The top 4 left-wingers in the world
Everyone is searching for the world's best footballer. Some people are exaggerating up their favorite player so much, that it is hard to find out, whom you should consider the "goat".
This slide deals with this question, but only for the left-wing position, as comparisons with other players in other positions cannot be made without any bias. Every position has different tasks and it would be unprofessional to compare two completely different players.
In the early days, it was very hard to find a good left-winger. The tactical role was to sprint down the wing and whip in a dangerous cross or pass to assist a goal.
This required the players to be left-footed, a trait which is very rare for a professional footballer. A typical example of this role would be Ryan Giggs.
Time changed and football got much more flexible when it comes to the tactical aspect. A left-winger is not a classical assister anymore, a winger can newly be an inside forward, a wide-playmaker or even a defensive-winger.
This opened up the room for right-footed players, who are listed as the wide player on the left side but play rather centrally to be more dangerous.
This article provides you with the currently best players in this position. (Only players that made their majority of games in this role are considered). The criteria to this list are the numbers this season, individual performance and importance for the team.
Players that just missed out and should be included in a top 10: Ousmane Dembele, Lorenzo Insigne, Heung-Min Son, Kingsley Coman, Anthony Martial and Serge Gnabry.
#4 Sadio Mané
Mané might be one of the biggest surprises this season. Many Liverpool supporters were not confident in the Senegalese as he often wasted his chances and due to that, probably lost the Reds some points last season.
This is rather unusual for a winger, who scored an impressive 124 times, without taking any penalty. His 64 assists also are a good number, considering that he is rather an inside forward. In his two Champions League seasons, Mané also contributed to an imposing 16 goals in 19 games.
Since last season Mané does not only wait for through balls, to beat the defense with his immense pace, he also receives the ball deeper and tries to create a chance. He is very good technically but does not try to do many cheeky tricks, as he rather makes a simple pass or dribble.
The ex-Salzburg player is also quite smart and often finds himself in a great position to score or assist.
As already mentioned, Mané really turned up in this year. He scored 17 times and probably is one of the main reasons why Liverpool are first in the Premier League right now.
While his assists decreased, his goals helped Mané to finally step out the shadow of Salah and Firmino and definitely is not underrated anymore. He also lead Senegal to their second ever World Cup, contributing to five goals directly in the group stage.