Top 5 Premier League players ever

[Red Star One]

Inspired by few other threads, what’s your top 5 best players to ever grace Premier League?
rather than longevity and records I’m looking at the peak ability here, hence no Giggs or Shearer.

I’d go:
5. Roy Keane (I’m biased here and probably only United fans will have him in top 5)
4. Kevin de Bruyne
3. Wayne Rooney
2. Thierry Henry
1. Cristiano Ronaldo

 

[roonster09]

Salah's peak in PL is higher than Ronaldo's.

 

[Scandi Red]

Difficult task... There are two names that must feature though: Scholes and Henry

 

[SATA]

Ronaldo, Henry, Rooney, Aguero, Rio

 

[Red Star One]

Salah's peak in PL is higher than Ronaldo's.

not sure about that but yeah, he deserves a slot in top5 and perhaps even top3 (instead of Rooney?), but feck Pool.

 

[dubplate warrior]

Thierry Henry
Cristiano
Suarez
KDB
Salah

 

[Scandi Red]

Salah's peak in PL is higher than Ronaldo's.

I agree. As much as it pains me to say, an all-time PL XI should contain Salah and De Bruyne now. Something like this maybe?

.............Schmeichel ..........
.... ??? - Rio - Terry - ??? ....
........ Scholes - Keane.......
Salah - De Bruyne - Giggs
................. Henry ..............

The rightback is kind of weak, but it has to be TAA, Walker or G. Neville.

The leftback is between Cole and Irwin.

You could argue Gerrard over either Keane or Scholes, but since I didn't include Cantona or Rooney you can't call me biased

 

[El Jefe]

1. Henry
2. Suarez
3. Salah
4. Ronaldo
5. Bale

 

[HTG]

Where do you guys rank Kane?

 

[uwotm8]

Thierry Henry
Scholes
Suarez
KDB
Salah

Took CR7 out based on overall premier league appearances. has about a 1 in 2 goal ratio. (top 10 rather than top 5 of all time imo in the PL)

 

[Desert Eagle]

Giggs
Scholes
Rooney
KDB
Andy Cole

 

[Devil81]

Drogba is worth a mention, he was an absolute beast of a player for a number of years.

 

[Scandi Red]

Where do you guys rank Kane?

He's up there with the best in my opinion. Alongside Shearer, Cole, Rooney, Aguero etc. You could make an argument for him if you decided to put Henry on the wing instead.

 

[Red Star One]

Where do you guys rank Kane?

For me, in terms of peak ability and completeness, he’s in tier 2 of Premier League greatest strikers:

tier 1: Henry, Suarez, Rooney
tier 2: Kane, Aguero, RVP, Cantona, Bergkamp, Shearer
tier 3: RVN, Drogba, Cole

 

[Skills]

Where do you guys rank Kane?

Great player, incredibly consistent and had an incredibly high base level but was never the outright best player in the league at any point.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Where do you guys rank Kane?

Top 20

 

[HTG]

For me, in terms of peak ability and completeness, he’s in tier 2 of Premier League greatest strikers:

tier 1: Henry, Suarez, Rooney
tier 2: Kane, Aguero, RVP, Cantona, Bergkamp, Shearer
tier 3: RVN, Drogba, Cole

And no Fernando Torres? I know, Liverpool and all. But he was quite good before his Chelsea move.

 

[11101]

Ronaldo - if by peak ability you mean what level they were able to achieve at any point in their career, then he is a clear number 1.

Henry - if its only what they did in the league itself, theyd swap places.

Cantona - he almost singlehandedly created that first great Manchester United team.

Salah - he's been unplayable at times for a while now, and he doesn't pick and choose his opposition.

Aguero - equally unplayable against any team he chose.

 

[Red Star One]

And no Fernando Torres? I know, Liverpool and all. But he was quite good before his Chelsea move.

Completely forgot about him, but at his (admittedly short) peak he was surely in the tier 2. I hate Suarez with passion but I feared him much more - not only for his biting fetish!

 

[Devil81]

No mention of Zola yet either, he was a magician.

 

[AltiUn]

For me, in terms of peak ability and completeness, he’s in tier 2 of Premier League greatest strikers:

tier 1: Henry, Suarez, Rooney
tier 2: Kane, Aguero, RVP, Cantona, Bergkamp, Shearer
tier 3: RVN, Drogba, Cole

You've done van Nistelrooy dirty there.

 

[AltiUn]

And no Fernando Torres? I know, Liverpool and all. But he was quite good before his Chelsea move.

