina) 30 games, 1 goal

Javi Galan (Huesca and Spain) 37 games, 1 goal

Juan Cuadrado (Juventus and Colombia) 30 games, 2 goals

Ridle Baku (Wolfsburg and Germany) 32 games, 6 goals

Stuart Dallas (Leeds and Scotland) 38 games, 8 goals

Jonathan Clauss (Lens and France) 33 games, 3 goals

James Tavernier (Rangers and England) 33 games, 12 goals

Reinildo Mandava (Lille and Mozambique) 29 games, 0 goals

Owen Wijndal (AZ and Netherlands) 34 games, 1 goal

Nuno Mendes (Sporting Lisbon and Portugal) 29 games, 1 goal

Pedro Porro (Sporting Lisbon and Spain) 30 games, 3 goals

Douglas Santos (Zenit and Brazil) 28 games, 3 goals


CB (26)


Ruben Dias (Manchester City and Portugal) 32 games, 1 goal

Marquinhos (PSG and Brazil) 25 games, 3 goals

John Stones (Manchester City and England) 22 games, 4 goals

Harry Maguire (Manchester United and England) 34 games, 2 goals

Stefan de Vrij (Inter and Netherlands) 30 games, 1 goal

Cristian Romero (Atalanta and Argentina) 31 games, 2 goals

Simon Kjaer (Milan and Denmark) 28 games, 0 goals

Stefan Savic (Atletico Madrid and Montenegro) 33 games, 1 goal

Jules Kounde (Sevilla and France) 33 games, 2 goals

Pau Torres (Villarreal and Spain) 33 games, 2 goals

Mario Hermoso (Atletico Madrid and Spain) 31 games, 1 goal

Wesley Fofana (Leicester City and France) 28 games, 0 goals

Antonio Rudiger (Chelsea and Germany) 19 games, 1 goal

Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund and Germany) 33 games, 5 goals

Cesar Azpilicueta (Chelsea and Spain) 26 games, 1 goal

Thiago Silva (Chelsea and Brazil) 23 games, 2 goals

Willi Orban (RB Leipzig and Hungary) 29 games, 4 goals

Maxence Lacroix (Wolfsburg and France) 30 games, 1 goal

Matthias Ginter (Gladbach and Germany) 34 games, 2 goals

Sven Botman (Lille and Netherlands) 37 games, 0 goals

Jose Fonte (Lille and Portugal) 36 games, 3 goals

Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa and England) 36 games, 2 goals

Riechedly Bazoer (Vitesse and Netherlands) 29 games, 5 goals

Sebastian Coates (Sporting Lisbon and Uruguay) 33 games, 5 goals

Pepe (Porto and Portugal) 27 games, 2 goals

Roman Yevgenyev (Dinamo Moscow and Russia) 27 games, 1 goals


DM (16)


Casemiro (Real Madrid and Belgium) 34 games, 6 goals

Franck Kessie (Milan and Ivory Coast) 37 games, 13 goals

Marten De Roon (Atalanta and Netherlands) 35 games, 1 goal

Declan Rice (West Ham and England) 32 games, 2 goals

Tomas Soucek (West Ham and Czech Republic) 38 games, 10 goals

Pierre Hojbjerg (Tottenham and Denmark) 38 games, 2 goals

Sergio Busquets (Barcelona and Spain) 36 games, 0 goals

Fernando (Sevilla and Brazil) 31 games, 3 goals

Renato Tapia (Celta Vigo and Peru) 32 games, 0 goals

Jorginho (Chelsea and Italy) 28 games, 7 goals

Rodri (Manchester City and Spain) 34 games, 2 goals

Teun Koopmeiners (AZ and Netherlands) 31 games, 15 goals

Aurelien Tchouaméni (Monaco and France) 36 games, 2 goals

Youssouf Fofana (Monaco and France) 35 games, 0 goals

Joao Palhinha (Sporting Lisbon and Portugal) 32 games, 1 goal

Oliver Abildgaard (Rubin Kazan and Denmark) 28 games, 0 goals


CM (26)


