Attacking players are always the focus of attention.

Defenders are fixated with stopping them, team-mates are concentrating on getting the ball to them and the audience is captivated by the magic of their feet.

The vast majority of us enjoy football through the guise of fine forwards and we are blessed to be able to feast on a gluttony of brilliant attack-minded stars.

Deciding who is the best is by no means an easy feat.

However, it’s been 12 months since we last released our Tiered Rankings and here from Tier 4 to Tier 1, in ascending order, we examine eight of the best forwards in the world right now.

The players have been measured by their form over the last year with talent, statistics and reputation used as a guide.

There’s no prizes for guessing who occupies top spot…

TIER 4

Thomas Muller (Bayern Munich)

An all Bayern cast for Tier 4 and a player who started this season ignored, but is now impossible to avoid.

Niko Kovac phased out Muller at the start of 2019/20, favouring instead luxury loanee Philippe Coutinho.

But when Kovac left the club in November, Muller returned to favour under Hansi Flick and has since reminded everyone of his qualities.

Since Flick took charge, Muller has been Bayern’s butler – always at their service. Back in a central role, he’s laid on 12 of his 16 Bundesliga assists under Flick and no player from Europe’s top-five leagues has managed more than his total.

It’s always been difficult to pin down Muller’s precise style and so by extension, it’s hard for some to really give him the credit he deserves.

The 30-year-old – who signed a two-year contract extension until 2023 this month – calls himself a space invader, and that’s much harder to quantify. But his movement in between the lines is world class and his overall package in terms of finishing and passing puts him among the best.

Serge Gnabry (Bayern Munich)

If Muller is the space invader, then Gnabry is the space evader.

Indeed, the more defenders try to smother the latter, the more oxygen it feeds his slick feet.

He is so dynamic and explosive in every direction that he’s virtually unstoppable in one v one situations, and while the 24-year-old has been bubbling in recent seasons, it’s this term he’s truly blazed.

Gnabry has sourced 20 goals for Bayern in the Bundesliga, 11 via his own scoring feet. In the Champions League, he’s ripped up Chelsea and Tottenham in particular, scoring six times across two fixtures.

His emergence as a bona fide superstar has made a lot of defenders miserable this season, and most of all Arsenal supporters, too.

Either on the left or the right wing, the ex-Gunner has provided supreme quality whether it be from hellacious crosses or his penchant for a long-range missile.

TIER 3

Raheem Sterling (Manchester City)

Sterling’s season is a bit of an oddity.

If this ranking was taken towards the end of 2019, the Manchester City winger would comfortably occupy Tier 1.

Recently, though, he’s had spells occupying City’s bench, most notable in the Champions League encounter with Real Madrid.

Take a look at the bare statistics and placing the 25-year-old in Tier 3 appears harsh. Yet peel back a layer and every single one of his 19 goals this season were scored before New Year.

Sterling hasn’t scored or assisted since his brace against Wolves on December 27 and his dip in form has coincided with City’s own slipping standards.

But despite the drop off, Sterling’s stock was so high in 2019 that he’s not a complete bust here.

Indeed, there isn’t a player on this list who matches Sterling’s intelligence. Analysis is always guided by his obvious athletic gifts, and granted, he is absolutely rapid.

However, his decision making and positional play is unmatched. He manipulates space for himself like few other wingers, knowing when to hold, when to explode and when to change direction to free himself.

The goals may have dried up, but Sterling has been one of the most decisive finishers for City in recent seasons.

He’s also one of the best in the world at cutting inside while defensively, his work rate cannot be ignored either.

Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)

Perhaps Salah will always be measured by his astonishing debut season with Liverpool and that is why he’ll subsequently be under appreciated.

But make no mistake, the Egyptian remains one of the best.

He’s evolved since that record-breaking 2017/18 campaign, becoming more tactically disciplined and a harder worker off the ball.

His partnership with Trent Alexander-Arnold on Liverpool’s right-flank is fundamental to the team’s functionality with his ability to occupy defenders freeing up the right-back to flourish.

Even with this more holistic approach, no Liverpool player has scored more than Salah from their opening 100 Premier League games after he reached 70 strikes this season. He’s also become the first Red since Michael Owen to score 20 goals in all competitions for three straight seasons.

