Okay, so we very recently did a video on the 7 best players not nominated for the 2018 Ballon d’Or – so feel free to check that video out if you haven’t already – and a number of you requested that we flip it on its head and take a look at some of the players who were maybe somewhat fortuitous to have been included.
Now, the Ballon d’Or nominees are supposed to be a 30-man shortlist of the best players in the world over a calendar year. As such, every player on it is an extraordinarily talented footballer and every one had at least some exceptional form in 2018. So just to clarify, we are by no means critiquing any of the players here, just questioning whether they had better 2018’s than the players who featured in our best that missed out seven.
Here are 7 players who didn’t deserve to be nominated for the 2018 Ballon d’Or:
7. Roberto Firmino
Going in order of those who have the best claim to make the shortlist to those with the least, we begin with Roberto Firmino, who is a player we like a lot. A centre-forward with a terrific work rate, Firmino obviously made the shortlist due to his form in the Champions League, which is weighted incredibly heavily when it comes to the Ballon d’Or. The Brazilian bagged 11 goals in 15 games in the competition as Liverpool reached the final, but a tally of 15 in 37 in the Premier League wasn’t exactly Golden Boot material, with the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Raheem Sterling and Jamie Vardy all scoring more.
Granted, Firmino’s game is about much more than goals, but we’d question whether he had a better 2018 than fellow centre-forwards like Robert Lewandowski and Ciro Immobile.
6. Mario Mandzukic
Mario Mand?uki? during Serie A match between Udinese v Juventus, in Udine, on October 6, 2017
Another centre-forward who brings a lot more to a team than goals is Mario Mandzukic, and trust us when we say we are all too aware of that. Mandzukic is a brilliant team player who often pops up with a goal when his team need him most, as he proved at the World Cup against England. However, we just feel as though Croatia’s run to the World Cup final and the fact he scored a few in the Champions League have been weighted a tad heavily.
Despite the fact that he spent a fair amount of time out on the left wing last season, a tally of only 5 Serie A goals is pretty miserly. He’s only one goal off tying that already this season to be fair, and we just feel the aforementioned duo or even the likes of Mauro Icardi and his Juve teammate Paulo Dybala were just as worthy candidates in attacking areas over the entirety of 2018.
5. Thibaut Courtois
There was a weird wave of comments on this channel following the World Cup stating that Thibaut Courtois was the best goalkeeper in the world. He may well have been the best goalkeeper at the World Cup, indeed he did win the Golden Glove, but standing out in a single month-long tournament does automatically make him the best goalkeeper in the world. Jordan Pickford had a better World Cup than Manuel Neuer, but you’d get a few queer looks if you went around stating that Pickford was better than Neuer. Or at least I hope you would.
Courtois is undoubtedly a good goalkeeper, but was he among the four best goalkeepers in the world in 2018? We don’t think so, and it speaks volumes that Chelsea fans weren’t too disheartened to seem him go, with the early suggestions being that Kepa will be a more than capable replacement. Both Marc-Andre ter Stegen and David De Gea were far better than Courtois in 2018.
4. Sadio Mane
Liverpool’s Sadio Mane under pressure from Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva during the Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Manchester City at Anfield on October 7, 2018 in…
The second of Liverpool’s brilliant front three to make this seven, don’t worry, Mohamed Salah isn’t still to come. Mane is obviously a brilliant footballer, although we think he still has the potential to improve, and he had a very good 2018. The Senegal star had his second best ever campaign in terms of goal scoring in 2017-18, and once again, Liverpool’s run to the Champions League final has obviously seen him favoured.
However, take a look at his combined goals and assists for the campaign for such an attacking player and you have to ask one or two questions. On that front, Mane had a combined total of 17 in the Premier League, the same number as Marko Arnautovic and Alvaro Morata, and fewer than the likes of Alexandre Lacazette and Son Heung-min, neither of whom most people would say had particularly exceptional campaigns. In fact, compare his tally of 17 to Raheem Sterling’s total of 29, and it’s pretty clear that Mane is only in there due to Liverpool’s Champions League run.
3. Hugo Lloris
Pretty similarly to Thibaut Courtois, we think Hugo Lloris’ selection above the likes of De Gea and ter Stegen is even more unjustified. The Frenchmen is unquestionably a very good goalkeeper, but 2018 really wasn’t his best year. His 2017-18 campaign was certainly among his poorer seasons since joining Tottenham in 2012, and even at the World Cup – which is clearly why he has been nominated – there were at least three or four more impressive goalkeepers. So Lloris’s inclusion is a funny one, and we can’t see him getting too many votes in the final stage.
2. Karim Benzema
Karim Benzema of Real Madrid during the La Liga Santander match between Deportivo Alaves v Real Madrid at the Estadio de Mendizorroza on October 6, 2018 in Vitoria Gasteiz Spain
Probably the most criticized of all the 2018 Ballon d’Or nominees, you have probably seen posts doing the rounds showing that Glenn Murray has scored more goals than Karim Benzema in 2018. Now, we’re often ones to stick up for Benzema. He has done a very good job for Real Madrid in Cristiano Ronaldo’s shadow for the last 9 years, and we’re big fans of his hold-up play, footballing intelligence and close control.
However, has he been among the best 30 footballers in the world in 2018? We don’t think so. We’ve already mentioned a few forwards who we feel would have been better candidates for the shortlist, and we think Benzema is probably the second most fortuitous to have featured.
1. Paul Pogba
Now, I’m well aware that this is going to be a controversial choice, but hear me out. Paul Pogba had a good World Cup. I repeat, a good World Cup. He didn’t have a great World Cup, lets not pretend we’re talking about Maradona in ‘86, he got one goal, no assists and played some nice stuff in the middle of the park. I’d argue that there were at least three or four more impressive players in that French side, his midfield partner N’Golo Kante for a start.
That’s not Pogba-bashing, the Frenchman obviously has a great deal of class about him on a football pitch, we just don’t believe he showed enough of that class in 2018 to rank among the world’s 30 best players, whilst the likes of David Silva and Toni Kroos missed out.
Pogba has basically spent the entire year under a cloud at Manchester United, never showing consistently top class form and constantly being linked with moves away. No-one in their right mind would suggest he was better than David Silva or even Fernandinho in the Premier League last season, so his inclusion is based purely on his form at the World Cup, which – as we’ve established – we think has probably been a little bit overdone.
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