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We rank the ten best young players in the Premier League, with Liverpool and Chelsea starlets on the up.
For the past month or so, the Wonderkid Power Rankings have been pretty stable – the players at the top have been consistently good (sometimes in spite of their team’s failings), while the players lower down the rankings have been rather more up and down. Now, we’re starting to see signs of change.
Several big names struggled over the weekend or in last week’s European matches, while a few of the lesser lights impressed – and if that continues, we’re going to see some serious movement at the top of our ranking of the best young players in the Premier League very soon.
That doesn’t mean huge swings this week, as consistency plays a large part in our considerations, but we do say goodbye to a couple of players for now – Liam Delap has had a pretty rotten run in front of goal of late and slides out of the Top 10, while Destiny Udogie has now aged out of the running. Anyway, onto our latest list…
10. Levi Colwill – Chelsea (re-entry)
A few indifferent games and an international absence meant that Colwill slid out of the Top 10, but he did enough against Aston Villa to edge back in. A goal-line clearance and three blocked shots helped Chelsea to keep a clean sheet in what could have been a tough game, and his confidence in possession – Colwill completed over 100 passes – made life a lot easier too.
9. Jhon Durán – Aston Villa (⬇️4)
Gone are the days when the Colombian couldn’t stop scoring regardless of whether he started a game or not – it’s now been over a month since he last hit the back of the net and he managed just one shot on goal over the course of 36 minutes on the field against both Chelsea and Juventus. Durán had a solid hold on the number one spot not that long ago, but now he teeters on the brink of slipping out of our rankings altogether, especially with a lot of injured youngsters on the brink of comebacks.
8. Yasin Ayari – Brighton & Hove Albion (-)
A smooth and solid game for the young Swede against Southampton. There were no huge chances created and no vast difference made in the final third, but he was economical in possession, kept the ball moving around nicely and continued to show appreciable improvement off the ball, winning a fair few duels in a choppy midfield battle.
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7. Mateus Fernandes – Southampton (⬆️3)
One of Ayari’s opponents in that midfield scrap was even better, however. Fresh from scoring his first league goal last week, Fernandes showed off some excellent and dangerous direct passing and created a couple of thoroughly presentable chances. His work out of possession was decent too, barring a couple of fouls when opponents got the better of him.
6. Savinho – Manchester City (⬇️3)
While Manchester City have struggled abysmally of late, Savinho has generally looked sharp, lively, and more likely to make something happen than most of his bewildered comrades – not so this week. After missing out on some gametime in the 3-3 draw against Feyenoord in the Champions League, he got half an hour against Liverpool and did, frankly, virtually nothing. Not that you can say much more of most of his colleagues.
5. Facundo Buonanotte – Leicester City (re-entry)
The on-loan Argentine only lost his spot in our Top 10 after missing a few games in a row and comes storming back in after scoring Leicester City’s lone goal in an otherwise unimpressive game against Brentford – not that he could really have missed the open goal presented to him by Jamie Vardy.
Still, in a game in which the Foxes rarely threatened, Buonanotte was back to being at the heart of just about everything good they did manage to do going forward. He now has six goal contributions in 11 matches for his temporary club, and his knack for finding space and his cutting edge could be crucial in the relegation battle.
4. Conor Bradley – Liverpool (⬆️3)
Sadly, this will be Bradley’s third and final week in the rankings for a while, as a serious injury sustained in the Champions League game against Real Madrid means that he’ll be stuck on the sidelines for at least a month. But what a game he had.
Keeping Kylian Mbappé quite for long periods is no mean feet even when the Frenchman is off the boil, and he made one or two superb tackles to make sure that Liverpool kept their sheet clean against the toughest opposition imaginable. To add a cherry on top, his neatly-judged one-two teed up Alexis Mac Allister for the opening goal – one of Bradley’s best nights.
3. Milos Kerkez – Bournemouth (⬆️3)
In truth, the Hungarian didn’t actually have his best game against Wolverhampton Wanderers – but the only thing that will be remembered for any length of time was his magnificent goal, which served as testament to his growing threat in the final third. Arriving on the overlap with a well-timed run, Kerkez slammed the ball into the roof of the Wolves net like he was a striker rather than a left-back who not long ago needed to be more productive around the opposition area.
Aside from that sparkling strike, he wasn’t as good as he has been in recent weeks – he didn’t complete a single cross or successful dribble going forward and didn’t register a tackle in defence. But when you make a difference on the scoresheet, that matters rather less.
2. Rico Lewis – Manchester City (-)
On the one hand, Lewis is just about the last player you can blame for Manchester City’s sudden decline. On the other, the fact that he isn’t Rodri is rather hurting his club, and while he does his job consistently well, he doesn’t have the same kind of defensive judgement as the Spaniard and spaces are opening up behind the City midfield which never once existed.
That said, blaming for Lewis for not being the best player in the world seems harsh. Once again, his passing was persistently on point, he moved well off the ball to consistently create options, and he didn’t make the mistakes others on his team have been culpable for – although, granted, he did miss City’s once decent chance against Liverpool. Lewis does a lot well, but he still looks lost in the penalty box. He hangs on to second spot for consistently solid performances in tough circumstances, but his neck is being breathed down pretty hard now.
1. Lewis Hall – Newcastle United (-)
Speaking of which, Hall will have to play a lot better than he did against Crystal Palace to cling on to top spot for much longer. For the last month or so, Hall has been our deserving number one having missed very few beats, but he was poor at the weekend and only his long-term consistency has saved him from dropping down the table. He won’t get that grace twice.
Hall didn’t manage a single tackle at Selhurst Park but was beaten twice on the run and lost all six of his ground duels, which is pretty appalling, especially from a player who has generally been pretty strong at the back – and he gave the ball away no fewer than 22 times without impacting the final third as often as he has. This may be the worst a player has played while keeping the number one slot in our Top 10, but the contenders had too much ground to make up this week and Hall has otherwise been very good for a long time.
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