Author: Kevin Parvizi

With Real Madrid legend Cristiano Ronaldo and Liverpool icon Sadio Mane spearheading the attack and role players like Alex Telles and Marcelo Brozovic surrounding them, Al-Nassr have ambitions of dominating the Saudi Pro League but still sit behind Al-Hilal and Al-Ittihad in the table. Here are five players Al-Nassr could try to sign in the coming January transfer window to pre-arranged future deals - or to immediate winter transfers - in order to become an even bigger power in Saudi Arabia. Manchester City AM Kevin De Bruyne Kevin De Bruyne has been increasingly linked with a move to the Saudi Pro League over the past couple of years, and even though he remains the premier playmaker in the Premier League, 2025 could be the year the Manchester City midfielder makes his move elsewhere....

From Bruno Fernandes and Martin Odegaard to James Maddison and Cole Palmer, the Premier League is filled with top-class playmakers who provide highlight-reel assists and slick dribbles. Here is a ranking of the best playmakers in the English top flight in 2024. 10. Andreas Pereira, Fulham A lot of people wrote Andreas Pereira off after he put up mediocre numbers for Manchester United for years before going to Brazil, returning, and turning his career around with another historic Premier League side in Fulham. Now, Pereira is playing the best football in his career at the age of 28 and has become one of the best passers in the final third in the entire Premier League. He is a playmaker in his prime and one of the premier set-piece specialists in the English top flight. Pereira had a...

Liverpool have one of the best center back partnerships in world football between Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate, but it's time to add more talent to the pool, especially with VVD getting closer to 35. Here are five center back targets the Reds should consider signing in the winter 2025 transfer window. Jarrad Branthwaite, Everton Manchester United were in hot pursuit of Jarrad Branthwaite for much of 2024, but they ultimately balked on the Everton star because of a 70 million pound asking price. Instead, Manchester United sign Leny Yoro for 60 million euros from Lille, paying a premium price to make sure Yoro chose them over PSG and Liverpool. By not waiting for Real Madrid in 2025, Yoro had already chosen against his dream club and the favorites to sign him. With Branthwaite...

10. Liverpool RB Trent Alexander-Arnold Honestly, I can't comprehend why there are so many amateur pundits who spend their days disparaging Trent Alexander-Arnold's defending as if he were on the level of a backup at Lecce when, in fact, he's an excellent one-on-one defender as a fullback. It's just that people can't seem to understand that an attacking fullback who actually tries to add value to his team going forward is going to inevitably get caught out defensively on occasion, with the frequency of those occurrences unduly distorted by an army of fail comp "artists" who clearly need a job. Alexander-Arnold is a better one-on-one defender than Reece James, who apparently earned a reputation as a superior defensive right back on the grounds of being physically bigger and having on...

Ranking the best wingers in the Premier League is a task so onerous that it may seem foolhardy, because even restricting the time span to the last five years doesn't make the task even easier. How do you rank, for example, a new breakout star like Anthony Gordon against a fallen superstar like Sadio Mane? Where does a gifted footballer like Riyad Mahrez stand against a former goal-scoring machine like Raheem Sterling? I tried my best to be fair and account for the unique merits each player brought to the table and avoid any club-based bias. I also decided to discard players who mostly offered value at non-winger positions, specifically Bernardo Silva, mostly to make my own job easier. (Don't worry, I'll have plenty of nice things to say about Silva in other pieces.) Finally, I did...

Liverpool sit second in the Premier League behind only Manchester City, and they are coming off two fantastic cup performances with a 3-1 win over AC Milan in the Champions League and a 5-1 blowout victory over West Ham in the League Cup. As much as the Premier League has been positioned as a two-horse race between Man City and Arsenal, Liverpool have been contenders against City for longer and did usurp them in the 2019/20 season. Last season, Liverpool returned as legitimate Premier League title contenders, and though they finished behind both Manchester City and Arsenal, it's a little puzzling to see them discounted by some pundits as title hopefuls on equal footing as the others. Although Liverpool have started the season strongly, the club's ambition should be to continue to ...

West Ham were one of the most active teams in the summer 2024 transfer window, bringing in the likes of Max Kilman and Jean-Clair Todibo to bolster the defense while landing Crysencio Summerville and Niclas Fullkrug to add different dimensions to their attack. So far, some of the new signings, like Kilman and Aaron Wan-Bissaka, are working out wonderfully, while others like Carlos Soler and Fullkrug have yet to play key roles in the first team. Overall, West Ham have been disappointing on the pitch, as they are 14th in the Premier League and recently lost 5-1 to Liverpool in a result that shows an especially vast gulf in class between the Hammers and the true top English teams in terms of midfield quality. West Ham don't need to go out and buy a whole new squad by any means, but t...

Bayern Munich are one of the three biggest clubs in the world alongside Real Madrid and Barcelona, and even in a down year in the Bundesliga last season, they still came agonizingly close to returning to the Champions League Final. This season, Bayern Munich look even more dangerous, and it seems like they are bouncing back with a vengeance in the Bundesliga, having just beaten Holstein Kiel 6-1 in a demolition reminiscent of their peak days with "Robbery" and Bastian Schweinsteiger. Bayern kept the momentum going with a 9-2 barrage of Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League opener, pulling away from the Croatian side after the opponents cut a 3-0 lead to 3-2; Bayern then put six past Zagreb. As Bayern Munich continue to rack up the results under Vincent Kompany, they must continue ...