MLS Player Rankings: Jordan Morris, Denis Bouanga Top First List of 2023

Jordan Morris and Denis Bouanga top the first MLS Player Rankings of 2023.

Welcome to a new, but old, feature.

The MLS Player Rankings have been my baby since I started my Major League Soccer coverage a decade ago.

The piece evolved from ranking the top designated players in the league to the best overall performers, and ended with a top 50 ranking for a few seasons at Bleacher Report. Here’s the one from 2014 with Robbie Keane on top of the season-ending list.

It’s been a few years since ProSoccerUSA (RIP) folded and that was the last site that hosted my player rankings.

I figured what better way to restart the Player Rankings than on my own site.

To give you some background, the idea hatched from Bleacher Report doing player rankings for other sports at the time while I was doing MLS coverage for them. The idea was to do something more than your average team power rankings that everyone does.

The criteria that I settled on way back in 2014 is for form to be rewarded. Performances over the last four league games were the tiebreaker if two players were close in my mind. That will be instituted more once I write this on a weekly basis.

I wanted to wait to start until this point in the season to get a better sample size of players’ performances and to take a detailed look across the league, so now that most clubs have eight games completed, it’s time to make this a regular feature.

Enough of me blabbering on about nostalgia and processes, let’s get to the rankings so you can argue about them.

20 - Santiago Moreno, M, Portland

You will notice that the bottom few spots each week will be left open for players that had phenomenal weeks, but the overall stat lines aren’t there.

Santiago Moreno provided a pair of assists in the Portland Timbers’ four-goal outburst against the Seattle Sounders. Portland found the back of the net on four occasions in a 19-minute span to win the Cascadia Cup match.

That would have been the highlight of the week if not for another epic El Trafico.

19 - Carlos Vela, F, LAFC

LA Galaxy killer Carlos Vela fits the billing for a recent performance putting him on the back end of the top 20.

Vela has not had a great scoring season, but he showed up in the most notable regular-season game of 2023 to date with two goals and one assist.

18 - Jesus Ferreira, F, FC Dallas

Jesus Ferreira just scores goals in MLS.

The FC Dallas forward added to his 2023 tally with a strike against Real Salt Lake on Saturday.

Ferreira has five goals on the season, with two of them coming in the last two weeks (or matchdays if you go by MLS’ silly branding).

17 - Carles Gil, M, New England

The Revolution are off to a fantastic start on top of the Eastern Conference.

It’s no surprise that Carles Gil is the mastermind of the attack yet again in 2023. He has two goals and three assists over seven games and has been a threatening presence in the final third with 14 shots and 14 key passes.

16 - Nicolas Lodeiro, M, Seattle

Nicolas Lodeiro has been one of the most consistent playmakers in MLS since he arrived in Seattle in 2016.

He’s off to another solid start with five assists and 19 key passes in the middle of a loaded Seattle Sounders attack (more on that unit in a bit).

15 - Hector Herrera, M, Houston

The Houston Dynamo are above the playoff line with 10 points from seven matches.

The phrase “above the playoff line” doesn’t mean much in the 2023 context with nine teams from each conference getting in, but the placing is significant to the Dynamo.

After all, we’re talking about a team that barely managed to earn over a point per game in 2022.

Hector Herrera has been one of the driving forces of the resurgence under Ben Olsen. The Dynamo still have a ways to go to confirm their status in the West, but the start is promising.

14 - Joe Willis, GK, Nashville

Goalkeeper is usually the one position that gets neglected the most in the Player Rankings because I, like most of you, am infatuated by goals.

Joe Willis is tied with Roman Celentano for the most clean sheets in MLS with five. Willis got the edge over Celentano because he leads the best defense in the league.

Nashville conceded on four occasions over eight games.

13 - Eduard Lowen, M, St. Louis City

Two goals and five assists for an expansion team gets you an automatic spot on this list eight games in.

Eduard Lowen is one of a few St. Louis City players who we had no idea about until they hit the field for their first match.

The 26-year-old midfielder has been fantastic, along with Joao Klauss and others, and he continued his strong start with a goal and an assist in a Saturday thumping of FC Cincinnati.

12 - Federico Bernardeschi, M, Toronto

I could make a quick argument that Federico Bernardeschi is MLS MVP.

Simply put, the 29-year-old Italian is the only person keeping Toronto FC relevant right now.

Bernardeschi is a constant threat in the final third, he has three goals and three assists in 2023, and those numbers should skyrocket if Lorenzo Insigne is healthy.

He’s not THE MVP candidate, but he could make the list of about a dozen players right now just for helping TFC be in ninth in the Eastern Conference.

11 - Lucas Zelarayan, M, Columbus

Lucas Zelarayan has at least a goal or assist in each of his last three games.

