Time for another update that despite being 151 to 148 still include 7 players. Some of them could be argued are reaches.
And in light of that there is also some musing on the inevitable clear mistakes so far. I might as well post that here as well:
The 200-150 rankings saw so many changes and running adjustment that looking at it now some of the order almost hurts my eyes...
To take it from the start, Sergio Ramos and Sergio Busquets are the first couple of players I did injustice.
Ramos and the various reasons for and against I already discussed at length in his write up but the combination of perhaps exaggerating
against a little bit too much and simply comparing him to later entries, means I think, that he absolutely should be higher. Maybe even somewhere in this entry ranked say 148.
Busquets despite the occasional flashback to still not belonging at Barca level this season has such a good passing game and is decent enough defensively that he should also be higher. I would say around the 140 mark where we will see some players that he is comparable with.
Some of the central defenders also seem a little low but at least when it comes to those I don't really mind their internal order.
The most noteworthy jump any player would make though would be Marouane Fellaini.
Unfortunately right now he is injured which could hurt his ranking a little bit but before that he was so excellent that I would have him probably flirting with top 50 or 40.
Thankfully I don't see anyone else where I feel like I've made that big of a mistake but there are of course other players that I would like to move down some or up some.
Walcott, Wright Phillips, Lavezzi and Barnetta are too high. In Walcott's case I regret him making the list, even if my write up at least is pretty precise and to the point.
There are just too many flaws. In some ways he only ended up ranked cause I suddenly felt that I couldn't include the now sadly injured Aaron Ramsey and not the more proven Walcott, but then again I did do right and rank him behind Ramsey thankfully, so I should just have taken the full consequence of the holes in his arsenal and left him out entirely.
Srna is another one who should be a little higher. Pedro and Zhirkov quite a bit higher. Zhirkov around this entry and Pedro probably all the way up to the 120s where there are some comparable players.
At least with these two I have the excuse of them at the time of list-making either just not playing enough or uncertainty, in Pedro's case, if he was really good enough to continue to play. Quite a bit of that uncertainty is now gone therefore Pedro especially should be higher.
Anyway the list so far:
Quote:
200: Alberto Zapater - Genoa - Spain
199: Nikola Zigic - Valencia - Serbia
198: Sergio Ramos - Real Madrid - Spain
197: Lucio - Inter - Brazil
196: John Obi Mikel - Chelsea - Nigeria
195: Sergio Busquets - Barcelona - Spain
194: Philippe Mexes - Roma -France
193: Anatolij Tymoshchuk - Bayern München - Ukraine
192: Theo Walcott - Arsenal - England
191: Aaron Ramsey - Arsenal - Wales
190: Pepe - Real Madrid - Portugal
189: Sergei Semak - Rubin Kazan - Russia
188: Alberto Aquilani - Liverpool - Italy
187: Clarence Seedorf - Milan - Holland
186: Diego Capel - Sevilla - Spain
185: Yossi Benayoun - Liverpool - Israel
184: Riccardo Montolivo - Fiorentina - Italy
183: Kolo Toure - Manchester City -Côte d'Ivoire
182: Yuri Zhirkov - Chelsea - Russia
181: Martin Demichelis - Bayern Munich - Argentina
180: Marouane Fellaini - Everton - Belgium
179: Cristian Zapata - Udinese - Colombia
178: Tim Cahill - Everton - Australia
177: Paul Scholes - Manchester United - England
176: Arda Turan - Galatasaray - Turkey
175: Ezequiel Lavezzi - Napoli - Argentina
174: Klaas Jan Huntelaar - AC Milan - The Netherlands
173: William Gallas - Arsenal - France
172: Shaun Wright Phillips - Manchester City - England
171: Pavel Pogrebnyak - VBF Stuttgart - Russia
170: Darijo Srna - Shakhtar Donetsk - Croatia
169: Bojan Krkic and Pedro - Barcelona - Spain
168: Ronaldinho - AC Milan - Brazil
167: Tranquillo Barnetta - Bayer Leverkusen - Switzerland
166: Stiliyan Petrov - Aston Villa - Bulgaria
165: Amauri - Juventus - Brazil
164: Dirk Kuyt - Liverpool - The Netherlands
163: Bruno Silva - FC Porto - Portugal
162: Lorik Cana - Sunderland - Albania
161: Carlton Cole - West Ham - England
160: Lukas Podolski - FC Köln - Germany
159: Felipe Melo - Juventus - Brazil
158: Craig Bellamy - Manchester City - Wales
157: Simon Kjaer and Daniel Agger - Palermo and Liverpool - Denmark
156: Alessandro Nesta -Milan-Italy
155: Aly Cissokho - Lyon -France
154: Walter Samuel - Inter - Argentina
153: Diego Lugano - Fenerbache -Uruguay
152: Mauro Zarate - Lazio - Argentina
Following some scrolling, all writeups
HERE
Newest entries:
151: Sebastian Giovinco and Luca Cigarini - Napoli and Juventus - Italy
150: Taye Taiwo, Rod Fanni and Benoit Tremoulinas - Marseille, Rennes and Bordeaux - Nigeria and France
149: Domenico Criscito - Genoa - Italy
148: Fernando Llorente - Atletico Bilbao - Spain
There will be a 2 or 3 more shared spots until the top 100 where there aren't any.
I think generally from now there is a gap in class from what's been on the list so far (excluding those who should be higher) and generally just fewer question marks and uncertainties concerning the players.
There will still be some veterans who aren't what they used to be. But what they used to be were among the very best in the world. And there will be some young players just breaking through who will still have things to prove but they're all showing such good stuff that they have not only elite potential but perhaps should be ranked even higher. Quite a few of those very soon on the list.
But mostly it's just one very good player after another.
Even number 147 unless I decide to move him up a little further is top 5 at his defensive position and as good defensively as probably anyone playing that position.
Last edited by Bjørn; 03-10-2010 at 11:36 AM.