By the time a player is grudgingly heralded an unsung hero or said to be terribly underrated, you can bet that player is in fact very much sung and justly rated by regular watchers of theirs. This time lag between a player's improvement and wider recognition makes it difficult to gauge the temperature of who is and is not 'rated' at any one time.

That slightly metaphysical point brings us to Georginio Wijnaldum, Liverpool's midfielder no doubt valued and cherished by his own supporters but subject to little attention from elsewhere. Liverpool sorely missed Wijnaldum during his recent absence through illness, and despite the summer signings of Naby Keita and Fabinho he remains one of Jurgen Klopp's reliables when the big fixtures come around such as Tuesday's goalless draw with Bayern Munich.

One reason for this relative anonymity is that Liverpool's midfield is thought to be quite prosaic and frankly, uninteresting. It contains no natural creator nor specialist defensive screen. Rather, the department is a collection of shuttling and industrious all-rounders. It is also the area of the team where Klopp has most scope for rotation, adding to the impression of a rather faceless unit with plenty of entrances and exits.