The countdown to Christmas is picking up serious pace with just four days to go until the big day and so, Squawka’s advent calendar moves along another spot.
As we edge ever closer to Christmas Day, the excitement is becoming all the more real. As part of the festive period, we here at Squawka have been creating an advent calendar, in which we compare players via the grouping of their shirt numbers and determining a top three for each across Europe.
While overall quality was obviously considered when ranking our top three players of the year, the deciding factors were how well they performed during the last 12 months, with notable weighting being given to the World Cup.
No. 1: Marc-André Ter Stegen
No. 2: Kyle Walker
No. 3: Giorgio Chiellini
No. 4: Virgil Van Dijk
No. 5: Raphael Varane
No. 6: Paul Pogba
No. 7: Kylian Mbappé
No. 8: Saúl Ñíguez
No. 9: Luis Suárez
No. 10: Lionel Messi
No. 11: Mohamed Salah
No. 12: Marcelo
No. 13: Alisson
No. 14: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
No. 15: Andrea Barzagli
No. 16: Manuel Akanji
No. 17: Kevin de Bruyne
No. 18: Jordi Alba
No. 19: Leroy Sane
No. 20: Bernardo Silva
Here are Squawka’s top three number 21s for 2018.
3. Benjamin Pavard (Stuttgart/France)
What makes him special? Benjamin Pavard has not enjoyed the best start to the 2018/19 season with Stuttgart struggling, but the French defender’s first half of the year more than makes up for it. The 22-year-old was a big part of Stuttgart’s defence as they finished eighth in the Bundesliga after starting 2018 in 14th, keeping eight clean sheets.
His performances earned him a place in France’s squad for the World Cup, where he started all-but-one game – the dead rubber against Denmark with France already through. And the break proved to be vital as Pavard scored a screamer against Argentina in the next game, winning the Goal of the Tournament award to add to his World Cup winner’s medal.
Key stat: Pavard made more interceptions (70) than any other player in the Bundesliga last season.
2. Lucas Hernandez (Atletico Madrid/France)
What makes him special? At the start of the year, Lucas Hernandez was in the Atletico team only due to an injury to the club’s first-choice left-back Filipe Luis. But the French defender made the most of this chance and continued to deputise until the end of the season which included starts in the Europa League as Atleti went all the way to win the trophy.
His improved playing time saw him earn a first call-up to the French national team in March, a place he would keep through to, and including, the World Cup where he started every game donning the no.21 jersey to help Les Bleus become world champions for the second time. Changing his Atletico number to 21 as a result, Hernandez has continued to be an impressive part of Diego Simeone’s defence, this time in his natural centre-back position.
So good has Hernandez been, in fact, that Atletico have recently had to deny a reported €80m agreement with Bayern Munich.
Key stat: Lucas Hernandez made more tackles (16) than any other defender at the 2018 World Cup; Casemiro (17) was the only player to make more overall.
1. David Silva (Manchester City/Spain)
What makes him special: David Silva entered 2018 with personal issues understandably dominating his mind. The Spaniard would have been forgiven for letting this affect his game, focusing on his family. But, such is the magic of Silva, the midfielder somehow took his game to another level helping Man City to the Premier League title with a record-breaking 100 points.
And, despite a poor showing from Spain at the World Cup in Russia, Silva has carried last season’s form into the new campaign helping City to second in the Premier League so far as well as securing qualification from their Champions League group. The Spaniard has already chipped in with eight goals in all competitions and shows no signs of slowing down.
Beating two World Cup winners to top spot may seem extreme, but given Man City’s dominance and David Silva’s magnificent resurgence, only a Grinch would begrudge El Mago’s place as the number one No.21.
Key stat: David Silva has directly contributed to 14 Premier League goals for Manchester City in 2018 (nine goals, five assists).
The post Squawka’s Xmas advent squad: which No.21 had the best 2018? appeared first on Squawka News.
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