Power Ranking the PFA Men's Players' Player of the Year Shortlist

On Thursday evening, the Professional Footballers' Association announced its shortlist for this season's Players' Player of the Year award.

The six-man shortlist was voted on by players from the Premier League, Football League and Women's Super League. Former Liverpool forward Luis Suarez is the reigning holder of the award.

The announced shortlist threw up few real surprises. Here it is in full:

Diego Costa (Chelsea)
David de Gea (Manchester United)
Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool)
Eden Hazard (Chelsea)
Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur)
Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal)

Click on as we break down the six candidates individually and analyse who is most likely to walk away with the prize in the end. The winner will be announced at an awards dinner in London on Sunday, April 26.

6. Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool)

Jon Super/Associated Press

Philippe Coutinho's nomination for the award came as a surprise to many, but the Brazilian has clearly earned the admiration and respect of his fellow players over the course of the campaign.

Perhaps it is the fans who are only catching up now, as his presence on the shortlist is a clear acknowledgment of his vital role in Liverpool's recovery this season.

During an often difficult season where Daniel Sturridge was invariably injured, Raheem Sterling was fielded in numerous different positions (affecting his consistency) and Steven Gerrard showed the clearest signs yet of his decline, it was ultimately Coutinho who moved into a primary role for Brendan Rodgers' side (ably assisted by Jordan Henderson and Emre Can).

Already considered something of a bargain since joining the club from Inter Milan in 2013, the diminutive 22-year-old made a clear step forward this season, highlighted by vital goals against the likes of Manchester City, Southampton and, most recently, Blackburn Rovers.

Driven by the disappointment of missing out on Brazil's World Cup squad prior to this campaign, Coutinho also had the benefit of seeing how hard Luis Suarez—the reigning PFA Players' Player of the Year—worked in training to become the best he could possibly be.

“I’m going to use this anger and push myself to my limits," Coutinho said last summer, via the Daily Mirror. "I saw how Luis Suarez was a maniac in training. At this point, my body and mind feel like clay. I will mould it the way I envision, and I will use my fire to make them harder.”

While that seems unusually poetic for a professional footballer, Coutinho has been true to his word this season, improving considerably as the campaign as gone on and slowly filling the void left by Suarez.

Since the turn of the new year, the Brazilian has been a virtual ever-present for the Reds, picking apart defences with his guile and chipping in with a handful of vital goals.

He may not have the volume of goals and/or assists of many of the other names on this shortlist, but he is clearly a player who makes his influence known in more subtle ways.

His quality was enough to get John Terry to vote for him over other candidates—something the Chelsea man proudly revealed on Instagram.

Coutinho is unlikely to pick up enough votes to win the main award, but his nomination alone should stand as a deserved reward for the quality of his play this season.

5. Diego Costa (Chelsea)

Alastair Grant/Associated Press

Diego Costa is one of two Chelsea players on the PFA shortlist, and it remains to be seen how much those two Blues stars end up taking votes off one another.

You sense Eden Hazard is likely to curry more favour with the voters than the Spain international, but Costa might take enough votes off the Belgian to prevent either of them claiming the top prize.

Nevertheless, it has been a sparkling debut campaign in English football for Costa, who arrived from Atletico Madrid for a hefty transfer fee (and with a reputation buoyed by his heroics for Atleti last season) and wasted no time in justifying it.

The 26-year-old scored seven goals in his first four Premier League games and has 19 from 23 starts as the season heads toward its conclusion.

His lethal finishing is one of the primary reasons Chelsea are heavy favourites to lift the league title, even if Cesc Fabregas should take an equal slice of the credit for the improved attacking threat of Jose Mourinho's side this term (indeed, Fabregas is perhaps the unluckiest player to miss out on the shortlist). 

It is no coincidence that the differences between last season's third-place finish and this campaign's likely title success are the cutting edge of Costa and the innovation of Fabregas. Both players have improved their team significantly, Costa especially.

Costa's case for victory is predicated on his goals—goals tallies have caught the eye of voters in the past—but he was caught in the top goalscorer's chart by Tottenham's Harry Kane during the crucial voting period and that might ultimately sink his candidacy.

He is perhaps the most efficient player in front of goal in the league, but some voters no doubt will have wondered if any striker would fare well with the quality of creative players Costa has around him.

Hazard is perceived by many to be more integral to Chelsea's quality of play this season, so Costa is unlikely to walk away with the main prize next Sunday.

4. Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal)

Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated Press

Alexis Sanchez is the second Premier League debutant to make the PFA shortlist this season, but there can be no suggestion that voters have only been captivated by the new and shiny.

