Top 5 Premier League players ever

Best striker: Suarez 13/14 - honorable mention Henry 03/04
Best winger: Ronaldo 07/08 - honorable mention Salah 17/18
Best attacking midfielder: De Bruyne 17/18 - honorable mention - Bergkamp 97/98
Best defensive midfielder: Keane 99/00 - honorable mention Kanté 15/16
Best centre-back: Van Dijk 18/19 - honorable mention Vidic 09/10
Best full-back: Ashley Cole 03/04 - honorable mention Alexander-Arnold 21/22
Best goalkeeper: Schmeichel 92/92 - honorable mention Cech 04/05
 
How is this being determined? Peak performance/season? Over 5 years? Over their whole premier league career? Really impacts where people rank.

Rooney for purple patch, peak performance is right up there, top three maybe. But if you are talking about over his whole premier league career, he maybe makes top 10.

Whereas Kane the opposite is true, his peak is not up there with the very best, like a Rooney, but if you look over his premier league career he is mister consistency, from when he burst onto the scene until when he left for Bayern. He would easily rank above Rooney in that case.
 
Henry
Kane/Salah
De Bruyne
C. Ronaldo/Hazard

Edit: I didn't see the peak mention. In this case, I'd choose Suárez over De Bruyne and put Hazard higher on the list(maybe I should have just changed the list instead of explaining myself...)
 
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Players that's hardly get a mention

Zola
David Silva
Drogba
Modric
Bergkamp
 
The rules just seem like a way to exclude Giggs really. For a peak season Andy Cole had 47 goals and assists in the Premier League alone in 93/94 and is nowhere to be seen.
 
How do people have suarez ahead of Rooney?

Edit just read the title. Maybe it isn't as bad am opinion as first thought.
 
acnumber9 said:
The rules just seem like a way to exclude Giggs really. For a peak season Andy Cole had 47 goals and assists in the Premier League alone in 93/94 and is nowhere to be seen.
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Before alot of people time I imagine.
Also Cole is just disrespected in general
 
If its peak wouldn't those couple of years of David Beckham around the treble be top 5?

Dwight Yorke was unplayable for a few seasons there as well.

Doesn't Andy Cole have a season of like 50 goals and assists?
 
HTG said:
Where do you guys rank Kane?
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High, but not in the top 5. Maybe top 10-15. No shame in that either, some huge players to compete against. For me he has a slightly underwhelming big-gane record that keeps him off the very top, as well as that his influence still amounted to an empty trophy cabinet. That may seem harsh, but when you're talking about all world-class players you have to find some way to separate them.
 
arnie_ni said:
If its peak wouldn't those couple of years of David Beckham around the treble be top 5?
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I was wondering how to fit him in and surprised at little mentions - I think he’ll always suffer from the unfair narrative he’s overrated for his fame and for his unfortunate national career. I was rewatching a lot of games from 97-02 seasons lately and he was unplayable. The best free kicker the league has seen, top 3 passer and crosser, a monster of old school right foot right winger - he’d make a legendary wing back these days.
 
Henry, Rooney, Kane, Gerrard, Ronaldo

Going away from the attackers and Gerrard

Terry, Ferdinand, Scholes, Ashley Cole
 
No Bergkamp in any of discussions, as important as Henry to Arsenal
 
Surprised to see Suarez locked into so many teams in all honesty. 3 years at Liverpool, multiple long term bans and 69 goals while impressive is hardly ground breaking to be a lock in

In no particular order:

Henry
Ronaldo
De Bruyne
Salah
Rooney


Harsh to leave out Shearer and Giggs but there can only be 5.
 
galwayfa said:
No Bergkamp in any of discussions, as important as Henry to Arsenal
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Maybe he receives the same level(or even more) of adulation from Arsenal fans, but no way he had the same impact on the pitch
 
I know some don't want to be biased but when you win 13 Premier league titles in 20 year period most of the top 5 Premier League players ever are naturally Man United players.

Don't think he's been mention yet but for me the best and most consist full back was Denis Irwin. Cantona has got a few mentions his signing set the ball rolling and few if any other player had as big of an influence towards Premier league success than him. I can't name a top five without Roy Keane, Peter Schmeichel and if United got a few more seasons of peak Ronaldo he'd make the list but sadly Real Madrid got that.
 
