Robbie Savage
Hard-hitting columnist picks his best Premier League players over the last 10 years
THIS is my last column of the decade so it’s a good chance to reflect on the best players to grace the Premier League over the last 10 years.
I’d pay good money to see this 4-3-3 formation play.
EDERSON: I’ve seen so-called playmakers with a lesser range of passing. David de Gea takes some beating, but Ederson changed the way I look at the art of goalkeeping.
RIO FERDINAND: Won the Premier League title in 2011 and 2013, completed 20 seasons in the Premier League with West Ham, Leeds and Manchester United, and for smoothness in possession he remains the Rolls Royce of 21st century centre-backs.
VIRGIL VAN DIJK: Has since played 99 games for Liverpool, scoring nine goals and contributing to 42 clean sheets. He has won the Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup and the Club World Cup. He was also PFA Player of the Year and runner-up to Lionel Messi for the 2019 Ballon d’Or. What’s not to like?
VINCENT KOMPANY: He lifted 10 major trophies in eight years, including four titles, in 360 appearances for City. He embodied their never-say-die spirit, was a fantastic leader on and off the pitch – and his thunderbolt winner against Leicester last season was probably the moment City pipped Liverpool to the title.
RAHEEM STERLING: At 25 it’s frightening to think he has already played 346 senior games in club football, scoring 110 goals and winning 56 England caps. Sterling is on course for greatness.
N’GOLO KANTE: 70 per cent of the earth’s surface is covered by water, the rest is covered by Kante. To win backto-back titles in 2016-17 was an exceptional feat but to do it as the midfield heartbeat of different clubs was astonishing.
KEVIN DE BRUYNE: For passing range, shooting ability and delivery of the early cross into that space where keepers and centre-backs don’t know whether to stick or twist, nobody does it better.
GARETH BALE: He didn’t win any trophies at Tottenham but he scored 26 goals in his final season with Spurs, which turned Bale into the world’s most expensive player.
EDEN HAZARD: For a time
he was the best player in English football, and 110 goals in 352 appearances at Chelsea underlines it. At his best he was almost impossible to mark because he could wriggle out of the tightest spaces.
SERGIO AGUERO: His club record 244 goals for City, including a joint-record 11 league hat-tricks, makes him king of the predators. For goals Harry Kane runs him close but Spurs haven’t won anything.
WAYNE ROONEY: It was the decade when he broke both Manchester United and England’s goalscoring records. He also won every major club trophy in his career apart from the Champions League.