I came up with this article by football.co.uk asking who the third best player in the world was. Obviously placing Messi and Ronaldo in the first two spots.

Luis Suarez
Manuel Neuer
Eden Hazard
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Sergio Aguero
Robert Lewandowski
Gareth Bale
Neymar
Thomas Muller

???

Make your pick.

In my opinion this third best player varis very often, maybe even from week to week. But Im sure Bayern has to have that player. It's probably Muller or Lewandowski for me.

http://www.football.co.uk/chelsea/if-messi-and-ronaldo-are-the-top-two-who-is-the-worlds-thi/6911554#Pfue2gXtEMJOYfEk.97

@Tuanis

Do you even watch Real Madrid play, or understand football? Neymar the 3rd best player? What a joke.

Hazard has been woeful this season (not entirely his fault, his whole team has collapsed as well), Neymar gets carried by the plays of Messi and Suarez, Ribery has been injured far too long and is aging, Robben also injured for extended periods of time, and Iniesta isn't the player he once was.

Disregarding Modric as a top 5 player today is equivalent to dismissing Xavi as a top 5 player in 2010. Most people have already mentioned the players who are capable of being the 3rd best in the world: Neuer, Aguero, Modric, Lewandowski, Muller, Suarez, and even Zlatan.

Remember, 3rd best in the world doesn't mean you win 3rd place in Ballon d'Or voting...

As of last one year or so,
3 Suarez

1. Modric
2. Aguero
3. Sanchez
   .
   .
4. Fabregas
   .
   .
5. Hazard..
   This isn't statistical..

Very difficult to choose between Suarez and Modric.. No sanchez coz he comes alive some days and goes away the other..
I personally don't rate Hazard that much.. mainly coz of his gameplay which is very solo and poor playmaking skills.

Hey guys, ima let you finish but I'd say Muller would be 3rd. Has everything you need in a player, technical, speed, clinical finishes, hard worker and performs with Bayern and Germany. There are other players that might be better in their best day but not very consistent compared to him. Muller, even if he's having a bad day, he'll find a way and score or assist.

" hazard, very solo and poor playmaking skills" yet he won us the BPL and he starts almost all our attacks lol. Last year hazard would be the 3rd best player withouth a doubt.

hazard wouldnt make the top 20 imo

I mean how can a winger start an attack? If you mean counter-attack then yes.. he and willian were..
IMO, it was Fabregas starting, rotating plays and those killer passes..
Gary Neville: Costa, Matic and Terry won Chelsea the league..
Would Chelsea have won the league without Hazard? I would say YES..

Mou and Hazard are jus made for each other.. Mou likes to play defensively and break teams on counter with Willian and Hazard tearing apart..

When you have someone inside the box like Diego Costa, wingers jus hav to feed him with crosses.. Unfortunately crossing isn't a part of his gameplay either

hazard is a winger but he plays everywhere, that just shows that you are talking out of your a*s because you don't watch him play but yet you judge him.
Last season in january costa and fabregas lost their form so hazard did almost everything, scoring match winning goals and keeping the ball and controlling the game for chelsea, thats why he won the best player in BPL award, but this season he has been crap.
And yes hazard doesn't give crosses but what he does is he dribbles every defender and passes the ball for you to tap it in the goal. And he also DEFENDS! which winger does that? lol.

@Chelsea8: Hazard is a good player, and won you games last year. But he didn't control the game. Chelsea hasn't really controlled the game per se after Cesc went MIA. I have watched your games, a few of them in fact. Hazard is good at making runs behind defenders, dribbling past them, and getting you goals. He can not control the game. He can not do it, that's not his mindset; and frankly, that's not his job. The reason CFC has been poor this year is because of their leaky defence (Ivanovic cough cough) and Cesc our of form.

Well.. those players I mentioned are players who are currently out of form and could have been considered as the the third best player some time ago when they were in form.

Im not saying Modric isnt top class but I honestly dont think that he can decide the outcome of a game the way other players like Lewandoski or Aguero can. He is the best midfielder atm but to be considered 3rd best player it has to be a player who changes the pace of the game, decides on the outcome by himself, doing all of this on a regular basis. Madrid isnt even playing that well overall.

My top 5 atm

Lewandoski
Aguero
Muller
Suarez
Modric
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Hazard

Lol at those who say Hazard does not deserve 3rd or even in top 10. Yeah right. You would wish he plays for you.. But hey, he is not and will never play for you. It's like saying Messi and Ronaldo do not deserve to be in top 5 or 10.