Tier 3

 

[Scandi Red]

You've done van Nistelrooy dirty there.

I agree. I think him and RVP should switch places.

 

[Devil81]

Would be better if we did this via position, someone like Ashley Cole was an incredible player but you automatically go for forward players in these type of polls.

 

[Maluco]

1. Henry
2. Ronaldo
3. de Bruyne
4. Rooney
5. Salah

 

[HTG]

Completely forgot about him, but at his (admittedly short) peak he was surely in the tier 2. I hate Suarez with passion but I feared him much more - not only for his biting fetish!

Well to be fair, the latter part of his career wasn't that impressive. So quite easy to forget.


Thanks for the answers you all. Another one I'm curious about is Petr Cech. Top 10? Top 20?

 

[Scandi Red]

Another one I'm curious about is Petr Cech. Top 10? Top 20?

Goalkeepers are typically nowhere near these top lists, unfortunately. He is definitely behind Peter Schmeichel. You could argue that he's behind VDS and De Gea too, although it's not as clear. Alisson has been immensely important for Liverpool too so some people might rank him higher.

So he's the second best goalkeeper at best. At worst he's the 5th best. He's nowhere near a general top 10 list and would probably not make top 20 either.

 

[B20]

top four in no particular order

Henry, Suarez, Salah, Ronaldo.

Fifth spot is trickier. De Bruyne, Shearer

 

[Red Star One]

Thanks for the answers you all. Another one I'm curious about is Petr Cech. Top 10? Top 20?

I think vast majority would agree it’s between him and Schmeichel for the title of the best goalkeeper in Premier League era with whoever at 3rd (Seaman? VDS?) quite far behind. I’d say Schmeichel edges it by the finest of margins. Very difficult to compare keepers to outfield players though - apart from absolute stars like Neuer you’ll rarely see them considered as “the most impactful player”.

 

[Josh 76]

I agree. As much as it pains me to say, an all-time PL XI should contain Salah and De Bruyne now. Something like this maybe?

.............Schmeichel ..........
.... ??? - Rio - Terry - ??? ....
........ Scholes - Keane.......
Salah - De Bruyne - Giggs
................. Henry ..............

The rightback is kind of weak, but it has to be TAA, Walker or G. Neville.

The leftback is between Cole and Irwin.

You could argue Gerrard over either Keane or Scholes, but since I didn't include Cantona or Rooney you can't call me biased

......... Alison
??? Stam. VVD. ???
........ Toure ... Veira
Gerrard. Modric. Bale
.......... Augero

Would be a close game.

 

[colombianmancunian]

1. Ronaldo
2. Henry
3. Rooney
4. Scholes
5. Salah

 

[adexkola]

How are you people defining peak? 1 season? 3 seasons? 5? 1 game?

 

[DWelbz19]

Top 5 is too hard. You’d probably want to make subcategories or something something because the 5 best players in PL history are invariably attackers — no?
——
Henry
Ronaldo
Rooney
de Bruyne
Amad Diallo

 

[bosnian_red]

5 best peak individual seasons:

1. Ronaldo 07/08
2. Henry 03/04
3. Salah 17/18
4. Suarez 13/14
5. Haaland 22/23

5 best Premier League players (taking everything into account):

1. Giggs
2. Henry
3. Shearer
4. De bruyne
5. Rooney

 

[UpWithRivers]

Ronaldo, Salah, Haaland, Henry, Suarez for attackers

 

[HTG]

I think vast majority would agree it’s between him and Schmeichel for the title of the best goalkeeper in Premier League era with whoever at 3rd (Seaman? VDS?) quite far behind. I’d say Schmeichel edges it by the finest of margins. Very difficult to compare keepers to outfield players though - apart from absolute stars like Neuer you’ll rarely see them considered as “the most impactful player”.

Well he was an absolute star in that one game against us. That made quite the lasting impression on me. And as I don't remember much about Schmeichel, he's the best in the PL I have seen. But I think top 20 would probably be fair.

 

[AltiUn]

I know outfield players will get all the plaudits but De Gea's 17/18 season is the best season a keeper has had in the PL era and it's not even close, conceded 15.5 less goals than we should've done. Absolutely bonkers.

 

[kafta]

Henry
Ronaldo
Salah
KDB
Suarez

 

[Von Mistelroum]

1. Cantona
2. Henry
3. Giggs
4. De Bruyne
5. Rooney

For their influence and skills I would go with this. I would maybe say Salad but I don't watch him much as I really can't stand watching Liverpool these days at all.

 

[Lay]

Henry
Salah
Cristiano
Shearer
Suarez