33. Toby Alderweireld

The most compelling case for Alderweireld is being made by Tottenham’s form since his recent knee injury: when the Belgian was carried off at The Hawthorns in mid-October, most of Spurs' organisation and resilience went with him.

That wasn't in any way a surprise, though; overlooking his country's disappointing European Championship, Alderweireld's 2016 has been exemplary. Aside from his generally flawless defending – his aerial ability and anticipatory qualities – he provided his team with an extra layer of distribution which, in the latter half of the year, they've missed just as much. His long-range passing often created attacking opportunities, while his reliable equipping of the midfield consistently enabled the temperament changes which Mauricio Pochettino's football relies upon. 

Alderweireld is something of an anomaly: he's both a highly skilled, dynamic and modern defender, and yet also a traditional, static centre-half. He's a hybrid player comprising all the desirable attributes from a range of eras and, consequently, is incontestably among the world's very best. – SSB

32. David Silva

It's extremely difficult to separate one Silva season from the next. That's a compliment: his form is so stable that it's near impossible to identify his peaks and troughs or to tell whether, in fact, his career has just been one long, excellent game. Whenever you see his little feet flash as he pirouettes daintily through the chaos, it's a sequence that could belong to any of the last seven years. Silva is that rare thing: excellence that never seems to waiver.

Kevin De Bruyne's arrival at Manchester City stole his thunder. The Belgian was the dynamism in Manuel Pellegrini's attacking midfield and, under Pep Guardiola, has become an even more diverse threat. But Silva’s still there, slipping out of the small spaces and dancing between the tackles; by the end of the 2015/16 campaign, he was statistically his club's most creative player.

The same as always: Silva will belong among the world's best until he decides he doesn't want to play anymore. – SSB

31. David de Gea

Voted fans’ player of the year for the third season running, De Gea himself thought that 2015/16 was his best season in a Manchester United shirt. The Spaniard kept 15 clean sheets in 34 Premier League games and denied Romelu Lukaku from the penalty spot in the FA Cup semi-final against Everton, before starting all four of Spain’s matches at Euro 2016 ahead of Iker Casillas.

The former Atletico Madrid man is now undoubtedly among the best goalkeepers on the planet, having consigned his difficult start to life at Old Trafford to the history books. De Gea's incredible reflexes have saved his side on numerous occasions in the last 12 months, most impressively in his stops to deny Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic in February and Liverpool's Philippe Coutinho in October. – H. Drudge