Picking a World Football Best XI for January 2015
January 2015 was a scattered month for professional football and, in turn, for professional footballers.
The Premier League was interrupted by cup competitions. The Copa del Rey put two of La Liga's premier teams (Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid) in action out of the league, actually adding matches to their schedules.
For Serie A and Ligue 1, it was more or less business as usual, but the Bundesliga barely played at all. And teams from all leagues were missing players away on Africa Cup of Nations duty. Add the transfer window issues, and you can see there was a lot of non-standard stuff going on.
So the month was a bit of a strange one, but there was still enough football played to piece together a representative XI.
Goalkeeper: Anthony Lopes
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Maybe it is damning with faint praise to say this, but Anthony Lopes appears here a bit by default.
Most of the usual suspects (David de Gea, Thibault Courtois, Iker Casillas, etc.) had merely adequate months. Lopes was not exactly dominant either, but unlike many of his colleagues, he is not given days off when Lyon play out of the league.
Lopes carries a run of three straight league wins with clean sheets into February for Ligue One's leading team. That may not amount to much come spring, but it does put him on this XI for January.
Left-Back: Jordi Alba
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Jordi Alba is a workhorse left-back on one of the best clubs in football that is finding its stride at just the right time.
After stumbling out of the gates, Barcelona have sneaked back into second place in La Liga and suddenly look like demonstrative favorites over Manchester City in their upcoming Champions League knockout tie.
For his part, Alba started all seven of Barcelona's January matches in all competitions. Barcelona lost a league match to Real Sociedad on Jan. 4, but have been undefeated since. Uh-oh.
Centre-Back: Thiago Silva
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Paris Saint-Germain have no business trailing Lyon in the Ligue One table, but that is what the table says as of this writing.
Still, PSG are tied for second place with Marseille on points (though PSG are third due to having fewer wins). It is certainly not too late for PSG to pull this league race out of the bag.
Thiago Silva started and finished all seven of PSG's matches in all competitions in January. The French club went 6-1 in those matches and have won five straight heading into February.
Centre-Back: Gerard Pique
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Gerard Pique did not make this list for welcoming his second child with Shakira into the world this week, but candidly, there are worse reasons to celebrate a player.
On the pitch, though, Pique has been his usual dominant self. He did not feature in Barcelona's only loss in January at Real Sociedad.
Since that loss, Barcelona have ripped off six straight victories with Pique's steady hand on the tiller in five of those six matches.
Right-Back: Branislav Ivanovic
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Chelsea's defense clearly deserves a representative in this XI, and given the paucity of right-back options in world football in January, Branislav Ivanovic gets the nod here.
Chelsea lead the Premier League comfortably, and Ivanovic is playing some of the best two-way football in the league lately.
Ivanovic started six of Chelsea's seven matches in all competitions in January, contributing three assists and the goal against Liverpool that stamped Chelsea's ticket to the Capital One Cup final.
Midfielder: Gareth Bale
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Gareth Bale is one of the best football players in the world, but perhaps his greatest value to Real Madrid is his determined professionalism and his refusal to give in to distraction.
For many players, the sight of Cristiano Ronaldo gesticulating wildly over their failure to pass the ball to him would cause consternation, as would the jeers of Real Madrid fans.
But Real Madrid did not buy Bale for the purpose of him becoming a complicit and complacent second banana. They bought him because he is elite in his own right, and because he has an elite player's mentality.
And sometimes, that means Bale will take a shot if he has it, and that Ronaldo and everyone else will just have to live with it.
Bale scored three times and assisted twice in seven matches in all competitions for Real Madrid in January.
Midfielder: Eden Hazard
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Sometimes it is not the goals and assists a player tallies so much as when and where he does, and when and where he does not, that determines his stature in the game.
Eden Hazard only scored two goals in January, but one of them earned Chelsea the draw at Anfield that helped Chelsea secure a place in the Capital One Cup final. Hazard only had one assist in January, but he had a hand in keeping Manchester City five points back in the Premier League.
You will also note that the only match Hazard did not start for Chelsea in January was their FA Cup loss to Bradford City, a match Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho got all wrong in the end.
Midfielder: Christian Eriksen
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Christian Eriksen's emergence at Tottenham Hotspur has saved Spurs' sale of Gareth Bale from being the worst transfer in football history to instead being just a really dumb thing Spurs did.
Spurs threw a lot of the money they received in the Bale transfer away on under-performing players, but Eriksen is not one of them. If anything, Eriksen has appreciated during his time in London.
Eriksen is in rampant form now, with three goals in his last two games in all competitions. His enormous brace against Sheffield United in the Capital One Cup saw Spurs through to that cup's final against Chelsea.
And Spurs don't much fear Chelsea, so that final could be a great watch.
Midfielder: Santi Cazorla
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Admittedly, Santi Cazorla is on this list for only one performance in January, but what a performance it was.
Arsenal's record against the Premier League's best sides has been beyond atrocious, so few gave Arsene Wenger's men much chance against defending league champions Manchester City at the Etihad.
Cazorla, however, played a nearly perfect match against City. He scored once from the spot, assisted on the second goal with a perfectly weighted free-kick and generally bossed the midfield despite his relatively small stature.
And Arsenal are hanging around that fourth Premier League place in the table, just like they always seem to be.
Forward: Lionel Messi
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It is good advice for sportswriters and a lesson for life: Don't over-think it.
If you wanted to, you could make a case for any number of strikers here. Diego Costa had a pretty sporty January until he started stepping on people, for example.
But look at the numbers on Messi. He started seven matches in all competitions for Barcelona in January and scored in five of them, including a hat-trick at Deportivo and a brace at Elche.
Just because Messi is an obvious choice does not make him a wrong one.
Forward: Cristiano Ronaldo
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As with Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo's inclusion on this list is largely a function of my desire to not get cute with the facts.
Ronaldo is the reigning best footballer in the world for two years running. Real Madrid lead La Liga comfortably enough, and Ronaldo scored four times for Real Madrid in all competitions in January.
Real Madrid's form heading into February was marred by their uneven performance against Atletico Madrid in the Copa del Rey, but it would be hard to bet against Real Madrid to win La Liga this season.
And it would be hard to bet against Ronaldo winning the Ballon d'Or once again.
