FIFA 20 Player Ratings: Salah, Sterling, Van Dijk & the Premier League's top-rated
The highest-rated players in the English top flight have been revealed for this year's edition of the best-selling video game
The highest-rated players in the English top flight have been revealed for this year's edition of the best-selling video game
Goal picks the top performers from across the Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1, the Premier League and Serie A over the first half of the 2019-20 campaign
While we've only reached the halfway point of most European seasons, we've already seen a number of players well and truly stand out for their respective teams.
From Liverpool's versatile defenders to Bayern Munich's unstoppable striker, there are a few names that have starred more than others.
Heading into the summer transfer window, there are reportedly a few candidates on Manchester United’s right-wing shortlist.
Amongst the inevitable links to Borussia Dortmund’s Jadon Sancho sits rumours surrounding Pedro Neto of Wolverhampton Wanderers and interestingly Leeds United’s Raphinha.
Of the Premier League duo, the Brazilian would be the better signing. However, a new name is in the offing with The Express suggesting that Ismaila Sarr is now on the Red Devils shortlist.
The Senegalese would certainly be a fantastic addition to the Man United squad.
Now in the Championship, the Watford man is enjoying an electric season for the Hornets. Rated at £18m, he already has nine goals and nine assists in all competitions.
No player in the entire Hornets’ squad has more goal contributions than the former Rennes man this season.
[snack-amp-story url=”https://www.footballfancast.com/web-stories/latest-man-united-transfer-rumours-and-news” title=” Latest Man United transfer rumours and news!”]
It certainly seems that Sarr is proving club captain Troy Deeney right, with the striker predicting that the winger was going to be “big” for Watford following his exhilarating performance in the famous 3-0 win over Liverpool under Nigel Pearson.
Sarr’s fantastic form this season also comes off the back of an impressive debut season in the Premier League in which he netted six times and notched as many assists.
Whilst Raphinha is averaging better statistics according to WhoScored, Sarr should be the better option simply because of his age and affordability.
The 23-year-old is rated at just £18m, lower than Raphinha’s £22.5m.
Should Watford fail to get promoted come the end of the campaign, then that asking price could drop even further, meaning he could well be a bargain for the Red Devils.
So with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ed Woodward on the lookout for a right-winger and many names being talked-up, Sarr should certainly be right at the top of the club’s list.
AND in more news, take a look at which Red Devils’ defender has seen his transfer valuation take a nosedive…
The final super squad has been released for FIFA 18, with players from Europe's big five leagues included after impressing for their clubs in 2017-18
Many Sunderland fans have been criticising the performance of Grant Leadbitter in their 1-1 draw with Lincoln City in League One on Saturday afternoon.
Lee Johnson’s team took the lead at the Stadium of Light through a rare goal for Callum McFadzean after a fine ball by Max Power, before Callum Morton equalised for the visitors just after the hour mark.
It will surely be seen as two points dropped by the hosts as they look to chase promotion back to the Championship at the end of the season.
Leadbitter was just one of a number of players who struggled throughout the game, losing out on four of his duels while also failing to record a single interception or tackle from the centre of midfield (Sofascore).
The former Ipswich Town and Middlesbrough man also lost possession of the ball no fewer than seven times in total over the course of the match, as he was substituted off in the 71st minute for Ross Stewart (Sofascore).
These Black Cats supporters slammed the 35-year-old’s performance on Twitter, with one Sunderland fan describing the veteran as ‘leggy’:
“O’Nien and Leadbitter cost us two points today. Clear weak links against a strong, rapid counter attacking team”
Credit: @jpsleightholme1
“Every time Leadbitter starts the tempo is awful. We can’t press with him and he slows the whole game. Had his day, needs to be a sub used when we need to slow a game down and that’s it.”
Credit: @craigtrichardso
“Think Leadbitter performances of late has proved he should go to academy to train the kids…we have no momentum ..are ponderous and pedestrian when he starts #SAFC”
Credit: @Safcftm2016
“Think Leadbitter didn’t have a good game, slows the tempo down massively in the middle of the park. Baffled by the midfield selection tbh. #SAFC”
Credit: @TheSafcAnalyst
“Wrong starting line up, Power and Leadbitter have no pace in cm, looked very leggy, only one team looked like winning it in second half”
Credit: @theboovont
“How can he not see Leadbitter makes this team worse. He should have retired the same time as Danny Graham. The midfield is full of slow players we’ve never had a foothold in this game”
Credit: @CalPatterson17
In other news, find out whose performance was slammed against Tranmere Rovers!