Ilkay Gundogan (Manchester City and Germany) 28 games, 13 goals

N’Golo Kante (Chelsea and France) 30 games, 0 goals

Marcos Llorente (Atletico Madrid and Spain) 37 games, 12 goals

Luka Modric (Real Madrid and Croatia) 35 games, 5 goals

Toni Kroos (Real Madrid and Germany) 28 games, 3 goals

Koke (Atletico Madrid and Spain) 37 games, 1 goal

Nicolo Barella (Inter and Italy) 36 games, 3 goals

Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich and Germany) 27 games, 4 goals

Leon Goretzka (Bayern Munich and Germany) 24 games, 5 goals

Frenkie De Jong (Barcelona and Netherlands) 37 games, 3 goals

Youri Tielemans (Leicester City and Belgium) 38 games, 6 goals

Remo Freuler (Atalanta and Switzerland) 34 games, 2 goals

Ruslan Malinovskiy (Atalanta and Ukraine) 36 games, 8 goals

Manuel Locatelli (Sassuolo and Italy) 34 games, 4 goals

Yves Bissouma (Brighton and Mali) 36 games, 1 goal

Sergio Canales (Real Betis and Spain) 31 games, 3 goals

Dani Parejo (Villarreal and Spain) 36 games, 3 goals

Marcel Sabitzer (RB Leipzig and Austria) 27 games, 8 goals

Christian Noboa (Sochi and Ecuador) 25 games, 12 goals

Benjamin Andre (Lille and France) 35 games, 0 goals

Teji Savanier (Montpellier and France) 27 games, 5 goals

Davy Klaassen (Ajax and Netherlands) 29 games, 12 goals

Ryan Gravenberch (Ajax and Netherlands) 32 games, 3 goals

Sergio Oliveira (Porto and Portugal) 32 games, 13 goals

Max Arnold (Wolfsburg and Germany) 30 games, 3 goals

Jude Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund and England) 29 games, 1 goal



AM (16)


Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United and Portugal) 37 games, 18 goals

Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City and Belgium) 25 games, 6 goals

Mason Mount (Chelsea and England) 36 games, 6 goals

Jack Grealish (Aston Villa and England) 26 games, 6 goals

Thomas Muller (Bayern Munich and Germany) 32 games, 11 goals

Pedro Goncalves ‘Pote’ (Sporting Lisbon and Portugal) 32 games, 23 goals

Rodrigo De Paul (Udinese and Argentina) 36 games,9 goals

Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Roma and Armenia) 30 games, 13 goals

Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (Lazio and Serbia) 32 games, 8 goals

Pedri (Barcelona and Spain) 37 games, 3 goals

Nikola Vlasic (CSKA Moscow and Croatia) 26 games, 11 goals

Lucas Paqueta (Lyon and Brazil) 30 games, 9 goals

Rai Vloet (Heracles and Netherlands) 33 games, 16 goals

Marco Reus (Borussia Dortmund and Germany) 32 games, 8 goals

Christopher Nkunku (RB Leipzig and France) 28 games, 6 goals

Lars Stindl (Gladbach and Germany) 30 games, 14 goals


WG (13)


Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City and Algeria) 27 games, 9 goals

Phil Foden (Manchester City and England) 28 games, 9 goals

Yannick Carrasco (Atletico Madrid and Belgium) 30 games, 6 goals

Federico Chiesa (Juventus and Italy) 30 games, 8 goals

Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund and England) 26 games, 8 goals

Filip Kostic (Eintracht Frankfurt and Serbia) 30 games, 4 goals

Angel Di Maria (PSG and Argentina) 27 games, 4 goals

Raphinha (Leeds and Brazil) 30 games, 6 goals

Karl Toko Ekambi (Lyon and Cameroon) 35 games, 14 goals

Steven Berghuis (Feyenoord and Netherlands) 33 games, 19 goals

Ryan Gauld (Farense and Scotland) 33 games, 9 goals

Kvicha Kvatatskhelia (Rubin Kazan and Georgia) 23 games, 4 goals

Rachid Ghezzal (Beskitas and Algeria) 31 games, 8 goals


FW (18)