It's not fair to judge on Hazard and take him out of top 3 because of few bad games. Remember those top 2 Messi or Ronaldo had their good share of fails that made them look average and in some cases lords..

This makes me remember Heskey and Torres..

@Tuanis: I see your point, but there more to the game than scoring a goal. Yes, scoring does decide the outcome of the game, but you need to know when to make the short passes, when to go long. It's the rhythm that Silva sets that gives Aguero the chances that he scores on. Modric's passing rhythm gives Ronnie and Benzema their chances. Lewandowski was MIA for most of last year. Alcantra's passing has been opening a lot of lanes for him. Remember Alcantra was injured for most of last season? A little bit of coincidence may be? Look at United the past two years. We had no midfielder to set the tempo for our team. Carrick is great and all, but will not set the tone with his side ways passing. He's great at reading opposition players, and intercepting the pass, but couldn't make those incisive passes that kept the defence on their toes. This is actually the most important aspect of the game. Herrera does that for the most part for us, and I'm really not happy that he's on the bench. From the little football I have watched over the years, amongst the current players, the only players who I've seen score at will is Messi, Ibra, Roo (till last year), and Suarez. Ronnie as awesome as he is goes missing when his team is down, and Aguero will go MIA when Silva's not playing. If I were a coach, I'd build my team around a midfielder, rather than a forward.

Has to be Lewandowski at the moment, then Suarez I think.

@Tuanis

Once again, you fail to give any legitimate arguments. Modric can't decide the outcome of a game by himself? Why don't you check Madrid's win percentage with and without Modric last season. With Modric it was nearly 80%. Without him, it dropped to under 60%. The only other player in the world who can control the entire game as good as Modric is arguably David Silva. Your perception on "3rd best player" is so absurdly narrow-minded that it's ridiculous.

You are already including last season stats. Im trying to emphasize this argument to current form as was the purpose of the article.

Btw. Carrick has the most significative percentage in the entire EPL considering last season. Without him the team drops over 20%. And I dont rate him that high, he might be crucial but that is no reason to put him among the top players. Same goes for Modric. Who other than Madrid fans claim that Modric should be rated above players like Suarez, Aguero, Lewandowski or Muller? He is a great player, but I dont get why is it soo evident for others that he is the third best player? Just like with Hazard, he hasn't been in form at all this season. I would love if people gave their top 5 at the moment at least to compare. I understand that your perception of how good a player is is probably deceived by your admiration to your team but there are other teams way more in form than Madrid who have players that currently deserve that third spot more.

Also, there is no need to get so intense with this topic. Rating players is a matter of opinion and this discussion is focused on the fact that it is harder to decide on the third best rather than the top 2.

This is brilliant, it's about the 5th time that I post this video ;-D really feels like right time again.

Basically Tuanis is Carra & Dynastian is Neville here.

At the moment.

1. Lewandowski
2. ???
3. Aguero
4. ???
5. Alexis

At the moment.

1-Lewa
2-Alacantra
3-Luka M.
4-Mahrez
5-Mueller

I don't know why people are so short-sighted. Basically You are only judging the last few games. Mahrez and Alcantra are 2X performing better than Lewa and Sanchez. Aguero is good now, but nyou are overhyping him for one game.

@tuanis Saying who can control the outcome of the game is very, very difficult. Just look at Messi's performance vs Celta, or Sanchez vs Olympiakos, Modric vs Spain, Ronaldo vs Atleti home 2014-2015, Hazard vs Tottenham.

In these mentioned games, these players played beyond amazing and yet lose why, cause there is no one man army. If one team is playing way higher than their usual standards and the opposition is the exact opposite, than the outcome is very simple. I agree wuth @ashwin Alacantra and I would also like to add Coman in. These two were absolutely amazing in almost all of bayren's games, So without them it will be a different story, however I'm not saying that Lewa wont score these goals, but it will be even harder for him. Noetheless that won't deny his sheer attacking force that gives him the first position. If I were to add other position it would go on like Alexis, Coman, Aguero. Respectively

@rayrex if you include mahrez u have to include sadio mane

You can´t carry your team every game @rayrex, that´s impossible. In the last 3 matches Mahrez was nowhere near Lewandowski or even Alexis, and if we are talking about ATM then you have to include these matches.
With the Hazard its difficult, he has had fantastic last season, but since Chelsea secured they title his form has fallen down rapidly.
I would maybe mention Douglas Costa.