Sanchez has been brilliant almost from start to finish in his first season at Arsenal, hitting the ground running like only the very best players can seem to do and immediately asserting himself as one of the finest in the league.

Of all the players on this shortlist, it is arguable that no player has done more than Sanchez to elevate his team.

Harry Kane's goals have propelled Spurs, but they look likely to end up finishing in the Europa League places. Diego Costa has been lethal for Chelsea, but another striker could have perhaps fared just as well given the service. Eden Hazard has been great as always, but the club's new signings have been the difference as Chelsea push toward the title this season.

Sanchez, though, has changed the atmosphere around the club, driving an Arsenal side that has finished fourth pretty much every season in recent memory into becoming one that looks likely to finish the campaign second, the closest challengers to Chelsea. This is clear, distinct progress for the club, progress that Sanchez has been a vital part of.

The Chilean arrived at Arsenal after a busy World Cup campaign and immediately made an impression. He provided an assist in an opening day win over Crystal Palace and then notched his first goal against Besiktas to send the Gunners into the Champions League group stages (they won 1-0 on aggregate).

Sanchez has continued to thrive, striking 14 goals so far in the league despite generally playing in the wide areas.

"Alexis is one of the players who had to dig deep, but he still had such desire to fight," Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said in December, per Sky Sports, after Sanchez had scored the only goal in a game against Southampton. "He always finds something special to get a goal.

"It's difficult to find examples of someone who has settled at a club so quickly. He arrived in July and now it's December. When you look at the number of goals he has and the impact he has on the team, it's fabulous."

His pace and technique on the ball is not in question, but Sanchez's most laudable quality is the work ethic and intensity of his pressing. When he is playing, he makes the Gunners an altogether more dynamic side, providing a valuable foil for the more languid, plotted movements of Mesut Ozil and Santi Cazorla.

Bar a fallow period in the middle of the season—when Wenger admitted that Sanchez had been overplayed—Sanchez has been his team's most threatening player all season.

He will likely fall just short in the voting for the PFA award this season, but Sanchez figures to be a strong contender for next season's prize—and every season after that, for as long as he remains in England.

3. David De Gea (Manchester United)

Scott Heppell/Associated Press

The only goalkeeper on the list, David de Gea has undoubtedly deserved his nomination for this season's award.

He was the one shining light in the early part of Manchester United's campaign, when the team struggled for fluency and consistency. But now that the rest of the team are finally catching up with the performances of their No. 1, it is little surprise United are beginning to reach their capabilities.

It is a testament to De Gea's evident quality that he continues to be linked with a move to Real Madrid, which is perhaps the one concern for United fans who should hope to see the Spain international between the posts for another decade or more.

As it is, the 24-year-old is out of contract next summer, and it remains to be seen if he will be signing an extension.

That is in the future, however, and this award is about achievements of the recent past.

When United were adapting to the methods of new manager Louis van Gaal, De Gea was the one keeping things afloat. The goalkeeper made outstanding saves week in and week out to bail out his defence and decrease the pressure on Van Gaal.

He has 10 clean sheets already this season, a fine return considering how creaky the United defence has often seemed to be. 

The ex-Atletico Madrid man was already a great shot-stopper when he first arrived at Old Trafford, but this season, he has illustrated his improved command of his area, his coolness with the ball at feet and excellent general reading of the play.

As Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville said in December:

"

We are now seeing a huge improvement in his game. He has always been a great shot-stopper, he has been like that from day one.

However, there are four other areas where he has greatly improved his game, the first being dealing with crosses, which I still think is his main challenge. 

This season there is a massive improvement on his intent. He is now catching and dominating. Incredibly, he has made just one punch, against Arsenal, all season.

"

In recent weeks, United's attacking players have upped their game to take the spotlight. But it is clear the players around the league have not forgotten about their meetings with De Gea, and he is a deserved, strong candidate on this list.

Arguably the most praised player on this list over the first two-thirds of the season, De Gea will undoubtedly have accrued a significant number of votes—especially as there is no other obvious candidate from United to steal ballots away from him.

Unfortunately for De Gea, there are two candidates who seem to stand head-and-shoulders above him; Much like Manuel Neuer in the Ballon d'Or voting last year, the one goalkeeper on the list looks destined to finish third at best.

2. Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur)

Alastair Grant/Associated Press

Now we are getting into the real contenders. You will have to go pretty far to find a pundit who does not believe that the PFA award is a two-horse race, with Harry Kane and Eden Hazard the men fighting it out for the top honour (and perhaps the young player award, too).

Kane is the surprise entry on this list when you consider where all six players were at the start of the season, and to an extent, his stunning rise probably plays a part in his candidacy.