Lionel Messi (Barcelona and Argentina) 35 games, 30 goals

Mo Salah (Liverpool and Egypt) 37 games, 22 goals

Son Heung-Min (Tottenham and South Korea) 37 games, 17 goals

Iago Aspas (Celta Vigo and Spain) 33 games, 14 goals

Memphis Depay (Lyon and Netherlands) 37 games, 20 goals

Neymar (PSG and Brazil) 18 games, 9 goals

Angel Correa (Atletico Madrid and Argentina) 38 games, 9 goals

Lautaro Martinez (Inter and Argentina) 38 games, 17 goals

Lorenzo Insigne (Napoli and Italy) 35 games, 19 goals

Domenico Berardi (Sassuolo and Italy) 30 games, 17 goals

Raheem Sterling (Manchester City and England) 31 games, 10 goals

Sadio Mane (Liverpool and Senegal) 35 games, 11 goals

Dusan Tadic (Ajax and Serbia) 34 games, 14 goals

Andrej Kramaric (Hoffenheim and Croatia) 28 games, 20 goals

Silas (Stuttgart and DR Congo) 25 games, 11 goals

Donyell Malen (PSV and Netherlands) 32 games, 19 goals

Jordan Larsson (Spartak Moscow and Sweden) 29 games, 15 goals

Kevin Volland (Monaco and Germany) 35 games, 16 goals


ST (27)


Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich and Poland) 29 games, 41 goals

Harry Kane (Tottenham and England) 35 games, 23 goals

Erling Haaland (Borussia Dortmund and Norway) 28 games, 27 goals

Romelu Lukaku (Inter and Belgium) 36 games, 24 goals

Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus and Portugal) 33 games, 29 goals

Kylian Mbappe (PSG and France) 31 games, 27 goals

Karim Benzema (Real Madrid and France) 34 games, 23 goals

Gerard Moreno (Villarreal and Spain) 33 games, 23 goals

Luis Suarez (Atletico Madrid and Uruguay) 32 games, 21 goals

Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Milan and Sweden) 19 games, 15 goals

Burak Yilmaz (Lille and Turkey) 28 games, 16 goals

Luis Muriel (Atalanta and Colombia) 36 games, 22 goals

Dusan Vlahovic (Fiorentina and Serbia) 37 games, 21 goals

Andre Silva (Eintracht Frankfurt and Portugal) 32 games, 28 goals

Wout Weghorst (Wolfsburg and Netherlands) 34 games, 20 goals

Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton and England) 33 games, 16 goals

Patrick Bamford (Leeds and England) 38 games, 17 goals

Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa and England) 37 games, 14 goals

Youssef En-Nesyri (Sevilla and Morocco) 37 games, 18 goals

Alexander Isak (Real Sociedad and Sweden) 34 games, 17 goals

Wissam Ben Yedder (Monaco and France) 37 games, 20 goals

Giorgos Giakoumakis (VVV Venlo and Greece) 30 games, 26 goals

Mehdi Taremi (Porto and Iran) 34 games, 16 goals

Haris Seferovic (Benfica and Switzerland) 31 games, 22 goals

Artem Dzyuba (Zenit and Russia) 27 games, 20 goals

Sardar Azmoun (Zenit and Iran) 24 games, 19 goals

Paul Onuachu (Genk and Nigeria) 38 games, 33 goals

Patson Daka (Red Bull Salzburg and Zambia) 28 games, 27 goals

Youssef El-Arabi (Olympiacos and Morocco) 33 games, 22 goals

 

Ultimately I think it's quite an odd season in a number of respects. We saw surprise winners in Spain, France and Italy, as well as Portugal.

It felt like a year in which the Premier League was well out in front of rivals.

Chelsea won the Champions League in a season where their leading league scorer was a defensive midfielder with 7 penalties. A number of their players (Chilwell, James, Thiago Silva, Azpilicueta) weren't the very best in the PL but combined with their CL achievements they get in.