Carlo Ancelotti will be bitterly concerned by the fitness of his Everton squad after Gylfi Sigurdsson joined James Rodriguez in missing training on Wednesday.
That’s according to the Liverpool Echo, who note that neither of the Toffees’ creative midfielders were involved in the action at Finch Farm as Ancelotti readies his squad for Saturday’s clash with Burnley.
Rodriguez has missed the Blues’ last three Premier League fixtures with a minor knock, but Ancelotti had hoped to see the Colombian passed fit for the Clarets’ visit to Goodison Park.
Everton are yet to disclose the precise reason behind Rodriguez’s absence, sparking fury from former Colombia star Ivan Valenciano, who claimed Ancelotti is “lying from every point of view” as the Italian tactician will not reveal how long he will miss.
Sigurdsson opened the action in place of Rodriguez at home to Southampton and away to Chelsea, and came off the bench to assist the winner over West Bromwich Albion having initially been rested at The Hawthorns.
Ancelotti is expected to state why the Iceland playmaker was not present for training on Wednesday when he addresses the media later this week, with the reason for his absence also unspecified at this time.
Rodriguez and Sigurdsson were not the only players to be missing from the pre-Burnley sessions, either, with Abdoulaye Doucoure and Jean-Philippe Gbamin not involved.
Doucoure was ruled out until, at least, following the March international break after sitting out Monday’s loss to Chelsea with a suspected fractured foot, which could see the £20m summer signing from Watford miss up to eight weeks.
Gbamin has not featured for Everton since making only his second appearance in royal blue at home to the Hornets in August 2019, having been hampered by an Achilles tendon injury during his initial rehabilitation from two rounds of surgery and two setbacks.
Ancelotti will be bitterly concerned by the prospect of facing Burnley without either of Rodriguez or Sigurdsson on the field to pull the strings, with the midfield pair two of Everton’s most creative options.
Only Lucas Digne has assisted (6) more goals for the Toffees in the Premier League this season than Rodriguez (4) and Sigurdsson (4), who also rank third and fourth in terms of the club’s top scorers too, with five and four goals respectively – behind just Dominic Calvert-Lewin (13) and Richarlison (6).
Rodriguez further provides a team-high 1.7 key passes per top-flight game this term, ahead of Digne (1.4) and Sigurdsson (1.1) as the only Blues players to provide more than one an outing on average, per WhoScored.
Doucoure’s absence will also deprive Ancelotti of his fifth-most creative option, with the 28-year-old providing 0.8 key passes a game – just behind Bernard (0.9), who has only played 393 minutes of Premier League football this season.
Burnley may be leaking goalscoring chances this season, with only West Brom (15) allowing more shots per game than the Clarets (14.4), but Ancelotti will surely fear the prospect of facing Sean Dyche’s side without a visionary, creative player in the Toffees’ midfield.
AND in other news, Everton face a £33.5m asking price to sign a sought-after 24-year-old talent…
Celtic suffered heartbreak in the January transfer window when the tale of Ben Davies took a dramatic last-minute turn.
The defender looked certain to be making the move to Scotland as talks between the two parties reached an agreement. However, some late negotiations from Liverpool coaxed Davies to join the Premier League champions on deadline day.
It looked like a massive loss for Celtic at the time as they have been struggling immensely across their backline this season, leaking 22 goals, some 14 more than the league leaders.
However, Davies is currently out of action due to injury, just weeks after signing for his new club. Liverpool are suffering a similar defensive crisis and this news will have infuriated the fanbase.
In the last two seasons, the 25-year-old has had three recurring hamstring injuries which resulted in him missing a total of 94 days with Preston North End.
For Peter Lawwell, he can feel glad that he didn’t reach into his pocket and splash £1.6million on the centre-half.
