Top 5 Premier League players ever

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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Nothing will top 08 Ronaldo. 42 goals whilst playing out wide regularly, a double including the CL and what seemed like a worldie goal every other week. Absolutely untouchable for me.
 
cvb said:
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
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Agüero can never, ever be ahead of Kane and Salah. And neither can David Silva.
 
devaneios said:
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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2007/08 Cristiano was in "potential best ever" territory. Salah never got to that level, even in 17/18
 
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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Those are easily the top four in my opinion in terms of peak but Henry is number one for me with Suarez a very close second.

The others have a standout year but Henry’s PL peak was four or five seasons in a row. Only Salah has a similar level of consistency across multiple seasons.

At a point in time he was the most creative and biggest goal scoring threat in the league, only Suarez has had that kind of impact which is why he’s second for me.
 
Keane in 99, Ronaldo in 08, and Henry in 02 would be my top 3 in order. Then Yaya Toure in 2014 just ahead of Lampard in 05.

As a side note, N'Golo Kante should probably be in the discussion. He was so good that his arrival turned midtable finishers into title winners - twice!
 
Ronaldo
De Bruyne
Suarez
Henry
Salah

In terms of peak, these are the players who have been deserving of the Ballon d'Or following their seasons.
 
Castia said:
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.
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It was a great season 31 premier league goals and United got that one season (a taster) of what peak Ronaldo was like. He clearly wanted off after that season as his league goals dipped to 18 in 2009.

Real Madrid got to see the majority of his peak years. Some of league scoring totals in La Liga with Real Madrid 31,34, 35,40, 46,48 and went toe to toe with Messi season after season.
 
Castia said:
Nothing will top 08 Ronaldo. 42 goals whilst playing out wide regularly, a double including the CL and what seemed like a worldie goal every other week. Absolutely untouchable for me.
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Yeah i agree but was focusing on just PL performances.
 
devaneios said:
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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Thats Ronaldo generally though, which is why he isn’t on the same level as the little man from Argentina. I can remember a few finals where he did nothing the whole game and popped up with a goal and the likes of Di Maria or Modric outperformed him.
 
Top 5 GK's

Schmeichel
Cech
Allison
Seamen
Van Der Sar

Top 5 FB's

Cole
Irwin
Neville
Evra
Walker

Top 5 CB's

Rio
Adams
Stam
Vidic
Campbell

Top 5 CM's

Keane
Scholes
Gerrard
Toure
Vieira

Top 5 AM/number 10's

Bergkamp
Cantona
Zola
Silva
Hazard

Top 5 wingers

Giggs
Beckham
Pires
Overmars
Ginola

Top 5 F's

Ronaldo
Henry
Suarez
Rooney
Shearer
 
Funnily enough, only two players won Ballon d’Or while playing in the Premier League, one is obviously Cristiano and he’s on everyone’s list, the other completely forgotten
 
Red Star One said:
Funnily enough, only two players won Ballon d’Or while playing in the Premier League, one is obviously Cristiano and he’s on everyone’s list, the other completely forgotten
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Because he was the most underserved winner in history. Scored 16 league goals, and 24 in all comps that season. Raul scored 32, was top scorer in the Champions League that season and won the title.
 
Peak:

1. Ronaldo
2. Henry
3. Haaland
4. Salah
5. Suarez

Career:

1. Henry
2. Giggs
3. Shearer
4. Scholes
5. De Bruyne
 
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dazjoe said:
Because he was the most underserved winner in history. Scored 16 league goals, and 24 in all comps that season. Raul scored 32, was top scorer in the Champions League that season and won the title.
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not sure about that but yeah, it was a weird choice, if they wanted the English lad they could've just chosen Beckham.
 
In terms of peak, pure football without other issues. From what I've seen:

- Ronaldo
- Suarez
- Henry
- Bale
- Salah


If we factor in longevity, impact of clubs, legacy etc then players like Shearer, Keane, Scholes, Gerrard, Giggs, Rio, Viera, KDB, Rooney. Aguero etc need to come in to the mix and picking a top 5 becomes too difficult for me.
 
Many of these threads lately. Someone needs to compile a report of the thread after a few days and present a definitive list.

Henry, KDB, Salah, Keane, Ronaldo
 
Henry
De Bruyne
Terry
Salah
Shearer

Feel I'm being harsh to Harry Kane.
 
Shakesy said:
Far too few Gerrards. I hate em, but he was monumental
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Which Gerrard are you going with? I genuinely can't think of a season where he could claim to have been the best player in the league, or the most decisive for a successful team across a season. Really good player, but I'm not even sure he breaks top 20.
 