PSG didn't excel domestically despite doing well in the CL.

Bayern won the Bundesliga comfortably but leaked a huge number of goals.

My selection is currently light on players from outside the big 7 leagues and I have probably included too many from Russia given their European struggles. Turkey seems to continue it's decline.

I normally have a few from Ukraine but haven't yet. I feel Slavia Prague potentially merit someone but unclear who.

Very few sides from outside the major leagues cut through and it feels like the shift of power is just going on and on.

 

I don't know if this was particularly unusual but it felt like a high level of churn of top players this year. Below were the top players picked by ESPN at the end of last year. A lot can be explained by the sub-par seasons of Liverpool in particular and also Bayern, Juventus and Barcelona.

Goalkeepers

10. De Gea
9. Handanovic
8. Donnarumma
7. Keylor Navas
6. Ederson
5. Courtois
4. Ter Stegen
3. Oblak
2. Alisson
1. Neuer

Right-back

10. Dest
9. Trippier
8. Ricardo Pereira
7. Hateboer
6. Jesus Navas
5. Walker
4. Carvajal
3. Pavard
2. Hakimi
1. Trent AA

Centre-backs
10. Marquinhos
9. Kounde
8. De Ligt
7. Laporte
6. Varane
5. Upamecano
4. Koulibaly
3. Alaba
2. Ramos
1. Van Dijk

Left-back

10. Ferland Mendy
9. Marcelo
8. Chilwell
7. Theo Hernandez
6. Reguilon
5. Raphael Guerreiro
4. Alex Sandro
3. Alba
2. Alphonso Davies
1. Robertson


Central Midfield

10. Verratti
9. Modric
8. De Jong
7. Fabinho
6. Henderson
5. Kante
4. Casemiro
3. Kroos
2. Thiago
1. Kimmich

Attacking Midfield

10. Grealish
9. Aouar
8. Pogba
7. Bernardo Silva
6. Havertz
5. Goretzka
4. Papu Gomez
3. Bruno Fernandes
2. Muller
1. De Bruyne

Wing

10. Vinicius
9. Hazard
8. Ocampos
7. Coman
6. Pulisic
5. Di Maria
4. Sancho
3. Gnabry
2. Sterling
1. Mane

Forwards

10. Ilicic
9. Rashford
8. Dybala
7. Son
6. Aubameyang
5. Salah
4. Neymar
3. Ronaldo
2. Mbappe
1. Messi

Striker

10. Raul Jimenez
9. Firmino
8. Werner
7. Immobile
6. Aguero
5. Lukaku
4. Kane
3. Benzema
2. Haaland
1. Lewandowski

 

I appreciate this might not be of interest to anyone and I'm probably having a conversation with myself here but this was a bit of a braindump on the lists that I produce and which leagues get the most inclusions.

One of the things I always struggle with in compiling the lists of the best players in the season is how to weigh performances and recognise players from different leagues and competitions. On the one hand there is a desire to recognise those who are truly the best and to focus on the biggest teams and players, on the other a desire to be broadminded and avoid insularity, giving due credit to those across the Continent, even if they play in a less heralded league.


So how do we accomplish both of those goals? The first obvious thing to recognise is that it is inherently a difficult and complex task with multiple factors at play so there isn’t an easy formula that we can use. Moreover the domestic competitions (including leagues and multiple cups) work in parallel to their Continental counterparts which adds greater challenges. Any conclusion we come to is likely to have gaps and inconsistencies in it.


To start with the most obvious and factual basis we can look to UEFA’s coefficient system. This recognises leagues based on the performances of their teams in UEFA competitions and is used to determine the number of spots each league will receive in future seasons. Undoubtedly, it’s an excellent start in assessing the relative strength of different leagues but it isn’t without challenges.


First among them is the fact that is can only assess teams who are playing in UEFA competitions and so only factors in the performances of the top sides in any league. Can we determine from the performance of the top sides, how strong a league is overall? Does the success of Barcelona and Real Madrid mean that sides at the bottom of La Liga are stronger than their counterparts around Europe?


