La Liga Player Rankings: Benzema, Keylor Navas Up, Inconsistent Big Stars Absent
Welcome to the latest edition of our La Liga player rankings, where we assess the current best 20 in Spain's top flight.
The rankings are based on players' last six games, continually updated throughout the season, with slightly more emphasis placed on their most recent outing.
Only La Liga performances are counted and, typically, one-week wonders do not find their way in—instead, search our team of the week for the top performers over a single weekend.
We look beyond the statistical measures and into the performance, reviewing tape and gauging impact. It's not just goals, assists and heroic clearances that impress; it's about how a player contributes to the tactical plan at hand and what impact he has over a 90-minute period.
Last season we saw what we expected: A host of star names and expensive talent dominating the 20, scattered throughout with those making a big impact at lower sides and the odd breakthrough youngster.
This season has been far more inconsistent from the stellar reputation players, with form and fitness playing a part, so although you could expect them to feature more as the season goes on, right now there's no Lionel Messi, no Cristiano Ronaldo, no Gareth Bale, Luis Suarez, Neymar, Diego Godin, Paco Alcacer, or many more besides.
Read on and find out which players have made the cut and are playing well as we head into the international break.
Mentions
Two new faces for our 20 this week, as Villarreal's Bruno Soriano was left on the bench at the weekend and drops out. Lionel Messi joins him, sidelined by injury.
Still on the watch-list and not quite in the 20:
Daniel Wass, CEL
Diego Godin, ATM
Luis Suarez, FCB
Joaquin, BET
Aymeric Laporte, ATH
Jaume Costa, VIL
Carlos Kameni, MGA
Michael Krohn-Dehli, SEV
Imanol Agirretxe, RSO
Sergio Rico, SEV
20. Aritz Aduriz, ATH
New entry
Aritz Aduriz, the key to Athletic Bilbao's style of play, goals and points.
The burly striker, 34, is still in this near-impossible phase of getting older, yet becoming more agile, mobile and consistent.
How long it will last dictates how long Athletic can still be confident going into any given game; His performances continue to give hope they can overcome any defence.
A goal and an assist at the weekend won his team the match against Valencia and boosts him into the top 20 for the first time this season.
19. Augusto Fernandez, CEL
Down 1
Augusto Fernandez didn't feature for Celta as they drew 0-0 on Friday night with Getafe.
18. Jose Maria Gimenez, ATM
New entry
Jose Maria Gimenez has had a good start to the season—in fact, he has been consistently better in his defensive work than partner Diego Godin.
Against Real Madrid, Gimenez put in a typical shift; lots of strong challenges—in the air and on the ground—plenty of covering across the width of the penalty box whenever one of his team-mates was caught out of place and some aggressive passes forward to set his team on the counter.
Gimenez has barely put a foot wrong this season and that's why Stefan Savic remains stuck on the bench.
17. Fabian Orellana, CEL
Down 2
Fabian Orellana's sublime start to the season has tailed off somewhat in the last few games.
The 29-year-old was quiet and ineffective for the most part against Getafe and couldn't provide Celta with the spark they needed to change a poor home draw into a scrappy win.
He's one similar performance away from leaving our top 20.
16. Karim Benzema, RMA
Up 3
Real Madrid's Karim Benzema didn't have a blistering game in the derby, but the French striker did make the most of his only chance in the match, showing a clinical edge to score and put his team ahead in the 1-1 draw.
Benzema did all his usual: Working hard off the ball, trying to create space by dropping wide or deep to receive possession and move it on quickly, then attacking the penalty box and hoping for good delivery.
It didn't really happen for Real after the goal, but it wasn't so much down to Benzema.
He was substituted with 15 minutes left to play as Real tried to hang on to their lead.
15. Eric Bailly, VIL
Up 2
Villarreal centre-back Eric Bailly continued his largely prodigious form of late at the weekend, playing well despite his side losing 1-0 to Levante in a surprise result.
Bailly and his side were up against it for most of the match, despite it being first vs. 19th.
Villarreal changed a lot of their team around for the fixture and had Bojan Jokic sent off early on. That allowed Levante to dominate the ball and attack at will, with Bailly needing to be on hand to make many clearances and challenges in the first hour.
The winning goal came late on, but Bailly's own performance warrants a move up in our rankings.
14. Luis Alberto, DEP
Down 2
Luis Alberto's good start to the season can't be overshadowed by one quiet game, but the young Deportivo La Coruna attacking midfielder will be keen to put this performance behind him as a one-off rather than a continuation of his lack of consistency which has so far been a feature of his career.
Depor weren't overly impressive against Granada in the 1-1 draw, and Luis Alberto in particular couldn't get involved.
The 23-year-old didn't have an edge to his game in the final third and was rarely a threat in his time on the field. He was subbed after just over an hour.
13. Oliver Torres, ATM
Down 2
Oliver Torres started the derby for Atletico Madrid against Real, but this just wasn't a game he could get involved in and his recent form hasn't been anywhere near as impressive as how he started the season.
The playmaker was subbed at half-time after making no impact, having very little time on the ball and not really getting possession in dangerous areas.
12. Raphael Varane, RMA
Up 4
A hefty move up the charts for Raphael Varane, who was again excellent at the heart of Real Madrid's defence at the weekend.
He helped keep Atletico's attack at bay for long stretches, winning plenty of duels and showing his acceleration to see off counters down the flanks at times, covering for his fellow defenders when they were unable to deal with the initial threat.
Varane has been one of Real's absolute stars so far this season, and his form is all the more impressive given he has had to continually switch centre-back partners.
