Yes there are better players behind him. If I were to change the 200-150 order (which is quite messy), but not including any new players, he is probably in the 190s.

It's been too slow. But eventually!

Another day another update. What pace!

List so far:

All writeups in the list recap HERE

New entries:

143: Miguel Veloso and Joao Moutinho - Sporting Lissabon
Raul Meireles - FC Porto
142: Bacary Sagna - Arsenal - France
141: Eljero Elia - Hamburg - Netherlands
140: Marko Marin - Werder Bremen - Germany
139: Giuseppe Rossi - Villarreal - Italy

In before cashy rant

lol I'll take care of it.


Bjorn, I really don't see why you choose to spend more than half of your write up hating on his attacking game. Thats not the point of having him out there. He's basically like Ivanovic in that he helps bring stability to the back line and helps out defensively in such a way that it allows the rest of the team a ton of freedom to attack. I think he's the best RB in England and for good reason. Oh well, I don't really have a problem with the ranking I suppose (well depends on what RB's are ahead of him), just didn't like the write up tbh.

lol love the last pic of Totti.

Sagna was hard to rank. I knew I would have him over various good fullbacks from less strong leagues and also over various attacking players who were either inconsistent, had big weaknesses or were just declining. Also over most of the central defenders except those who can really dominate or be good in different positions.

But not over the few fullbacks very good both ways or the great ones going forward.

It was of course hard to compare him to people like Elia, Marin and Rossi just ahead him but all in all I thought the line was there in that these three really have something special to offer to the attack.

So does Sanches you could say. He even looks to be pretty good defensively but he just hasn't had a good enough season in Europe yet.

Bjorn are you having a tough time rating players that are probably worth way more to their team than they would be to another team?

all im gonna say is that ranking Sagna in the same group as Veloso is an absolute joke

In defence of the ranking part of the problem is Maicon being incredibly far ahead of the trailing pack of right backs.

That's interesting. I think I do criticize based on what they bring to their current team and also what they've done in the past.

I also think in quite a few write ups I've given various players the benefit of the doubt if I've been able to picture a scenario where they could really shine.
Sometimes of course that's been based on what they did for maybe another team, in another situation, in the past.

But the other way around... like saying Lampard yeah he is good for Chelsea but he would really suck if he played for Barcelona! Not saying that he would btw but perhaps not the greatest fit unless they wanna change a little.
No I don't think I've done that. Maybe I should heh.

But in some ways that's hopefully covered anyway when I talk about the bad things about x player. Sometimes more than the good but hopefully the good combined, even if only a few lines, with ranking and the players behind, speak for itself.

Yeah I think I mentioned maybe in one of the first updates that I wasn't really comfortable with the distances between fullbacks who are actually pretty close.

Those distances have become a little smaller in the meantime though and Maicon for an example has taken something of a fall.

I think last season and the beginning of this one (before a lot of up and down play) I even called him the best player in Serie A. He had easily been one of the most dominating fullbacks I'd ever seen and arguably one of the few players these days that you really could call dominant. But that's not really the case this season.

gonna go ahead and count rossi as an american so at least we got 1 guy on there right?

Veloso was kind of a gamble. Eventhough he is the one I've seen the least of the three he has actually been on the list the whole time but behind both Moutinho and Meirelles. Then for various adjustment reasons I grouped them together thinking/hoping the difference can't be that big and at least it seemed more appropriate than grouping him with Huddlestone.

But like I say in the writeup I would love thoughts on all three players. I do remember at least one Benfica fan, who I'm guessing watches football from Portugal roaming these parts.

look at it like that:

Sagna is a top 10 FB, Veloso not even a top50 CM, this suggest that you grossly underrate defenders in this list

Hud!

Glad to see him get some love. He made a big leap this year and is only 23. I'd take him over Veloso but they are different CM's and no need to nitpick.

It's true there won't be a lot of defenders on the list. I don't think there are even 10 in the top 100 (with no central defenders in the top 60 I think) and some of those are excellent attacking players or they would be a lot lower.

I think it's extremely important not to have a bad defender on your team and maybe it could be argued that a good defender should get some kind of extra credit for not being bad (Silvestre!), but other than that like it was talked about a lot in the beginning of this list, I just don't see them as good (or as valuable) as players making contributions both defensively and on the attack, or the really good attacking players.
Generally speaking, because Sagna for an example is ahead of some very skilled attacking guys but all with some kind of minus hurting them.

The next player on the list (legend and veteran) could really make people angry and I guess is one of the more extreme examples (maybe too extreme I will admit) of an attacking player who isn't one of the best at his position anymore, ahead of defenders among the best at their positions.

Snap-called this one.

Clarification question (that may have already been answered earlier itt):

Is your list complete and you're just doing the writeups now and are posting, or is this a fluid process with you still adjusting the list as time rolls along?

This is a massive and incredibly difficult enterprise, kudos for doing it, even though it makes you a huge target for the peanut gallery...

That's actually close and he was on the list originally. Lower though. But I had to kick him out. He can still be good in some games and still has skills but can't stay fit or have a good game twice a week.

Giggs?

Note: haven't checked if he's on the list already.

If not Giggs, Scholes?

Pippo

No definitely complete but it's true there have been so much change along the way that it may seem otherwise. Especially in the lower ranks where the order has become messed up and just looking at Fellaini so low hurts my eyes. At least a 100 places jump for him! Too late for that though but I'll reorder the 200-150 in the next update.

Hell naw!

No Pippo in the top 500? Maybe 1000? Ok that's harsh

Scholes was already included. Maybe he should actually be a little higher.

Giggs still to come but not quite yet...