The Columbus Crew midfielder had five shots on target in the last two contests, and he has helped keep the Crew attack afloat while Cucho Hernandez has been out injured.

Like Bernardeschi with Insigne, Zelarayan’s attacking statistics should skyrocket once Cucho is back on the field.

10 - Thiago Almada, M, Atlanta

If I started up the Player Rankings two weeks ago, Thiago Almada would have a case to be No. 1.

Atlanta United’s Argentinian playmaker has four goals and five assists. He leads MLS with 23 key passes despite playing one fewer match than most other players in that category.

9 - Timothy Tillman, M, LAFC

Timothy Tillman has moved into the No. 2 spot on the queue of dual-nationals that must be flipped to represent the USMNT. Folarin Balogun is obviously No. 1.

No need for a multi-national recruiting tour for Tillman. All the U.S. Soccer brass, whomever that may consist of right now, has to do is find the stadium LAFC is playing in each week to watch and recruit Tillman.

The 24-year-old has been one of the best additions across MLS, and his midfield presence is what makes LAFC as scary as it has been in previous years.

We know the attackers are awesome and can score in bunches, but if players like Tillman are at a best XI level, the Black-and-Gold will be difficult to beat in any circumstance.

8 - Amine Bassi, F, Houston

You probably have no idea who Amine Bassi is if you live east of the Mississippi River and don’t work for Major League Soccer.

That’s probably because you still associate the Dynamo with unwatchable soccer from the previous few years.

Bassi, and Herrera, have turned the Dynamo into a functional side. The 25-year-old has five goals on six shots on target. He had a four-game scoring streak before the New York Red Bulls slowed him down on Saturday.

7 - Matt Miazga, CB, FC Cincinnati

Matt Miazga is the perfect example of why it’s totally okay for American players to come back to MLS.

Miazga was caught in the Chelsea loan cycle that sent him to five different clubs in six years. FC Cincinnati brought him back home last summer and he is an early candidate for Defender of the Year in 2023.

Miazga’s early-season form earned him a USMNT recall for the Continental Clasico, which is really just a MLS-versus-Liga MX All-Star Game with only American and Mexican players.

6 - Cristian Espinoza, M, San Jose

Cristian Espinoza ranks high on the list of MLS playmakers who do not receive as much national attention as they deserve.

Espinoza has five goals and two assists in eight games. He had seven goals and 14 assists a year ago for the Quakes.

Twenty-eight goal contributions since the start of 2022 is pretty good no matter which team you play for.

5 - Joao Klauss, F, St. Louis City

Joao Klauss has been the unexpected hero for St. Louis in its first eight MLS matches.

The 26-year-old forward has five goals and four assists. He played the role of passer on Saturday with two assists against Cincinnati in one of the more bizarre results of the last week.

Klauss and St. Louis City proved so far they have staying power in MLS. All of us expected them to drift away after the first few wins, but that hasn’t happened yet.

4 - DeJuan Jones, D, New England

DeJuan Jones pushed himself into the USMNT conversation with his showings for the Revolution.

Jones has been one of the league’s best defenders, and by far the best fullback, since Week 1.

Jones’ success on the defensive flank is one of the many reasons why the Revolution sit atop the Eastern Conference.

He obviously can’t compare to the top attackers from a stats perspective, but if you’ve watched him play in 2023, you know he has been one of the best individuals in MLS.

3 - Aidan Morris, M, Columbus

Aidan Morris is one of the breakout stars in MLS in 2023.

Morris’ all-around ability has him higher on the list than some players who are great at one thing, like scoring or defending.

The Columbus Crew midfielder leads MLS with 22 tackles won and tackles and interceptions with 57. Only one other player has more than 40 tackles and interceptions.

Morris is also one of eight players with a completed passes percentage over 90. While that is a notable stat, it should not be the only one that states his strong set of performances.

He has three goals and one assist to add to his defensive totals, and that’s what pushes him up the list for now.

2 - Denis Bouanga, F, LAFC

Denis Bounaga has been phenomenal in the final third for LAFC.

The 28-year-old forward has six goals in six starts, and although he did not score in El Trafico, he was all over the Galaxy net.

Bouanga has a regular-season hat-trick as part of his MLS goal haul, and he’s done even more for LAFC in Concacaf Champions League play. (Note: The Player Rankings always focused on MLS-only play with no CCL or Open Cup performances taken into account for fairness to everyone so that will remain the same.)

1 - Jordan Morris, F, Seattle

Jordan Morris holds a two-goal edge on Bouanga through eight weeks of MLS action.

The Sounders forward already eclipsed his 2022 goal total, and he is four tallies away from tying his career-best mark in MLS play.

I’m not sure if Morris will continue scoring at the same rapid pace with so much depth in the Seattle attack, but it has been fun watching him take over the primary scorer role in recent weeks.