11. Asier Illarramendi, RSO
Down 3
Real Sociedad put in an all-round awful performance against Malaga at the weekend, losing 3-1 to a team who hadn't previously even scored, in a 90 minutes filled with individual errors and poor offensive play.
In midfield, even when La Real haven't played well in general this season, Asier Illlarramendi has been largely good with his destructive work, energy and willingness to quickly play passes around the pitch—but even that was missing this time out.
Real need more from the 25-year-old, but they also need more from the team as a whole.
10. Rene Krhin, GRA
Down 2
Rene Krhin has been the best performer on a consistent basis for Granada by a long way, but he was off his game against Depor in the 1-1 draw.
With neither his defensive work or in-possession play did Krhin really dominate the midfield area in what was, overall, an underwhelming 90 minutes of football, which had been crying out for a bit of quality from the centre of the park.
9. Marcos Angeleri, MGA
Up 1
Marcos Angeleri was again at the heart of the Malaga defence this weekend as they finally made inroads in both the Games Won and Goals Scored columns of La Liga table.
The 32-year-old was his usual strong and uncompromising self as La Real aimed a series of balls in toward striker Imanol Agirretxe in the area. Aside from one which the striker scored from, Angeleri and partner Weligton dealt well with the unimaginative but repetitive attack from the away team.
Well-timed tackles and some decent, if direct, balls out of defence made Angeleri the king of defence on the ground, while Weligton repelled everything in the air.
8. Antoine Griezmann, ATM
Down 2
It wasn't the best of games for Antoine Griezmann on a personal level, even though his team eventually drew 1-1 in the Madrid derby.
Starting out from the right side, he tried to affect play by coming infield into an attacking midfield zone, but continually found Luka Modric or Casemiro blocking his route to the penalty area. His set-pieces didn't impress, and he even failed to convert a penalty.
It's clear Atleti get the best out of him in a centre-forward capacity, and he will likely be back there as soon as Koke is fit.
7. Keylor Navas, RMA
Up 6
Our biggest mover of the week is Real Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas, who continued his great start to the season in the derby.
The Costa Rican made a few routine blocks and saves early on in the game as his team had the better of things, but the second half saw Atletico Madrid become far more adventurous and threatening—and Navas really came to the fore.
His penalty save from Griezmann was important, but a last-minute tip around the post from a Jackson Martinez effort was crucial.
6. Iago Aspas, CEL
Up 1
Iago Aspas didn't manage to get on the scoresheet this weekend for Celta Vigo as they were held to a 0-0 draw by Getafe, but he still put in a good performance and gave the defence plenty to worry about.
Aspas' movement and one-touch link play are his major strengths, pulling away from defenders just outside the box to offer clever combinations and angles through which Celta can create shooting chances.
At times, it is his finishing and decision-making which let him down—but he was unlucky in hitting the woodwork against Getafe.
Not his best performance, but certainly not a poor one.
5. Juanfran, ATM
No change
Another very Juanfran performance from Juanfran.
The 30-year-old was defensively tight against Cristiano Ronaldo's pace and movement, letting him go infield when he wanted to ensure the right side of Atletico Madrid's defence stayed bolted down against Marcelo's raids forwards. In truth, though, he wasn't often tested one-vs.-one by either player.
The Spain international didn't opt to go chasing forward too often, understandably, but supported from deep and made sure he didn't lose possession easily.
4. Diego Reyes, RSO
Down 2
La Real's worst defensive display of the season was largely down to individual mistakes, but Diego Reyes can excuse himself of any blame in that regard—it was partner Inigo Martinez who made the worst of them.
Even so, Malaga cut Real Sociedad open too easily at times, without committing huge numbers of players forward into the attack—it was often just two or three attackers against four or five defenders, yet Reyes and Co. still didn't get their lines of communication or line of the back four right whatsoever.
Too easy for Malaga and as a part of the unit, Reyes takes his share of that responsibility.
3. Luka Modric, RMA
No change
Luka Modric was a good, if unspectacular, performer in the Madrid derby which was largely the same: Interesting, but not hugely memorable.
Real dominated the first half and Modric played his part by quickly moving forward in possession, occupying spaces in Atleti's half of the pitch and keeping the opposition forced backward—though he wasn't heavily involved in regularly creating scoring chances.
In the second half, it was more defensive work, closing down gaps and passing lines and making sure Atleti didn't overload the right channel.
Modric, 30, did his work diligently and rarely wasted possession, but Casemiro was more the stand-out player beside him.
2. Sergi Roberto, FCB
Up 2
Barcelona's right-back Sergi Roberto was excellent once more this weekend and his fine form this term has made him a genuine contender to keep his place, even now that Dani Alves has returned from injury.
Sergi Roberto defended well for most of the game, making a few vital interceptions and challenges inside his own box, before then being moved forward into midfield as Luis Enrique tried to get his team back in the game.
The space in the middle as Sevilla defended deep meant possession was easy for the 23-year-old, but the movement ahead of him was too limited to have any real impact with incisive balls through.
1. Nolito, CEL
No change
Nolito stays top of our pile for a second week, after an inventive and clever performance for Celta Vigo despite not finding a route to goal in the 0-0 draw with Getafe.
The left-sided forward was the stand-out talent in the game, waltzing past opposition defences and looking to curl in shots throughout.
However, the 28-year-old couldn't beat Vicente Guaita and his team-mates lacked clinical finishing when Nolito continually set them up.
Nolito is the most consistent forward in La Liga right now, a real danger creating chances for himself and others, and he will hope to feature for the Spanish national team during the international break as a result.