It’s unfair to make comparisons with the way the game has evolved over the course of the last 3 decades. Keane and Scholes would spend half their time suspended in the modern era.

Fairer perhaps to split it into 3 eras? No particular order (and very attack-biased):

1992-2002
1. Shearer
2. Bergkamp
3. Keane
4. Giggs
5. Henry

2003-2013
1. Suarez
2. Scholes
3. Lampard
4. Rooney
5. Ronaldo

2014-2024
1. KDB
2. D. Silva
3. Agüero
4. Kane
5. Salah
 
always_hoping said:
I know some don't want to be biased but when you win 13 Premier league titles in 20 year period most of the top 5 Premier League players ever are naturally Man United players.

Don't think he's been mention yet but for me the best and most consist full back was Denis Irwin. Cantona has got a few mentions his signing set the ball rolling and few if any other player had as big of an influence towards Premier league success than him. I can't name a top five without Roy Keane, Peter Schmeichel and if United got a few more seasons of peak Ronaldo he'd make the list but sadly Real Madrid got that.
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Ronaldo gets in for me because he went from a kid with potential to the greatest player on the planet before our very eyes. That 08 season scoring 40 goals or whatever it was mostly from the wing topped off with a CL win, PL win and Ballon d‘or won’t be topped.It felt like he was scoring an absolute worldie every week as well.

Greatest individual season in pl history without a doubt.
 
Cristiano, Salah, Henry, De Bruyne, Suarez

Haaland should eventually displace either one of Henry/KDB/Salah

To be clear: best player, based on peak. Cristiano is a level above and the Suarez-Henry-Salah comparison is straight forward, and Suarez is the better of those 3, so...

Honorable mentions for Bale, Hazard, Rooney, Giggs, RVP, Kante, Becks, Shearer, Yaya and Fabregas. Rodri might also get in there if he keeps up this level. Modric....if we're talking PL peak no, if we're talking peak in general then he he's in the mix for top 5
 
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giorno said:
Cristiano, Salah, Henry, De Bruyne, Suarez

Haaland should eventually displace either one of Henry/KDB/Salah

To be clear: best player, based on peak. Cristiano is a level above and the Suarez-Henry-Salah comparison is straight forward, and Salah is the better of those 3, so...
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Not really unless you’re including CL appearances, I think statistically Suarez probably had the best peak of them all.

Suarez
Ronaldo
Henry/Salah

if we’re talking peak seasons, he had something absurd like Most Goals, most assists, chances created, most dribbles in one season and he missed a few games, Ronaldo season would come close but don’t think he was all round the freak Suarez was, if we’re including performances outside the league though and as a season overall he’s on top.
 
Righteous Steps said:
Not really unless you’re including CL appearances, I think statistically Suarez probably had the best peak of them all.
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it was a typo :lol: meant to say Suarez is the best of the 3 :D

Cristiano is clear of course. By an order of magnitude
 
Castia said:
Surprised to see Suarez locked into so many teams in all honesty. 3 years at Liverpool, multiple long term bans and 69 goals while impressive is hardly ground breaking to be a lock in

In no particular order:

Henry
Ronaldo
De Bruyne
Salah
Rooney


Harsh to leave out Shearer and Giggs but there can only be 5.
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Harsh to leave out Keane I think he was more impactful overall than Rooney was, maybe probably Giggs too.
 
Righteous Steps said:
Harsh to leave out Keane I think he was more impactful overall than Rooney was, maybe probably Giggs too.
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Yeah it’s really hard to chose just 5 there’s been an absurd amount of class on this league over the past 20+ years.

I mean look at Lampard, he was regularly scoring 20+ a season for a midfielder. Won multiple PL titles and a CL. Not a sniff on these lists
 
Righteous Steps said:
Not really unless you’re including CL appearances, I think statistically Suarez probably had the best peak of them all.

Suarez
Ronaldo
Henry/Salah

if we’re talking peak seasons, he had something absurd like Most Goals, most assists, chances created, most dribbles in one season and he missed a few games, Ronaldo season would come close but don’t think he was all round the freak Suarez was, if we’re including performances outside the league though and as a season overall he’s on top.
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Was he that impressive in UCL for United? If I remember right, he was average in the big games(except against Arsenal), even in 08 final(yeah, he scored, but was insivible most of the game).

I think Salah was way more impressive in 17/18 campaign.
 
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