Another day, another addition to Squawka’s advent calendar squad.
Today, we celebrate three players in possession of one of football’s humbler shirt numbers, the No.15.
As ever, overall quality is taken into consideration when ranking our top three players to don the shirt number in question this year. However, the deciding factor was their performances and achievements of the last 12 months. A notable weighting was also 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
Here are Squawka’s three favourite No.15s in 2018:
3. Eric Dier (Spurs/England)
What makes him so special? Eric Dier looks to have regressed recently and his inclusion here is heavily reliant on a little bit of bias (we are all England fans) and one particular moment. But what a moment it was.
Against Colombia this summer, Dier scored the winning spot-kick in England’s first-ever penalty shootout win at a World Cup. In doing so he sent the Three Lions through to the quarter-finals and ensured he will figure in any retrospective montage cuts of England’s campaign at Russia 2018.
It might be that the former Sporting Lisbon defender is paying the price of his versatility as there is still debate over what his best actually position is. But he was consistently called upon by England and Spurs last season, in which he made 60 appearances combined for his club, who finished third in the league, and his country, who recorded their best finish at a major tournament for 52 years.
Key stat: Before this summer’s World Cup, England’s senior international men’s team had lost seven out of eight penalty shoot-outs at major tournaments.
2. Harry Maguire (Leicester City/England)
What makes him so special? Harry Maguire obtained cult hero status at the World Cup. He did so through his defending and goalscoring for England in Russia, but also through his personality and willingness to partake in memes poking fun at him.
“Can you ask the neighbours to put the bins out on Monday? We’re not going home just yet”
pic.twitter.com/s1g3P3jj34
— Harry Maguire (@HarryMaguire93) July 8, 2018
And true to the ‘Smooth Harry’ meme, Maguire is making defending cool (or fun, at least) again.
He won 33 headers at the expense of rival strikers and forwards at the World Cup, more than any other defender. This includes 12 against Colombia in the quarter-final, also the most of any defender in a single game. All of which is impressive, if also the kind of stats that do a player nicknamed ‘slab head’ no favours (and said nicknames must make some part of him, somewhere deep down, a little sad, right?).
But they don’t tell the whole story. Maguire’s also a more entertaining and progressive talent than his frame and humble character suggest, and there are few defenders outside the Premier League’s so-called Big Six who defend with quite so much composure as him.
Maguire has drifted away from the spotlight over the course of the current season. But it is a testament to his development over the calendar year as a whole that those Manchester United links, which still refuse to go away, do not seem anywhere as far-fetched as they might have done at this stage in 2017.
Key stat: Harry Maguire successfully dribbled past more opponents than any Premier League defender last season (51).
1. Andrea Barzagli (Juventus/Italy)
What makes him so special? Andrea Barzagli is simultaneously the least heralded member of Juventus’ famous back five and considered the club’s best signing of the last decade.
The latter has much to do with the fact Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli paid only £300,000 to sign him from Wolfsburg in 2011.
The former is because he plays next to Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini, though they are two players with much respect for their older teammate.
While Chiellini has described Barzagli as Juventus’s “professor”, Bonucci once said, “The player I like watching on the pitch the most is Barzagli. He’s unbeatable in one-on-ones, he’s impressive in training and he always gives 100%. Andrea is an example for everyone.”
He is 37 and, for club and country, played 42 games last season. It is true that Italy’s failure to qualify for the World Cup restricted the glory to be won in 2018 for Barzagli, but the fact he did lift the Scudetto (his seventh Serie A title overall) and Coppa Italia makes him the most successful No.15 we could find in terms of trophies won this year.
Honourable Mentions:
Clement Lenglet (Sevilla/Barcelona), Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool), Stefan Savic (Atletico Madrid), Jeremy Toljan (Borussia Dortmund)
The post Squawka’s Xmas advent squad: which No.15 had the best 2018? appeared first on Squawka News.
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