La Liga: Ranking The 10 Best Players So Far This Season
After 16 matches, there's still everything left to decide in La Liga. Barcelona currently lead the standings with 43 points from 14 wins, one draw and one defeat. An impressive performance so far by the blaugrana, who are currently on a 10-match winning streak and who boast a ridiculous goal differential of +42 (51-9).
However, despite being steamrolled at Camp Nou, Real Madrid's form hasn't been affected and they only trail by two points and are still in the title race. Even if they haven't been as impressive as Barcelona, they have kept their winning ways, which puts them in a great position to take first place should Barcelona slip up.
With the two giants in rampant form, Villareal, who are having a great season, are a distant third and 10 points behind Barcelona.
Once again, it looks that it will be a race only between Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Some players have been performing at an exceptional level. The most impressive ones obviously belong to the top teams, but not all. Let's take a look at La Liga's best performers this season so far:
10) Fernando Llorente
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10 goals in 15 matches is a very good stat for any striker, especially for a striker who plays for a low-scoring team like Athletico Bilbao.
Llorente has scored 40 percent of Bilbao's goals and is the main reason why Athletico Bilbao are only three points behind a Champions League spot.
Only Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and David Villa have scored more than the 25-year-old Spanish striker, who has been linked to a move to Real Madrid, whose manager is reportedly a fan of his abilities.
9) Angel Di Maria
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The former Benfica player has taken La Liga by storm and he has been one of Real Madrid's best players this season.
The 22-year-old winger has been tormenting La Liga's fullbacks and scoring some important goals, including a recent match-winning goal against Sevilla.
8) David Villa
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It is probably unfair to rank David Villa this low, but one can't shake the feeling that, even though Villa has been tremendous so far, there's so much more to come from the Spanish striker.
So far, he has helped take Pep Guardiola's Dream Team to a whole new level. He can play in every attacking position and his link-up play with Messi and Pedro has been superb. He has brought back (and argubaly improved) the dynamic that Barcelona's attack used to have with Samuel Eto'o.
He had some troubles finding the net in the first few matches, hitting the woodwork a disbelieving nine times. However, as a world-class striker he is, David Villa eventually found his scoring boots and currently has 11 goals (closing the gap to Messi and Ronaldo with each passing week) and six assists in La Liga.
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7) Xabi Alonso
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Xabi Alonso is an absolutely crucial player to Real Madrid, who have been known to struggle without his presence.
His consistency, class and fantastic long-range passing skills make him one of the best in his position and one of the best players in this year's La Liga.
6) Sergio Busquets
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The 22-year-old has been nothing short of brilliant this season. His absolutely fantastic performance in El Clásico epitomized what Busquets is all about.
The way he reads the game and his on-field intelligence are second to none and he is a perfect fit in Barcelona's midfield trio. It's no surprise that Mascherano doesn't play more often.
5) Nilmar
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Villareal have a great squad and have been fantastic this season. They proved at Camp Nou; they played an open game against Barcelona, pressed high and only Messi's genius could save Barcelona in the second half.
On their day, Villareal can beat any team; the problem is that they don't have the same economic power as Barcelona or Real Madrid—meaning that they don't have enough depth in their squad to challenge for the title.
Still, the third place seems theirs this season, much thanks to their high-scoring attacking duo, Nilmar and Rossi.
Nilmar has been especially great this season, scoring and wreaking havoc every week. If he keeps this up, Villareal won't be able to hold on to the Brazilian striker much longer. His fantastic goal at Camp Nou showed all his class.
4) Xavi Hernandez
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After winning everything both with Barcelona and with the Spanish national team, Xavi still finds the motivation to perform at the highest level and cement his legendary status.
After an extenuating effort last season, Xavi has dealt with some nagging injuries this season, which forced Guardiola to manage his minutes carefully. A fully-recovered Xavi showed all his greatness in El Clásico, with a true Man of the Match performance.
After Xavi's return to full fitness, Barcelona have been on unstoppable form, which says a lot about his importance in Pep Guardiola's Dream Team.
3) Cristiano Ronaldo
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Is Cristiano Ronaldo a better player than Xavi? No way. But he is having a better season so far; he has taken part in every Real Madrid match in La Liga and played a vital part in their excellent campaign.
The Portuguese forward is experiencing the best form of his life and has scored 17 goals in only 16 league matches. He's second in the scoring charts, with the same goals as Messi but two more apperances than the best player in the world.
He also has five assists to his name, which means that he is directly associated to 56 percent of Real Madrid's goal, which underlines just how important Ronaldo has been to "Los Blancos." Without him, Real Madrid would not be only two points behind Barcelona.
2) Andrés Iniesta
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With Xavi having injury problems, Iniesta took extra responsibilities and he did so brilliantly. He's having arguably the best season of his life.
His stunning dribbling runs have been sharper than ever, his passing more accurate than ever and his understanding with his teammates is as telepathic as usual. He has even scored four goals, which is a lot by Iniesta's usual low-scoring standards.
Despite having a poor season in 2009/2010, this season Iniesta is showing the world that he deserves to have been included among the three best players in the world. The only reason why he doesn't top this ranking is that, despite Iniesta's brilliant season, he is "unlucky" to play in the same team (and obviously in the same league) as a truly once-in-a-generation player, who, hard as it may seem to believe, keeps reaching new heights of greatness with each passing day.
1) Lionel Messi
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I was obviously referring to Lionel Messi.
It looked impossible that Messi could improve on his 2009/2010 performance, but the truth is that the Argentine genius is an even better player today.
Messi currently leads both the scoring and assist charts, with 17 goals and 12 assists (the second player with most assists has only six) in only 14 appearances. This means that, on average, Messi creates more than two goals per match.
These absolutely ridiculous stats don't even tell the whole story, though. Messi's contributions and brilliance goes way beyond stats and that's what makes him an irreplaceable player at Barcelona; there's no other like him.
While these rankings are likely to change by the end of the season, only a catastrophe will stop Messi from being La Liga's best player of the season.
Honorable Mentions
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With so many great players in La Liga, some had to be left out unfortunately. Here are some who were close to making it:
Santi Cazorla
Joan Capdevilla
Giuseppe Rossi
Sergio Aguero
Mezut Ozil
Iker Casillas
Ricardo Carvalho
Carles Puyol
Pedro Rodriguez
Felipe Caicedo
David Trezeguet
Nelson Valdez
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.jpg?w=600 "Heisman candidate goes undrafted, accepts camp invite")
