Premier League's top 50 players: the most notable absentees

BeSoccer 4 years ago 4k
Some big names were nowhere to be seen on FouFourTwo's list. AFP

FourFourTwo has published their ranking of the best players from the Premier League, and there are some notable absentees. Players such as Vardy, Firmino, Ederon, N'Golo Kante, Alexis Sanchez and even Ozil have been all been snubbed in this year's list.

FourFourTwo published their list of the 50 best players in the Premier League, and names like Van Dijk, Bernardo Silva and Sterling find themselves at the top, but some names seem to be missing. The football magazine has published the list and although there are some notable absentees, there are also quite a few players that have been given some newfound success in the Premier League, after disappoiting performances in Spain.

Alexis Sanchez

The Chilean international is still the Premier League's best payed player, but his status and star power have dropped. His poor perfomances since joining Manchester United, along with several injuries, have made him drop out of the ranking for England's top 50 players. Indeed, the player has not scored a single goal since Solskjaer became manager, and the player has lost his place as the team's driving force. Aditionally, it has been reported that the player is sick of of the club's modus operandi, and his relationship with the club has considerably worsened. 

Özil

 Mesut Özil's case is very similar. The German player is not performing as expected; his season has been average and plagued with injuries.

The midfielder has played 30 games this year, with only three goals and two assists. Far from his career's best statistics. 

Mahrez Riyad Mahrez's absence is also noteworthy, as he was one of the stars of Leicester's best year. However, after signing for City, he has not been able to show what he's capable of.

Guardiola has preferred to reserve the Algerian international for other competitions, so he has only played 26 Premier League matches in which he has scored six goals.

Only half the number he scored for Leicester last season. When he was champion of the Premier League, he scored 17.

Manchester City's De Bruyne, Leroy Sané or David Silva are not on the ranking either. 

N'Golo Kante 

Chelsea's star midfielder, who was named the best player from the Premier League by the PFA as little as two years ago in 2017, is also absent from the list. 

That year, the Frenchman was a key player for the team's Premier League title win, but since, he has not been in his best shape, much like the rest of his team. 

No Vardy, Richarlison or Firmino Also notable is the absence of three of the Premier League's top scorers: Jamie Vardy (Leicester), Richarlison (Everton) or Roberto Firmino (Liverpool).

The Leicester striker is in the top 10 goalscorers of the Premier League and has the same number of goals as Hazard, but his team is only in the middle of the table. 

The fact that his team is not amongst the top ones hasn't helped him, just as it hasn't helped Richarlison, who's had a brilliant season for Everton in his first year as a Toffee.

Sidgursson, also of Everton, remains out of the ranking despite scoring the same goals as his team-mate.

And Firmino, who is part of Klopp's powerful trident, is also out. He has scored 12 goals in the Premier League, a good number. However, he is far from his teamates Mané (18) and Salah (19).

 Ederson, Lloris, Kepa, Leno and Pickford also out   Several of the Premier League's top goalkeepers such as Ederson (City), Lloris (Tottenham), Kepa (Chelsea), Leno (Arsenal) and Pickford (Everton) are also out of the ranking.

They are, in that order, the goalkeepers with the highest amount of saves, but still did not make the ranking. Liverpool's Alisson however, also a goalkeeper, did make it in. 

 

Mentioned in the news story

Premier League
Mesut Özil
Hugo Lloris
Alexis Sánchez
Roberto Firmino
Jamie Vardy
N. Kanté
R. Mahrez
Jordan Pickford
Richarlison