Secondly, the system uses an average based on the performances of those sides in UEFA tournaments. In 2008-9 the league with the highest average was Ukraine after Shakhtar won the UEFA Cup and Dynamo Kiev reached the semi-finals. Nobody would pretend that the Ukrainian league was the strongest in Europe, even if the numbers might suggest that.


Furthermore there are discrepancies in how each team and league approach different competitions. Part of Sevilla’s incredible success in recent years (six wins in the UEFA Cup/Europa League in 15 seasons) has been the seriousness they assign to the trophy. In contrast there are certain teams, particularly in the Premier League, who have seen competing on an extra front a serious hindrance to their main priority of avoiding relegation.


Alongside the official coefficients we can use various systems that rate teams based on performance. Club ELO, the 538 Global Soccer ratings, Euro Club Index are examples of systems which use performance and competition between the sides to rank them across Europe (and sometimes beyond).


While these systems vary in the precise way that their calculations work (and I won’t pretend to have fully evaluated them individually), there is a level of consistency to them which gives good weight to their findings and they generally tally closely with the UEFA coefficients but provide much greater depth as they rate teams lower down the leagues as well.


In addition we can look to other, less direct factors like the number of players drawn from the league competing at major tournaments. It’s not perfect by any means and can certainly be heavily influenced by factors such as the willingness of players to go abroad, which nations have qualified and the propensity of sides to buy in talent, but it gives an indication. At Euro 2020 England had 147 players represented among the squads, followed by Germany (92), Italy (75), Spain (42), Russia (32) and France (30). At the 2018 World Cup it was a roughly similar situation with the Premier League leading the way with 129 players, followed by Spain (81), Germany (67), Italy (58), France (49) and Russia (36).



Another steer we can use is the relative wealth of sides. They may not use their extra resources wisely but the Premier League can boast 12 sides among the 30 clubs at the top of the Deloitte Money League, compared with 5 for Germany, 4 for Spain and Italy, 2 for France and 1 for Netherlands, Portugal and Russia. That in turn should allow them to buy more of the best players and certainly the way a newly monied side like Wolves were able to sign a cohort of top players from Portugal underlined the financial disparity which exists. For many clubs the Premier League is a cash cow that enables them to survive in the longer term.


So what does all this mean in terms of distribution of places? In the past I’ve typically allocated the lion’s share of places to teams from the ‘big 5’ leagues reflecting the prevailing balance of the time but with a desire to be inclusive and reward smaller leagues as well. Increasingly though some of this can look out of kilter.


My first cut off the list reflected the Premier League’s dominance by awarding more spots to English sides (41), than any other nation (Spain 31, Germany 28, Italy 27, France 20, Portugal 12, Netherlands 10, Russia 9) but does that go far enough and are the right players being rewarded?


Looking by club Manchester City (surely the best side in Europe in 2020-1) lead the way with 11 inclusions followed by Champions League winners Chelsea (9) and Atletico Madrid (9). But other big Premier League teams seem relatively underweight. Manchester United finished second in the league and were runners up in the Europa League but were only given three inclusions while Liverpool, who were well off their usual high standards but ultimately finished third and reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League, got two inclusions. Even one of them, Sadio Mane, was close to being omitted.


For context I also gave the Greek champions Olympiacos two spots but they were eliminated in the Champions League group stage, having lost five of their six matches. According to Club ELO Olympiacos are currently rated as the 48th best side in Europe, behind 15 Premier League sides. When Rui Patricio left Wolves in the summer to join Roma, his replacement was compatriot Jose Sa, signed from Olympiacos and a player I have included in the last two seasons thanks to his miserly record in goal for the Piraeus club. Patricio himself was a mainstay of these lists as probably the best keeper in Portugal but once he joined Wolves he became, for my purposes, just one of many good goalkeepers in the Premier League.


That reflects the challenge in compiling such an arbitrary list, particularly as I aim to avoid ‘homerism’ by just picking the best players in the Premier League. Yet as some have suggested, in some ways the Premier League is increasingly becoming akin to a European Superleague as the disparity in resources grows.


