For me Matt le Tissier takes the cake, managing to score 25 goals from midfield in the 1993/94 season for a Southampton team that finished 18th. Other strong contenders:
- Luis Suarez 13/14, honestly maybe the best individual season a player’s ever had in the league. 31 goals and 11 assists in 33 games in a Liverpool team that was largely Europa League level aside from Gerrard and Sturridge.
- Kevin Phillips 99/00, scoring 30 goals and winning the European Golden Shoe for newly promoted Sunderland.
Who’ve you got?
Suarez 13/14. Finished 7th in 12/13, and recruited Luis Alberto, Iago Aspas and Aly Cissokho on loan in the transfer market and he single handedly turned them into title challengers. He had no right to do that and some of the things he did that year were just alien.
Messi and Ronaldo obviously had the longevity to produce over many many years, but I don’t think either of them managed to hit the level Suarez was on for that 1 single season ever in their career.
And whenever I talk about this Suarez season, I also like to point out Rodgers roll in it, who recognized what a talent he had at his disposal and how to set up the squad and tactics to get arguably the most ridiculous season out of a football player in history.
It’s scary that it wasn’t even his best season. He scored 59 goals and got 24 assists in 53 games for the 15/16 season. He always gets overlooked in top 5 players, but without a shout has been the 3rd best player in the world in the 2000’s only behind Ronaldo and Messi
Messi and Ronaldo both had multiple seasons which were better than that season,especially Messi
Aspas and Alberto have done brilliant in la liga and serie A but had almost no impact in the PL. Probably too physical for them.