Europe's top 50 - Part V: Liverpool duo Salah and Mane only place 30-26

We are now about to reach the halfway mark in our countdown of the top 50 WhoScored rated players in Europe's top five leagues for the 2019/20 campaign.

Players ranked 30 to 26 are up next, before we enter the business stage of the rundown next week. Virgil van Dijk was the big name drawn in Thursday's run through of 35 to 31 and he is now about be be joined by two more Liverpool superstars.

Whether fairly or not, Mohamed Salah is held to the ridicolously high standards set in his first Liverpool season following his 32-goal haul in the Premier League. Salah naturally hasn't been able to quite reach those peaks in the subsequent two seasons but he isn't doing badly by any stretch. After all, he is only three goals off the pace in the race for the Golden Boot in the Premier League this season.

Salah has 16 goals in the competition and a direct hand in 22 goals across his 26 Premier League appearances in 2019/20. He has returned five WhoScored Man of the Match awards and averages more shots per game than any other player in the Premier League (3.8). He has lost ground in the top 50 from last season, however, where he finished the campaign as the 13th best player in Europe's top five leagues.

Domenico Berardi has endured something of a lean period in his career in the last few seasons after a dazzling few breakthrough years from 2013 to 2015. Just as it seemed he was on the verge of clinching a high profile move to Juventus, things went very flat for the forward but he has returned to his best form this season. Berardi has returned nine goals in Serie A this season, his best return since the 2014/15 campaign (15 goals). Berardi has also registered five assists from his 20 league appearances.

The 25-year-old impressively averages a goal or an assist every 115.3 minutes of playing time. It's no surprise Berardi is one of the big moves in the standings across Europe's top five leagues, having ranked 263rd at the end of the 2018/19 season.

While Mohamed Salah continues to adjust to life following his sublime debut season for Liverpool, Sadio Mane has stepped forward as the club's star man this term. Mane may have played a direct hand (21) in one fewer goal than Salah in the Premier League this season, but the Senegal international has picked up more WhoScored Man of the Match awards. In fact a return of seven is the joint-most in the Premier League this season. Mane's 14 league goals have come from 60 shots, at a notable conversion rate of 23.3%.

Mane's WhoScored rating has unsurprisingly increased compared to the 2018/19 campaign but his standing in the top 50 has actually dropped. He placed 25th last season but has now dropped three places in this year's edition.

For the sheer number of assists alone, Trent Alexander-Arnold is understandably described as the best right-back on the planet but Leicester's Ricardo Pereira will contest that. In fact, the Portugal international has the better WhoScored rating of the two and is arguably more well-rounded compared to his Liverpool counterpart. Pereira has played a direct hand in five goals (three goals, two assists), while no player in Europe's top five leagues averages more tackles per game than the 26-year-old (4.3).

Leicester are on the brink of securing a return to the Champions League for next season and Pereira has played a key role in their superb campaign. He ranked 40th in Europe's top five leagues last season but improvements made in 2019/20 has seen him move up to 27th.

Rounding off the latest edition of the WhoScored top 50 is Borussia Dortmund talisman Marco Reus. The 30-year-old has endured another injury-hit campaign and been limited to just 19 league appearances in 2019/20. Dortmund are yet to see the Germany interntional alongside January signing Erling Haaland in a league game. Prior to injury, however, Reus was in sparkling form with 11 goals and five assists in the Bundesliga.

A return of 1.4 successful dribbles per game is also his best in a single league campaign since the 2015/16 season (1.6). Reus has moved up four places in the top 50 compared to his 30th place finish in 2018/19.

Catch up on rankings: 50-46, 45-41, 40-36, 35-31