The Hoops are limited in their defensive options, especially at centre-back. Shane Duffy has disappointed with his loan spell from Brighton and Christopher Jullien has been injured for a total of 29 matches so far this season, playing next to no role in their holding Premiership campaign, according to Transfermarkt.
Celtic have recruited Jonjoe Kenny on a temporary basis to plug some of their backline leaks.
But it’s not been enough to see the Bhoys to a tenth consecutive title win this season. They have shipped plenty of goals in the league this season as mentioned, which is already more than the 19 they conceded throughout the 2019/20 campaign.
The Glaswegians can return to the transfer market in the summer to hopefully bring in a new defender, but for now, the peace of mind that they didn’t sign the injury-prone Davies will be a weight off Lawwell’s conscience.
In other news, Lennon must prioritise starting Ismaila Soro over Scott Brown…
Speaking to Mundo Deportivo, via Sport Witness, intermediary and football agent Josep Maria Minguella Jr has dropped a transfer admission surrounding Brazilian forward Malcom and his move from Bordeaux to Barcelona in 2018 – with the intermediary revealing a €62 million (£53.7 million) offer from Tottenham at the time.
Minguella Jr, in an interview with the Spanish outlet, was asked about his role in the Malcom transfer to Barcelona – coming after Cadena SER (via Sport Witness) claimed that he received €10 million (£8.6m) commission for facilitating the move.
Rubbishing this report, Minguella Jr states his ‘real commission’ was ‘just over one million euro’ – going on to drop a revelation involving Tottenham.
He says that Spurs lodged an offer for Malcom worth £53.7m before he completed a move to Barcelona in 2018.
“Barça hired me to make possible an operation that initially cost about €62m, which was the offer that Bordeaux had from Tottenham, and we managed to get him to stop going to Roma, get off the plane and change course to Barcelona,” Minguella Jr said.
“The operation was closed for €41m plus the 8 of intermediation that could make this operation possible.”
An interesting claim, it lifts the lid on Levy’s attempted coup for ex-Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino during a time when there were few transfer dealings in north London.
Indeed, Tottenham did not make a single signing, free or otherwise, in the summer of 2018 – but Minguella Jr’s admission has shed light on an attempt at the very least.
In other news: Julian Nagelsmann claim emerges in news for Tottenham, find out more here.
West Ham United would be throwing money away if David Sullivan were to sanction a mid-season loan for FC Barcelona outcast Junior Firpo.
According to Calcio Napoli 24, Firpo’s representatives have been in contact with a clutch of potential suitors to sound out their interest in signing the left-back in the January transfer window.
West Ham have reportedly not responded to the approach as of yet, but if they do want to sign the player, they will face competition from SSC Napoli, who Gianluca Di Marzio adds have asked for further information on the terms of any temporary deal for the £38,000-per-week defender.
Firpo is believed to favour a move to the Premier League if he is to leave the Camp Nou this winter, but Napoli remain in the hunt in case they manage to offload one of Kevin Malcuit, Elseid Hysaj or Faouzi Ghoulam.
West Ham were credited with an interest in signing Firpo last month following Arthur Masuaku undergoing career-saving knee surgery, with it noted at the time that Barcelona were eager to offload the defender as they strive to reduce their enormous wage bill.
Firpo has continued to live life on the fringes under Ronald Koeman since the Irons’ interest was previously claimed, playing just nine minutes of La Liga football in 2021 to bring his record over 10 appearances to 351 minutes across all competitions.
The last of his league outings even came at right-back as a late substitute for Sergino Dest, to continue a trend of playing out of position with no appearances in his natural left-back role during a La Liga game thus far this season.
West Ham moving to sign Firpo on loan in the January transfer window would likely only serve to see Sullivan throw his money away by taking on the Barcelona outcast’s wages, as David Moyes already has options at full-back who warrant minutes.
Koeman was willing to field Firpo in his natural left-back role during stages of Barcelona’s Champions League Group Stage campaign, which saw the 24-year-old offer just 0.2 key passes and 0.4 shots while completing a mere 0.6 dribbles and making 0.6 successful tackles, per SofaScore.