No one expected the recently-capped England international to make the impact he has done this season (least of all his manager, Mauricio Pochettino, who was initially reluctant to make him first-choice in the Premier League). But Kane has been almost impossible to play against, to such an extent he now leads the Premier League goalscoring charts.

Kane initially found the net with consistency in the Europa League, and once he progressed to Tottenham Hotspur's starting XI in the league, he continued to score with regularity. Despite his growing goals tally, many sceptical observers suggested it was a blip, a freak occurrence that was bound to end sooner or later.

But that has not happened yet. Kane's goalscoring rate has slowed down a bit in recent weeks, perhaps the first signs that defences are working him out, but he is still chipping in with goals and keeping Spurs on the fringes of the Champions League race.

He was Spurs' third-choice striker back in August, but in 2015, he picked up back-to-back Premier League Player of the Month awards (the fourth player ever to do so) and scored in his England debut. He has even captained Spurs in the league. No player has enjoyed a rise like Kane has this season.

"Yes you could say it has been the best week of my life," Kane said, per the London Evening Standard, in the week he notched against Lithuania. "To score, to make my first start and score for England, and to be captain today [for Spurs]. It has been an unbelievable couple of weeks and one I won't forget for the rest of my career." 

Kane's chances of winning this award are greatly helped by the fact that the height of "Hurri-Kane" mania came right in the middle of the voting period, almost guaranteeing him a huge slice of votes from players perhaps unwilling to spend too long considering their ballots.

That is not to say he did not deserve them. At the time, he was undoubtedly the most influential player in the league, with every game turning on his interventions. If he were to win the award, there would be few real complaints.

There are only a few minor marks against Kane's chances. Some voters might be dissuaded by the fact he has not played as many games as some, while others might wonder if, for all Kane's goals, Spurs (sixth at the time of writing) have actually done any better than they would have done without him.

These are minor points—exceedingly minor, perhaps—but considering the quality of player he is up against for the award, they might just prove decisive in the final reckoning.

1. Eden Hazard (Chelsea)

Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated Press

A slender favourite for the Player of the Year award, it will be interesting to see if Eden Hazard does ultimately come out on top against Harry Kane when the winner is announced.

If Kane's candidacy is based on a purple patch of form since the final weeks of 2014, then Hazard's relies on a more consistent, sustained brilliance—an acceptance that he has been the best player over the full course of the campaign, even if other individuals have enjoyed greater highs for shorter periods.

There isn't much debate now that Hazard is the best player in the Premier League, or that he is about the only one on these shores deserving of being mentioned in the debate about the next man behind Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in the world pecking order.

Those facts may be the driving force beind the Belgian's chances. He's not just been the best player in the league this season, he is the best player.

Twelve goals and eight assists this season is a prolific return from the 24-year-old, and it is a measure of his overall talent that some might suggest he should be contributing even more.

Nevertheless, he blends the tangible productivity of Alexis Sanchez and Cesc Fabregas with the subtle skill and movement of someone like Coutinho—even when he does not score or assist in a game, Hazard is invariably the most dangerous player for the Blues (who are hardly short of threats).

This was most evident in the game earlier this year against West Ham United at Upton Park. Chelsea struggled for large parts, but Hazard was the one player the opposition could not get near. The Belgian either drew a foul or brought the ball upfield to release the pressure on his side.

Thibaut Courtois made a couple of crucial saves, Gary Cahill made a few decisive blocks, and then Hazard was there to score the winner—a header, of all things—to add another crucial three points.

Chelsea's season has been littered with games like that, difficult encounters where Diego Costa or Cesc Fabregas have been off form and the whole team has consequently struggled for fluency. Yet time and time again, Jose Mourinho's side have found a way to win, and Hazard has invariably been the reason why.

In tough games, the team has often turned to the Belgian to make the difference.

"I think what [Hazard] is doing, speaking in a very honest way, it shouldn't even be a debate," Jose Mourinho said in early April, per Sky Sports. "If somebody throws other names on the table, it's because he wants to sell papers, wants to throw some sand into people's eyes, because this player is by far the best player in the Premier League all season."

It is never too wise to argue with Mourinho. Kane might have been more explosive at times this season, hitting heights no other player has attained, but Hazard has consistency on his side—and his team are almost certain to end up winning the league.

The true extent of Hazard's quality perhaps only becomes evident when you come up against him, and ultimately, it is worth remembering that the players vote for this award. Coutinho's nomination shows the voters have an appreciation for the game beyond goals and statistics.

That augurs well for Hazard, who must figure to be a slender—but deserved—favourite to succeed Luis Suarez as the PFA Players' Player of the Year.