Based mainly on success;
5. Scholes
4. Henry
3. KDB
2. Rooney
1. Giggs

Based on peak;
5. Lampard
4. Salah
3. Kdb
2. Rooney
1. Henry

Ronaldo should be somewhere there but feck him.
 
Red Star One said:
Funnily enough, only two players won Ballon d’Or while playing in the Premier League, one is obviously Cristiano and he’s on everyone’s list, the other completely forgotten
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Owen scored 16 goals that season in the PL and his best moments were in other competitions, even allowing for a slightly more defensive era, Haaland scored more than double that last season. And it’s not like Owen had great build-up play, similar style to Haaland but worse.
 
didz said:
Which Gerrard are you going with? I genuinely can't think of a season where he could claim to have been the best player in the league, or the most decisive for a successful team across a season. Really good player, but I'm not even sure he breaks top 20.
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I wouldn't, and didn't, put him in my top 5, but looking at his career and how he drove that team forward then it's a little curious that I don't see his name featuring more often. Would he make the top 5 more frequently on RAWK? I'm sure he would, which just points to our collective biases with lists such as these
 
Shakesy said:
I wouldn't, and didn't, put him in my top 5, but looking at his career and how he drove that team forward then it's a little curious that I don't see his name featuring more often. Would he make the top 5 more frequently on RAWK? I'm sure he would, which just points to our collective biases with lists such as these
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I'm not biased; I'm just anti-scouser. I didn't even put Rooney in mine!
 
Rooney, Salah, Henry are my top 3 certs.

Next two kind of come down to Shearer, De Bruyne and Giggs. Hard to leave one of them out as I feel they all have defining roles in the PL story.
 
Red Star One said:
not sure about that but yeah, it was a weird choice, if they wanted the English lad they could've just chosen Beckham.
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It’s between him and Belanov (and at least with Belanov they weren’t including non-Europeans yet).
 
Hard because you always end up just picking attackers.

For pure output it's Henry, Suarez, Rooney, Salah, Shearer for me.

For influence and overall who I'd say has been most important, Cantona, Keane, Zola, Henry, Gerrard (yuck)
 
SilentWitness said:
Rooney, Salah, Henry are my top 3 certs.

Next two kind of come down to Shearer, De Bruyne and Giggs. Hard to leave one of them out as I feel they all have defining roles in the PL story.
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Oh man. I missed to pick Rooney.
 
Righteous Steps said:
This is a good list but I can’t have Yaya above Keane. I can see it’s more weighted to peak seasons but Suarez above Shearer too, not sure about.
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My list was purely about peaks. I don't think there's a single midfielder in PL history, apart from maybe KDB, who can eclipse Yaya's peak in this league.

Same with Suarez, his peak was probably the greatest of all the strikers we've seen in this league.

If we're having a discussion where we're taking a player's whole body of work into account, then yeah it's a whole different discussion and my list would look drastically different.
 
1. Cristiano Ronaldo
2. Thierry Henry
3. Kevin De Bruyne
4. Alan Shearer
5. Paul Scholes, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard
 
Based on impact in the league:
1. Henry
2. Giggs
3. Shearer
4. Lampard
5. Salah

Based on who are actually the best players:
1. Henry
2. Ronaldo
3. Rooney
4. Gerrard
5. Suarez
 
Can't believe how many are putting Suarez in there, he's not even close to the likes of Henry, RVN, RVP, Shearer and others for me. Add in the racism, biting and general cheating and he's way down the list.

Scholes
Ronaldo
Keane
Henry
Shearer

Salah is very close and maybe should be in there ahead of Shearer. Haaland gets in with another season or 2. Rio maybe should be in there too.

Any list without Scholes is invalid ;)
 
Flying high said:
Can't believe how many are putting Suarez in there, he's not even close to the likes of Henry, RVN, RVP, Shearer and others for me. Add in the racism, biting and general cheating and he's way down the list.

Scholes
Ronaldo
Keane
Henry
Shearer

Salah is very close and maybe should be in there ahead of Shearer. Haaland gets in with another season or 2. Rio maybe should be in there too.

Any list without Scholes is invalid ;)
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If you can’t believe it then you must not know what the thread is about.

Considering how much of a cnut he is and being a Liverpool player, the fact he’s in so many lists tells you all about him as a player.
 
If you're talking about best *in* the PL then Suarez and Yaya lose points for me due to the era they played their best in. Relative strenght of the PL and all that
 
didz said:
Which Gerrard are you going with? I genuinely can't think of a season where he could claim to have been the best player in the league, or the most decisive for a successful team across a season. Really good player, but I'm not even sure he breaks top 20.
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08/09 when he was playing SS behind Torres and we narrowly pipped liverpool to the title. I think that was the closest he was to being the best in the league.
 
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