The Wonderkid Power Rankings: Man City & Liverpool starlets shine in this week's top ten

Once again, 3 Added Minutes is back with our weekly stab at ranking the best young players in the Premier League based on their form at the very highest level – and once more, the international break has come along to throw our rankings into mild disarray.

Three members of last week’s top ten missed out on any gametime through injury or simply not being picked by their countries, which means that both Levi Colwill and Milos Kerkez endure a (likely temporary) demotion, while Facundo Buonanotte survives due to a long-standing rule we imposed upon ourselves that players in the top five don’t lose their place entirely after missing just one week’s worth of football.

All of which at least creates space for one returning hero and a brand new entry – at least for this season, as the player in question famously enjoyed a brief period in the sun last year which earned him plenty of attention from us. Anyway, on with the latest top ten…

10. Alejandro Garnacho – Manchester United & Argentina (⬇️1)

The electrifying but inconsistent winger can thank his lucky stars that he clings onto his place the top ten given that he was almost entirely anonymous after coming on as a substitute in a 2-1 defeat to Paraguay – in half an hour of football, he was responsible for one dribble (unsuccessful), one cross (unsuccessful) and no shots whatsoever. But we judged that other plays pushing for a spot in our top ten hadn’t done quite enough to justify dislodging an incumbent, so Garnacho gets a reprieve.

9. Yasin Ayari – Brighton & Hove Albion & Sweden (re-entry)

Let’s start with the good news – Ayari has been growing in stature over the course of the season and continued his upward trajectory with two mature and surprisingly physical performances in midfield against Slovakia and Azerbaijan. His elegant passing was there and he rattled the woodwork against the Azeris, but he also won the vast majority of his battles for the ball against opposing midfielders and looked far more robust than he often has done in the past. The bad news, unfortunately, is that he was carted off the field in the second half on Tuesday evening after injuring his ankle. If that’s a bad injury, his return to our top ten may be very brief.

8. Liam Delap – Ipswich Town & England Under-21s (⬇️2)

Delap didn’t have the best week with the Young Lions. Rendered a largely peripheral figure against Spain and the Netherlands, he only mustered up one shot (which was blocked) across the two games, one of which admittedly came from the bench, and was unable to get himself involved. Delap has been outstanding this season but remains a player who needs service and doesn’t often generate his own chances.

7. Destiny Udogie – Tottenham Hotspur & Italy (-)

Udogie’s time in these rankings is drawing to a close as he’s only a little over a week away from his 22nd birthday and the end of his wonderkid era (at least as far as our rules are concerned), and we’ll hope he goes out with a bigger band than he managed this week – two second-half substitute appearances, one poor against Belgium and one rather more solid in the defeat to France. Not a week to write home about, in all honesty.

6. Facundo Buonanotte – Leicester City (⬇️2)

Deciding the number of places to drop a player who didn’t get on the pitch isn’t a straightforward affair and is, necessarily, rather arbitrary (we say, pretending the rest of it isn’t) – left out by Argentina this time around, Buonanotte slides into the bottom half but not too far, out of deference to his fine Premier League form.

5. Conor Bradley – Liverpool & Northern Ireland (new entry)

It’s rare for a new entry to be launched straight into the top five, but Bradley probably deserves it after two excellent performances against Belarus and Luxembourg which helped to propel Northern Ireland to promotion in the Nations League – and he even scored one of the goals along the way.

Granted, he owes the Luxembourg goalkeeper a pint after he clumsily spilled Bradley’s header into the back of his own net, but it was still a deserved reward for a pair of lively performances which saw the young Liverpool full-back serve up a string of fine chances for his team-mates. He probably could have scored a second at Windsor Park, too, but we won’t hold that against him. One of the best performers of the week, Bradley deserves a high ranking and a brief spell in the sun before he probably crashes right back out while he warms Arne Slot’s bench.

4. Jhon Durán – Aston Villa & Colombia (⬇️1)

For the second week in a row, Durán, who had a stranglehold on top spot in this top ten over the early weeks of the season, drew a blank in front of goal, this time failing to find the net against Uruguay or Ecuador. The question, really, is whether this a blip or whether his stunning scoring form from September and October was the anomaly.

The prosecution might open their case with a bad miss right in front of the goal against Uruguay, an uncharacteristic blemish on a largely faultless season when it comes to finishing. There’s no shortage of evidence that he’s a lethal striker, of course, but he might not want to leave his shooting boots off for too much longer, or his chances of pinching Ollie Watkins’ place will become rather distant.

3. Savinho – Manchester City & Brazil (⬆️2)

Manchester City’s summer signing didn’t grab any goals or assists despite starting both of Brazil’s World Cup qualifying games this past week, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying – in fact, it was really for a lack of quality finishing by his team-mates, as he offered up a host of thoroughly presentable opportunities over the course of the games against Venezuela and Uruguay, both of which ended up as 1-1 draws.

Savinho was one of the Seleção’s better players over the course of the games and his dribbling was particularly impressive, and it’s just a shame that he sliced and diced his way through opposing defences to little avail in the end, but the blame for that didn’t lie at his feet.

2. Rico Lewis – Manchester City & England (-)

Two of Pep Guardiola’s charges in the top three? And we thought he only did kids when they were Phil Foden. Lewis holds firm after a rock-solid display against Greece which really just proved, yet again, that we can Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V the same cliff notes from his games every week here.

So here we are – Lewis was wonderfully economical with the ball, moving well and passing it on without missing a beat, always giving his team-mates an option and almost never letting the opposition near the ball. Yes, that’s the Greece game, along with almost every other game he’s played this season. His consistency is really quite remarkable. He did miss a decent chance to score, but then that’s not new either if we’re being honest.

1. Lewis Hall – Newcastle United & England (-)

Lewis may be consistent enough to hang around in the top three week after week after week, but he still didn’t really do enough to topple Hall, who made his first two senior international appearances under Lee Carsley and gave a thoroughly good account of himself.

Yes, there are occasional positional lapses, as one might expect from a youngster, but he makes up for them with excellent defensive work, good movement going forward and a passing range that gives his past life as a midfielder away. Hall could easily become a fixture of the England team before too long, and last week’s games for the Three Lions went a long way towards making that a reality.