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We are at the halfway point of the club season and we have witnessed some great performances from players all across the globe. There have been certain players who have made notable improvements from last season and then there are some for whom no hope is left.
Ousmane Dembele is one of the players who has taken a big step towards cementing his place in the starting line-up. The Frenchman has scored decisive goals for the Blaugrana both in Champions League and the LaLiga.
Across the sea in England, Bernardo Silva has showcased much better performances than the preceding season. The Portuguese star is operating in the right half of the midfield in a deeper role. Andre Silva has been a good buy for Sevilla. The attacker who left Milan this season has been among the team's top scorers.
Ajax captain Matthijs De Ligt has been among the youngsters to watch out for. The Dutchman was a formidable figure in the UEFA Nations League for the Netherlands and has been equally important at Ajax. Arsenal prodigy Reiss Nelson who is on loan at Hoffenheim has also been promising. The big revelation in Bundesliga is Jadon Sancho who has been absolutely terrific for Borussia Dortmund.
Youngsters, seasoned campaigners, players in their prime; every player has been looking to give their best for the team. But here, we'll take a look at the very best, in terms of overall match ratings.
Note: The following is arranged in ascending order of match rating and not based on the league. This article is based on average match rating awarded by Whoscored.com.
Also see : Gold Cup Standings, Copa America Standings, Womens World Cup Bracket
#5 Thorgan Hazard (Borussia Monchengladbach, Bundesliga) - 7.71
Much like his elder brother, Thorgan Hazard has been an important part of his team. The 25-year-old has featured in all 17 games for Monchengladbach. He has been played on virtually every midfield position.
Primarily an attacking midfielder on any part of the pitch, Thorgan has played up to 6 different positions. He has played as a right-forward, a left-forward, a left-midfielder, a right-midfielder, a defensive midfielder, and a central attacking midfielder.
Thorgan has scored 9 goals in his 17 appearances in Bundesliga and also dished 6 assists. He has arguably put up Man of the Match performances in at least 5 games this season in the league. He has also registered an average of almost 3 key-passes per game. The Belgian star is a strong passer of the ball and he is good at threading through balls and key passes.
To back his average rating up, he has his incredible play-making skills that justify the fact. He is probably the best play maker in Bundesliga right now, with the highest number of chances created among all players (44). He is the second-highest in assisting, behind Jadon Sancho, Florian Neuhaus, and Sebastian Haller. (all with 7 assists)
If he keeps up his performances, he is bound to come under the radar of big teams and could even move away from Germany in the summer.
Liverpool and Tottenham are amongst the interested parties to sign the younger Hazard. Should Thorgan move to any PL team other than Chelsea, then we will have a mouth-watering duel between two brothers to witness.
#4 Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus, Serie A) - 7.73
No surprises here, eh? Cristiano Ronaldo, of course, Cristiano Ronaldo, who else could be the top rated player when the Portuguese ace is around.
The transfer window this summer offered one of the biggest team switches as 'CR7' changed sides to Juventus. Despite having a rough start to his Serie A season, he currently tops the Serie A scoring charts with 14 goals to his name. He has also got five assists to his name.
Ronaldo has scored 37% of all goals scored by the Old Lady. He has scored some really important goals as well. He helped Juventus salvage a draw against Atalanta after coming off the bench. He scored both goals in Juve's win over Sampdoria. He was the only scorer for his team in the 1-1 draw against Genoa and the 2-1 win over Empoli as well.
When it comes to play making, Ronaldo has created a total of 25 chances which is very less in comparison to Thorgan Hazard at Germany. As a fact, Cristiano Ronaldo has less take-on success as compared to the younger Hazard brother.
But goals play a huge role in getting the match rating high and perhaps more goals give Ronaldo the slight edge in terms of average match rating.
#3 Eden Hazard (Chelsea, English Premier League) - 7.84
What you could do, I could do better. This seems to be the story between the Hazard brothers. Thorgan Hazard has been absolutely impressive in Bundesliga but his elder brother Eden outshines him at Chelsea. Eden Hazard has scored 10 goals and got 10 assists to his name in 21 appearances for Chelsea. (3 as a substitute)
Eden has also been among the top play makers for Chelsea, having created 52 goal-scoring chances. The elder Hazard has, in fact, created the most number of chances and got the most number of assists in the Premier League so far. Maurizio Sarri's appointment as the coach really seems to have awoken the sleeping giant inside Hazard.
The Belgian has been a pivotal part of the Chelsea attacks as he was in the World Cup for Belgium. Hazard has sometimes played in the false-9 position and also in the left wing position. He has already put up some incredible performances.
Memorably, his performance against Liverpool and Arsenal in the Premier League were terrific. Hazard is one of the only two players to have reached double digits for both goals and assists. The other player, well, we'll get to him, eventually.
#2 Neymar (Paris Saint-Germain, Ligue 1) - 8.41
One of the only two players to average a match rating above 8. Neymar makes the cut ahead of teammate Kylian Mbappe (7.97) despite having less number of goals. He has scored 11 goals and created 5 assists for PSG in 12 appearances.
On an average, Neymar has 2.8 key passes per game, 54 passes per game and completes almost 80.8% passes per game. He has also created 20 chances from open play for PSG. In addition, he leads the way in Europe in terms of dribbles per game (4.8). Although players like Dimitri Payet and Memphis Depay have created more scoring opportunities for the team, they lack one or the other aspect of the game which hurts their average rating.
Neymar is well rounded in passing, assisting, scoring, creating and dribbling. Depay assists and scores, but he lacks passing accuracy and hardly dribbles. Payet, similarly, creates more chances than anyone in Ligue 1, but he is also a poor dribbler and scorer when compared with someone of Neymar's caliber.
Due to Mbappe's inability to match the passing of Neymar, even he does not catch up. The comparison between Neymar and Mbappe takes a clear one-sided stand when comparing successful take-ons. (51 to 27)
Neymar is the player with the highest average match rating in Ligue 1. He is also one of the only two players with a rating above 8 at the stage. He is second only to...
#1 Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona, LaLiga) - 8.62
The magical, the mercurial, Lionel Andres Messi. The only player besides Eden Hazard to have reached double digits in scoring as well as assisting. Lionel Messi has scored 17 goals and registered 10 assists in 17 appearances for Barcelona. He leads the way in terms of both scoring and assisting, not only in the LaLiga but in the whole of Europe.
Lionel Messi's astounding average match rating of 8.62 is due to the accumulation of each small factor such as passing, dribbling, assisting and scoring. Messi dishes 3.2 key passes per game and also completes 4.2 dribbles per game. He also registers at least three through-balls per game on an average. Messi leads the way in threading through passes in Europe's Top 5 leagues, with 17.
Stats aside, Messi has given us some jaw-dropping performances and moments in the first half of the season. Especially in the Champions League, the Argentine has been on top of his game, winning the player of the week award each week he started for Barcelona. In the league, there is no shortage of his magic.
He performed extremely well in games against Espanyol, Levante and Athletic Bilbao to name a few. The others, he was just about excellent.
There would be no arguments as to why he leads the way in terms of average match rating in Europe. Lionel Messi should continue in the same way if Barcelona has to stand any chance of winning a treble yet again.
