Chelsea midfielder Jorginho has been ranked as the Premier league’s best performer in 2021 and he is third in the CIES rankings across Europe.
The Italian international has had his fair share of criticism since joining the Blues but he has found a new lease of life under manager Thomas Tuchel.
Since the arrival of the German, Jorginho has put on splendid displays against the likes of Burnley, Tottenham, Sheffield United, Liverpool and Everton.
That said, it’s quite surprising that he has been picked as the best performer in the league this year. The likes of Ilkay Gundogan for example have been far better and deserve a place in the top ten.
Other controversial picks include Thiago Alcantara from Liverpool, Pascal Gross from Brighton and Granit Xhaka from Arsenal.
Thiago is a world-class player on his day but his form has been quite inconsistent since the turn of the year and the likes of Youri Tielemans deserve to be ahead of him in the rankings. The same can be said about Xhaka who has been quite mediocre for the Gunners.
The likes of Raphinha, Harry Kane, Luke Shaw, Wilfred Ndidi, and Ruben Dias are some of the other players in the top ten Premier League performers list and they are undoubtedly worthy entrants.
However, some of the aforementioned players deserve to be ranked higher.
Ruben Dias, for example, has been outstanding for City this season and he is undoubtedly one of the best players in the Premier League this season. The Portuguese international should be ahead of Jorginho on the list.
Similarly, the likes of Cancelo, Rice and Mount should have been in the top ten based on their performances in 2021.
As far as the rankings across Europe are concerned, Lionel Messi and Robert Lewandowski are unsurprisingly the top two players on the list. However, the omission of Mbappe (14 goals, 2 assists), Suarez (11 goals, 1 assist) and Haaland (16 goals, 3 assists) from the top five across Europe is quite baffling.
All three players have been in excellent form since the start of 2021 and they deserve to be on the list.