To a degree picking a far greater number of Premier League players looks myopic and jingoistic. The PL teams are not invincible. Spurs lost to Dynamo Zagreb, Leicester were knocked out of Europe by Slavia Prague, Arsenal were dumped out by Roma and Manchester United only made the Europa League final after finishing third in the Champions League group. This season United have already lost to Young Boys despite the acquisition of Ronaldo, Sancho and Varane.


Yet that reflects, as much as anything, the inherent unpredictability of football. Big teams can lose against smaller ones, players can outperform their normal level and top stars can have off nights. Smaller leagues can still produce top players and have their day in the sun but, as a general rule of thumb, the big leagues should boast much of the best talent. For that reason my lists should probably in the future slant to recognise the reality of modern football a bit more.

 

Now I'm definitely having a conversation with myself but I have been batting around some thoughts on whether my above suggestion was fair and why.

Counterpoint - If the Premier League is so strong, how can players come and step up seamlessly to that level?


The above argument can make it seem that I’m putting the Premier League (and other major leagues) on a pedestal and the rest of Europe as an inferior product. A reasonable counterpoint to that can be to look at some of the Premier League’s outstanding figures and see the way in which they have risen rapidly to be viewed in such a light.


We can start with Ruben Dias. In a single year he could go from the Portuguese Superliga and end up being seen as the best performing centre-back in the whole of Europe over the course of last season. In taking on that mantle he succeeded the injured Virgil van Dijk who had himself made a similarly meteoric rise. After a career that had moved from Groningen to Celtic and then Southampton, his arrival at Liverpool, for a world record fee, saw him almost overnight become the best defender in the world. By the end of his first full year at Anfield he had provided arguably the best season by any centre-back in the modern era.


Sticking with Liverpool players, Sadio Mane was playing in Austria prior to his move to England and, again via Southampton, a position among the best in the world in his position. Luis Suarez is another who, having shone in the Netherlands, was able to transition into the best player in the division and among the very best in the world.


Given the way that these players have adapted to life in the big time, is it fair to suggest that the big leagues have a near monopoly on the best players?


The first thing to point out is that I’m not suggesting that other leagues don’t have players who could make the step up. Undoubtedly, there is an enormous amount of talent beyond the five big leagues, much of which can and will prove itself in the future. The difficulty we have is in determining which of those players will truly excel and quite how good they are.


Ruben Dias is again a good case study. When he joined Manchester City he was already highly regarded and only Harry Maguire, Virgil van Dijk and Matthijs de Ligt had cost more money among centre-backs. But equally, there were doubts over whether he would excel. After all, City had previously paid huge sums for Eliaquim Mangala, Nicolas Otamendi, John Stones and Aymeric Laporte with varying levels of success.


Equally Virgil van Dijk was impressive enough at Southampton to merit a world record fee for a defender and had been their player of the season as well as Celtic’s prior to making the move. Indeed looking at some of Van Dijk’s statistics at Southampton and some of his displays against top quality opposition (for both Southampton and Celtic) suggested that he might already be one of the best in the world.


However, in judging players it’s really important to take into consideration their role in the team and the their overall fit. A very interesting piece was posted some time ago by Thiago Estevao who had previously doubted Dias’s ability to make such a leap: https://tiagoestv.medium.com/intangibles-scouting-ruben-dias-8d70dbec4107 It reflected some of the difficulty in judging how a player like Dias might get on in another setting while also talking about the situation he found himself in at City where the whole team were significantly better than the prior season, while rivals were worse. Not only did Dias excel but probably the second best centre-back in the league and Europe in general was his partner John Stones, another hugely talented individual who had previously been doubted but prospered in City’s new-look team.


