Liverpool, Man City, Real Madrid: Ranking the 12 best squads in football for 2022/2023 | OneFootball

Who has the best squad in world football for the upcoming season?

It’s a question worth considering because this has been a particularly active summer window, especially for Premier League clubs who recently summited the one billion pound mark in transfer expenditure.

Clubs like Tottenham and Arsenal have invested heavily in the top talent from across Europe and so they’ve seen huge upgrades on the position they would have found themseves in last campaign.

We’ve ranked which 12 clubs we feel have the most stacked rosters out there ahead of the 2022/2023 football season. For each club, rather than listing their entire squad, we’ve picked out the key players along with a couple of deputies that detail where the main strengths are in each squad.

Ranking the 12 best squads in world football

12. Arsenal

As mentioned, Arsenal have invested smartly over the summer. The acquisition of Gabriel Jesus from Man City ought to be a real boost to their attacking output.

And with the Brazilian’s former teammate Oleksandr Zinchenko reportedly set to follow suit and join the Gunners, Mikel Arteta could be sitting with a very strong hand come August.

Midfielders: Martin Odegaard, Emile Smith Rowe, Fabio Vieira, Thomas (Partey), Granit Xhaka

11. Inter Milan

So, Inter have re-signed Romelu Lukaku on loan from Chelsea and the question is – which Lukaku are they getting?

If he can return to the same kind of form that saw him bag 30 goals for the Nerazzurri the season before last, well, you can expect Inter to walk the Serie A this season looking at the state of their squad.

Especially with Juventus looking so comparatively weak to previous seasons after selling Giorgio Chiellini and Matthijs de Ligt…

10. Manchester United

Man Utd have been busy this window under new manager Erik Ten Hag and they could be set to get even busier yet.

Christian Eriksen looks like an interesting edition, as does Lisandro Martinez and Tyrell Malacia.

You can’t help but feel like they need more, though, to breach that highly competitive top four – maybe Frenkie de Jong could be the answer if they can get that deal over the line…

Goalkeeper: David De Gea

Defenders: Raphael Varane, Harry Maguire, Lisandro Martinez, Luke Shaw, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Eric Bailly, Alex Telles, Tyrell Malacia

Midfielders: Fred, Christian Eriksen, Bruno Fernandes, Scott McTominay, Donny van de Beek

Attackers: Cristiano Ronaldo, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, Anthony Martial, Anthony Elanga

9. Atletico Madrid

Atletico never want a side full of world beaters, instead they prefer dogged, hard-working individuals with a touch of class to accentuate their efforts.

It fits in perfectly with their ‘us against the world’ attitude and under Diego Simeone that’s exactly what they have once again for the 2022/2023 season.

Goalkeeper: Jan Oblak

Attackers: Joao Felix, Angel Correa, Antoine Griezmann, Alvaro Morata, Matheus Cunha

8. Chelsea

Chelsea are under new ownership and, in a similar fashion to Man United, you get the impression their transfer business isn’t done just yet.

They’ve got rid of some deadwood in the likes of Lukaku and have brought in two world class stars in Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Kouliably.

At the time of writing, though, they still lack any real striker. And with Jorginho now looking a more aged figure in the middle of the park and a lack of decent cover at centre-back, one can only help but think that they may have lost their title of England’s third best team ahead of the new campaign.

Midfielders: N’Golo Kante, Mateo Kovacic, Jorginho, Mason Mount, Hakim Ziyech, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Conor Gallagher

Attackers: Raheem Sterling, Kai Havertz, Timo Werner, Christian Pulisic

7. Tottenham

Spurs look a force under Antonio Conte. In Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son they have two of the very best attackers in the Premier League.

Add to them their new summer additions from other Premier League teams and raids across Europe, and we have to say, Man City and Liverpool might just be nervously glancing over their shoulders at this rate.

Midfielders: Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Yves Bissouma, Tanguy Ndombele, Rodrigo Bentancur, Giovanni Lo Celso, Ivan Perisic

Attackers: Harry Kane, Heung-Min Son, Richarlison, Dejan Kulusevski, Lucas Moura

6. Barcelona

They might be riddled with roughly €1.3 billion worth of debt, but that doesn’t mean Barcelona’s squad isn’t stacked with elite footballers.

As a matter of fact, we think it’s the strongest they’ve looked in a few years.

Defenders: Gerard Pique, Roland Araujo, Andreas Christensen, Eric Garcia, Jordi Alba, Samuel Umtiti, Sergino Dest

Midfielders: Frenkie de Jong, Pedri, Gavi, Sergio Busquets, Franck Kessie, Nico Gonzalez, Sergi Roberto

Attackers: Robert Lewandowski, Ansu Fati, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ousmane Dembele, Raphinha, Memphis Depay, Ferran Torres

5. Bayern Munich

Losing Lewandowski will no doubt be a huge disappointment for Bayern, however the addition of Sadio Mane might be enough to remedy matters on pitch for the Bavarian giants.

They’ve also signed De Ligt and Ryan Gravenberch this window – two young, very high potential Dutch stars.

Midfielders: Joshua Kimmich, Leon Goretzka, Ryan Gravenberch, Marcel Sabitzer

Attackers: Sadio Mane, Thomas Muller, Serge Gnabry, Leroy Sane, Jamal Musiala, Kingsley Coman

4. Real Madrid

The reigning Champions of Europe, again… Madrid won their 14th European Cup not by being the best team on the planet, but through their never say die attitude that allowed them to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

That’s not to say that their squad isn’t seriously impressive, though. They’ve been quietly building these last few years and a have an excellent blend of experience and youth.

Midfielders: Casemiro, Eduardo Camavinga, Toni Kroos, Luka Modric, Federico Valverde, Aurélien Tchouaméni, Lucas Vasquez

3. Liverpool

Liverpool have come a long, long way in the six years that Jurgen Klopp has been in charge.

From Simon Mignolet to Alisson Becker. Mamadou Sakho to Virgil van Dijk. Glen Johnson to Trent Alexander-Arnold – the German really has transformed the Red Machine from a team languishing in the Europa League spots, to one of the finest the world has ever known.

Midfielders: Fabinho Tavares, Jordan Henderson, Thiago Alcantara, Harvey Elliott, Naby Keita, Curtis Jones, Fabio Carvalho

2.Paris Saint-Germain

The French champions make the podium for their incredible front three alone – Messi, Mbappe, Neymar? Get out of town…

You have to think that they’ll be making a serious push for the Champions League title in the upcoming season.

Midfielders: Marco Verratti, Rafinha, Giorginio Wijnaldum, Ander Herrera, Julian Draxler, Idrissa Gueye

Attackers: Kylian Mbappe, Neymar, Lionel Messi, Mauro Icardi, Hugo Ekitike

1. Manchester City

It was a close call between Man City and PSG for the top spot, however, ultimately, whilst we could potentially pick a weakness in one or two areas of PSG’s team, City are rock solid across the board.

The addition of Erling Haaland could be enormous if he can stay injury free and he could prove the missing piece of the jigsaw as they hunt their first Champions League crown.

Attackers: Erling Haaland, Riyad Mahrez, Julian Alvarez