Analysis

Here are the five most underrated Wolverhampton Wanderers players from 2010 to 2019. LW Matthew Jarvis Matthew Jarvis' peak for Wolves was around the tail end of the 2000s and the start of the 2010s, and he was a darn good player for Wolverhampton. Jarvis scored 4 goals with 6 assists in the 2010/11 season and then 8 goals with 4 assists a season later. He was the one saving grace for Wolves, and it says something that he played that well in 2011/12. only for Wolves to finish dead last in the Premiership anyway. And without him, they would have definitely been relegated a season earlier than that anyway. Jarvis was unplayable at times when he was in his peak, though that peak sadly only lasted for a few seasons. His trickery and skill ranked among the best wingers in England, with ...

LaLiga is renowned for its rich history, iconic clubs, and world-class talent. However, beneath the surface, the league grapples with several significant challenges that threaten its integrity and global reputation.  The quality of play is subpar, stadiums are partially empty due to high ticket prices, and many teams are in financial turmoil. Worst of all, the league has been in the spotlight for almost all the wrong reasons possible (the abuse in various stadiums, controversial refereeing decisions, etc). If all this wasn’t bad enough, LaLiga continues to get weaker every season as its best players and managers leave to sign for other leagues, such as the Premier League, Serie A, and even the Saudi Arabian league.   It’s a concerning period for the league, but why has LaLiga declined...

5. Alex Stepney Alex Stepney was Manchester United's starting goalkeeper from 1966 to 1978 after a brief spell at Chelsea, and he ended up playing over 400 games in the English top flight for the Red Devils. Although Stepney's name doesn't come up as often when discussing the great Manchester United goalkeepers, he won the league, FA Cup, and European Cup with the club, producing an acclaimed save in that European Cup Final at Wembley against Benfica. The save game from short-range to stop a scorcher from Benfica striker Eusebio, who is widely regarded as one of the best players in world football history. In fact, Stepney's save was so remarkable that Eusebio himself applauded the Manchester United goalkeeper. Stepney recalled, "I saw it on telly afterwards and what had happened ...

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...

Obviously the superstars of Real Madrid and Barcelona are going to dominate a list of the best midfielders in LaLiga, but the entire top 10 list doesn't belong to the biggest two clubs in Spanish football alone. Here are the top 10 midfielders you need to know in 2024, including some stars from Real Sociedad and Villarreal. 10. Brais Mendez, Real Sociedad Brais Mendez has always been a great player, and he should have received more acclaim at Celta Vigo, where he was an excellent partner in crime for the legendary Iago Aspas. In 2022, Brais got a chance to break out of his shell a little more on a competitive Real Sociedad side that was stacked to the brim with underrated talents and top LaLiga stars in the midfield and the attack. During the first half of the season, Mendez was as...

Premier League Matchday 7 features a full slate of matches, including Aston Villa vs. Manchester United, Chelsea vs. Nottingham Forest, and Brighton vs. Tottenham. To help you get ready for all the action, here are our EPL predictions for these big matches. Aston Villa vs. Manchester United  After beating Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Wednesday, Aston Villa are flying. Unai Emery has brought the club to a level many Villa fans probably thought they would never see again.  Things couldn’t be more different at Manchester United. The Red Devils were embarrassed by Tottenham last week. They are in 13th place and have won just one of their last five Premier League matches.  Despite this poor run, Erik ten Hag told Sky Sports that there’s nothing to worry about at Man Utd. I c...

Who are the best strikers in world football right now? With two months of action in the books in the 2024/25 league seasons, let's take an updated look at the best No. 9's on the planet, ranking them from tenth to first. Where did Robert Lewandowski and Harry Kane land? How does Ollie Watkins stack up with the elites? 10. Andrej Kramaric, Hoffenheim For years, Andrej Kramaric has been one of the best strikers in the Bundesliga, setting records as a goal-scorer for Hoffenheim without showing any desire to leave the German side. Kramaric makes this list over bigger names like Alvaro Morata and Dusan Vlahovic, because he honestly outplayed both of those guys significantly last season and has already been better to start the 2023/24 season. The problem with world football these days is...

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...