Moyes would struggle to see those type of numbers match up and better those of Aaron Creswell at the London Stadium, who has put his initial rustiness to the side to begin shining at full-back once more in place of the injured Masuaku.
Cresswell has continually been defensively solid over the festive period and strong going forward, particularly from set-pieces with his ferocious power, and helped West Ham to begin setting their own tone at Chelsea after the Blues started the stronger of the two sides.
The £6m-rated star’s efforts have helped him to deliver seven crosses a game in the Premier League when fielded at left-back, with Cresswell finding a West Ham player with two of his efforts, per WhoScored. Comparably, Liverpool’s Andrew Robertson – considered as one of the best left-backs in the world – offers 2.2 accurate crosses from 9.4 deliveries a game.
Cresswell also produces 0.7 shots and the joint-most key passes per league game (1.4) by an Irons player with Tomas Soucek, among those who have played more than five times under Moyes this term.
Defensively, Cresswell is further successful with half of his 1.4 tackles a game, offers 1.3 interceptions – more than Masuaku had (0.5) – and makes 1.9 blocks, while offering at least twice as many assists (4) so far this season than anyone else in the Hammers squad.
Moyes also has Ben Johnson who can provide cover for Cresswell, and he did little wrong when fielded in the FA Cup earlier this month with a solid defensive showing from the 20-year-old.
West Ham might be eyeing new additions this month but a cast-off left-back isn’t needed at this time.
AND in other news, a £4.5m-rated brute was West Ham’s true star of the show vs Burnley.
Liverpool did well to strengthen their biggest problem area during the January transfer window thanks to Michael Edwards’ work on signing Ozan Kabak and Ben Davies. The two new centre-backs should be enough to see the Reds through their reigning title season, where they’ll push to secure another major honour.
However, as displayed during their shock 1-0 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion, Liverpool’s attack is also under a lot of strain. With super signing Diogo Jota out with a knee injury, the Premier League winners have been missing his tenacity and pace on the pitch. Because of this, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane have been working overtime to conjure up creative play and find the back of the net.
A subject that separates a lot of the Liverpool fanbase is Roberto Firmino’s input to the team. Whilst he is highly regarded as a player that does a lot of work off the ball and who grafts hard to support his teammates, his direct goal involvement stats are questionable for a striker.
Although four goal involvements in his last five appearances is a huge step up from the more recent norm, the Brazilian has suffered long droughts in front of goal. According to BBC Sport, Firmino has just six goals to his name this season, a long way off the likes of Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy and Merseyside derby rival Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
Teammate Salah leads the way as the Premier League’s top scorer so far. He has consistently outperformed the striker in terms of goal numbers since he arrived at Anfield. This has led to Liverpool being linked with several new options in the No.9 position and Kylian Mbappe is undoubtedly one of the biggest names being linked.
The French superstar has been linked to Liverpool for several months now, but a recent report from Canal + (relayed via Get French Football News) states that Jurgen Klopp has been pressing Mbappe’s entourage to get his client a move to Merseyside.
Indeed, if the Reds pull off the unthinkable and sign the World Cup winner, Klopp could be looking at this kind of lineup next season…
Being able to deploy a natural goal-machine like Mbappe could make Liverpool one of the most deadly teams on the planet. His natural, effortless ability to find the back of the net is exactly what the Reds are missing right now. However, it’s unlikely Klopp will choose to drop Firmino completely.
The 29-year-old’s lack of goals is made up by his work ethic and passion for the club. His creativity would do wonders for Mbappe as he adjusts to the Premier League and he would also benefit from having Thiago Alcantara manning the engine room behind him.
World Cup winner Mbappe has been heavily praised over the years, with the likes of Cesc Fabregas branding him a “phenomenon” of a player. Certainly, his 134 career goals so far speak for themselves, but Liverpool must be willing to meet his whopping £378,000 per week wage packet – which could be easier said than done given his current PSG contract runs out next year.
This would be one of the biggest transfers in history if it happens, as Klopp pushes Mbappe’s representatives to get him to Anfield. If the German manager gets his wish, he could be in charge of one of the all-time great attacking trios.
In other news, Exclusive: Rob Lee drops verdict on Liverpool return for Danny Ings…