There’s probably no position harder to assess in isolation than centre-back as a huge amount of it is dependent on role, style of play and the qualities of those around you. Dias’s reputation was hugely boosted over the course of a spell in late autumn and the New Year when City won 17 from 19 games and conceded just six times. The defensive solidity of City was the cornerstone of their title challenge and the arrival of Dias was seen as making a marked difference. Yet he joined a team who had conceded just 35 goals the previous year, having let in 27 and 23 in the previous two campaigns, and ended up letting in 32 goals (admittedly boosted by two late season matches as they prepared for the Champions League final). Did Dias have as profound an impact as was sometimes suggested?


Part of our difficulty in making the judgement is in working out what made Dias especially good. The lack of compelling defensive metrics means it is a judgement in which a lot of subjectivity and opinion has to be involved.


However, could we realistically have anticipated quite how good Dias would be or had the potential to be? Certainly there were some reservations about him despite the high fee and whether Portugal was an adequate proving ground. We can also look at players moving in the opposite direction. Last season a former Liverpool defender Sebastian Coates captained Sporting Lisbon to domestic glory and was named as player of the year for his exploits, a prize that Dias never won. Aged 20 Coates had arrived at Anfield as a player of huge promise but never really fulfilled that and after a spell with Sunderland ended up in the Portuguese capital. If the Superliga really was so competitive, how can a player like Coates suddenly prosper after not succeeding in England? Does performance in Portugal give us much guide to how a player will perform in another arena? Would Coates now command a similar fee after last season’s excellence?


Looking at attacking players like Mane and Suarez we can find a similar problem. Mane excelled in Austria with Red Bull Salzburg while Suarez starred in the Netherlands before making a move across. But in both leagues we can find examples of hits and misses. While Mane and Erling Haaland, who scored 17 goals in 16 league games in Salzburg, successfully made the leap, the likes of Jonathan Soriano, Munas Dabbur and Shon Weissman have all struggled in tougher environments. Leicester City will hope Patson Daka proves a success story.


The Netherlands is clearly a considerable step up from Austria but is not all that much easier to evaluate. For every Suarez or Van Nistelrooy, there is an Afonso Alves or Vincent Janssen, who have excelled in the Eredivisie but cannot make the transition. It’s somewhat telling that last season’s top scorer Giorgos Giakoumakis cost Celtic just £2.5m as potential suitors doubt the ability to transition.


Now for the Dutch we are able to make more use of performances in Europe and against the highest calibre of opposition, as well as international performances. When Matthijs de Ligt and Frenkie de Jong made big money moves, we had a good feel for their quality based on their exploits in the Champions League and both have excelled since transfers to Italy and Spain respectively. It is naturally harder with players who have not proven themselves elsewhere or, in the case of Dusan Tadic or Daley Blind, played abroad without unqualified success.


Really then what this all says is that it’s hard to judge the performances or quality of players outside the biggest of leagues. That’s not to say there aren’t excellent players there but the test is not sufficiently challenging for them to prove themselves. We might well think retrospectively that a player like Van Dijk or Suarez was in fact world class all along, and they might well have been, but without the chance to prove it at the top level, in teams competing for the biggest trophies, it’s incredibly tough to know at the time.


In that regard we can see football a little like diving or gymnastics, disciplines in which technical proficiency is measured against the degree of difficulty. A player may pass all his tests with flying colours, but until challenged with a sufficiently difficult obstacle, we can’t ever conclude that they are truly ‘world class’.

 

I really don't know what the award is trying to recognise. It's all just a big jumble really.

I think it's very hard to make the case for Jorginho beyond trophies. I think he was arguably the best player at the Euros but nobody was that out of this world and he wasn't in the top 20 Premier League players.

The rest of the top 10 is really just a load of names thrown together. Having said that, I do think it's an extremely difficult season to measure because nobody did that well across the board.

Jorginho was excellent at the Euros, not domestically. Kante was excellent in the Champions League, not in league or Euros. De Bruyne was good (but not at his best) across all three. Messi won the CA but wasn't at his own personal best at club level; Lewandowski great at domestic level but eliminated early in CL and Euros.

 

It covers the general season (so domestic leagues, domestic cups, Champions League etc) but not the major international tournaments. The stats are just for domestic leagues.