Eden Hazard, Mo Salah, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Anthony Martial, Harry Kane – what do those names have in common?
Well they're all great players, no doubt about it, and all fan favourites for obvious reasons. They create things, score goals, are great on the ball and make fans get on the edge of their seats every single game.
Twitter loves them and the fans want to see their names on the team sheets week in, week out – and no wonder. But if you asked the managers of Chelsea, Liverpool, Man United etc who their favourite player was – the one name on their team sheet every week that goes down first and the player they can't do without, it might not be the case.
Now, before the comments go through the roof and I'm accused of spending too long in a beer garden before writing this, let's make one thing clear – the likes of Salah, Ronaldo and Messi are fundamental to a team and certainly the ones Klopp, Zidane and Valverde would call the best in their team – but are they a manager's favourite?
To answer this, you've firstly got to work out what constitutes the term 'favourite' and it will differ from manager to manager – if you asked Jose Mourinho for example, he'd probably name you Nemanja Matic from his Man United side and the likes of Claude Makelele and Xabi Alonso from his teams gone by. Why? Because they're the players who make the side tick. The ones that make everyone else look better and allow the team to shine. The vital cog in the machine if you will.
Or, to quote Zidane when he was speaking about Claude Makelele being allowed to leave Real Madrid, the engine to the Bentley, and as Zizou himself said: 'Why put another layer of gold paint on the Bentley when you are losing the entire engine' as Maka was allowed to leave and Beckham arrived.
Jurgen Klopp said pretty much the same when talking about Mo Salah, who is clearly the best player at Liverpool, but Klopp's favourite man is undoubtedly Roberto Firmino, who he mentions time and time again for the selfless work the player does creating space for Salah and allowing him to flourish, calling the news Firmino had signed a new deal 'unbelievably important news.' For Klopp, Firmino shines even brighter than his teeth, and the German would consider it just as big of a blow to see Firmino injured as he would any other player.
Even in the era of Lionel Messi, any Barcelona manager would tell you having Sergio Busquets in the side makes Barcelona tick, and become a far better side than they would be without him. Every team is allowed a superstar, but often, it's someone around them who the manager and indeed the other players notice as being the key to it all.
Consider Chelsea. Eden Hazard receives the Player of the Season award from the fans more often than Chelsea chop and change their managers – and even won it last season when N'Golo Kante was simply on another level, but it's Cesar Azpilicueta who former manager Jose Mourinho picked out, saying a team made up of 11 Azpilicueta's would win the Champions League. Not quite as lofty praise as Fergie managed when it came to one Zidane and ten sticks of wood, but you get the point.
Likewise, Kane may be the man who scores all the goals, but this season at Spurs, Vertonghen has been a colossus at the back, with Son Heung-min also someone manager Mauricio Pochettino makes a point to draw attention to and praise – and news that the forward played the last six weeks of the season on painkillers didn't harm his cause at all.
You're never going to get a Real Madrid side that's better without Cristiano Ronaldo, that's not the point being made – of course star players are essential to a side, but in the same way Lewis Hamilton needs an entire team around him to get his race car working, or Kate Upton needs a team of stylists, trainers and designers to get her ready for a red carpet event, the star men in football teams need certain others around them to make them better – and even if some of the fans don't know it, the players certainly do and you can bet your last pound their manager does as well, so don't be too shocked if Klopp sleeps with a picture of Firmino beside his bed and keeps the one of Salah downstairs. It's nothing personal, just football.