Defenders now respect his quality with teams doubling up on him, blunting some of the electric sharpness we’ve witnessed in previous seasons.

But try telling a player with 20 goals and eight assists this season that he’s not elite.

TIER 2

Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund)

The youngest player on this list, possibly the best young player in the world right now.

Only two players have reached double figures for both goals and assists from Europe’s top-five leagues in 2019/20: Lionel Messi and Sancho.

That is now the exalted company the England international is keeping. It’s the second-straight season he’s achieved 10+ goals/assists and he’s already bettered his 2018/19 totals for both categories with 14 and 15 respectively this term.

No one has sprinted more than him in the Bundesliga (35.3 per game) or dribbled more (133). But the 20-year-old has been even more impressive than those superb numbers suggest.

Sancho is a leader for Dortmund. Not in the vocal sense, but in terms of his fearlessness and demand to be in possession.

He only turned 20 last month, but over the past two seasons his team-mates immediately look to break through him.

It’s a mark of his talent that he has assumed such significance and his embrace of that responsibility is borne out in the numbers.

There’s a reason practically every major club is grappling each other to spend some €100m+ to prise him from Dortmund this summer.

Neymar (PSG)

There is not a player featured on this list who is more maddening than Neymar.

The Brazilian is absolutely everything to be hated and loved about football all wrapped up in this impossibly talented, but tainted superstar.

As a player, he’s in an exclusive group of premier talents but then there is the diving on the pitch and the antics off it which frustrate.

Still, in terms of pure ability, the 28-year-old is absurd and after toying with a return to Barcelona last summer, he’s spent this season making defenders look like kids.

Indeed, Neymar has been at his mesmeric best in 2019/20, scoring 13 times and assisting another six in just 15 Ligue 1 games.

And to keep those football philistines who refer to France’s top flight as the ‘Farmer’s League’ quiet, he’s been equally as impressive in the Champions League.

Three goals and two assists in four games, including important goals in both legs against Borussia Dortmund.

He’s finally the talisman PSG have long desired. If he can stay fit and out of trouble, he’ll feature in Tier 1 next year no doubt.

TIER 1

Sadio Mane (Liverpool)

The strength of Liverpool’s collective unit and the team’s overall structure means picking out single pieces to compare as individuals is not particularly clear cut.

The team’s success is predicated on every part of it functioning and so individuality is not really necessitated like it is for other teams.

Mane, however, stands out. Think of Liverpool as the Louvre Museum; there are many masterpieces showcased, but the Mona Lisa is still the star attraction.

Mane has been exactly like that to Liverpool throughout the last year.

It’s why Zinedine Zidane is, reportedly, desperate to bring him to Real Madrid and why Liverpool fans would largely rather see Salah sold instead of him were one of them to leave.

Time and time again he’s proven to be their main man and very often the difference between points won and lost.

According to Sky Sports, his 14 Premier League goals may be two less than Salah, but his strikes have accounted for 18 points, more than any other player in the league and eight more than the Egyptian.

It’s difficult to find a weakness; he scores with both feet and in the air, has slick feet and piercing pace to rid himself of markers, is intelligent enough to play centrally and is excellent in pressing attackers and recovering the ball.

No forward offers the complete package like Mane does.

Lionel Messi (Barcelona)

It seems rather trite to even categorise Messi, considering all the players examined here are mere mortals and he is extraterrestrial.

But Messi hasn’t quite hit the levels of last season and that’s purely because of injuries he continues to carry and has left him on the sidelines as opposed to any regression in his talent.

There was genuinely a point at the start of the season when he missed games through injury that his European Golden Shoe crown looked under severe threat.

Yet, the Argentine has put himself back in the mix with 19 La Liga goals in 22 games and an irresistible tally of 12 assists.

Only Lazio centre forward Ciro Immobile (34) has more goal involvements on the continent and even when he experienced a mini four-game drought in front of goal, Messi still managed to lay on six assists in those contests.

Barcelona’s inability to take some of the load off the irrepressible Argentine has naturally harmed his output elsewhere, but there is still no better goalscorer/playmaker in the world than the 32-year-old.