Tag: Luis Diaz

Liverpool’s best player against Real Madrid won’t even be Mohamed Salah
LaLiga, Premier League

Liverpool’s best player against Real Madrid won’t even be Mohamed Salah

Liverpool are unequivocally the best team in the Premier League right now, having just carved up fellow Champions League side Aston Villa 2-0 behind another inspired performance from the league's best player, Mohamed Salah. The Reds have been a juggernaut this season under Arne Slot, and you could argue that only the Hansi Flick-led La Liga leaders Barcelona have been more impressive in all of European football. Yes, Liverpool have been even better than La Liga's second-best team, Real Madrid, because Los Blancos really haven't been very good at all this season, even after signing Kylian Mbappe and Endrick. Real Madrid have had trouble integrating their new stars, with Mbappe earning widespread criticism for a horrendous performance against Barcelona in what amounted to a 4-0 blow...
Ranking the 10 best Premier League playmakers in 2024
Features, Premier League

Ranking the 10 best Premier League playmakers in 2024

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...
Ranking the 10 best players in the Premier League right now during the 2024/25 season
Features, Premier League

Ranking the 10 best players in the Premier League right now during the 2024/25 season

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 25 best Premier League wingers of the last 5 years
Features, Premier League

Ranking the 25 best Premier League wingers of the last 5 years

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...
Best Premier League wingers 2024: Man City dominate, West Ham in, Mohamed Salah or Bukayo Saka?
Features, Premier League

Best Premier League wingers 2024: Man City dominate, West Ham in, Mohamed Salah or Bukayo Saka?

The Premier League is loaded with attacking talent right now, especially when it comes to wingers in the primes of their careers. With about half of the 2023/24 season in the books, let's try to rank the 10 best wingers in the English top flight based on overall pedigree and current performance. 10. Dejan Kulusevski, Tottenham Since Son Heung-min is playing as a striker, Dejan Kulusevski is the Tottenham winger who gets ranked on the list. He's having another very strong season for Spurs, who were in the Premier League title mix for much of the season. Even now, Tottenham are in contention to return to the Champions League after missing out on European football entirely. Kulusevski has helped step up with Harry Kane gone to Bayern Munich, scoring goals but doing a lot more crea...