Best player outside the 'top four'?

[ranny fash]

Who do you rate as the overall best player in the premier league, excluding all players from Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea? I guess I am really thinking about this season primarily but performance in previous campaigns is a perfectly legitimate reason for a choice as well.

Honest, unbiased, answers please. Preferrably with some kind of justification for your choice.

I reckon there's a fair few candidates, including the majority of Everton's first choice 11 [most of whom are vastly underrated by the media and the general public]. What about Berbatov or Elano? Krancjar? David James? Robbie Keane? Richard Dunne? Ryan Nelson is quality. That Harper guy at Reading looks good but I've only seen him in highlights. Probably not a real candidate right now.....


I'm gonna go for David Bentley. I think he's a brilliant player, who has really surprised me this season by being as good as he is. Every time he has possesion or is anywhere near the ball, he is a pressing threat to the defence of ANY team. I love the way he can be incredibly direct, or clever and subtle - he just seems to have a brilliant understanding of the game, combined with great pace and energy. You get the sense every time he gets the ball, he is about to do something significant. His delivery is about as good as anybody's right now, but opponent also have to prepare for the shot or the run or dribble, because he's just as likely to use those options.

He just wins for me with Mikel Arteta in a close 2nd. Similar players but Bentley is quicker with the ball at his feet and scores more. Steven Pienaar is also well good and it seems to me that every Everton player brings real quality to their play, but they don't have any 2 players who are too similar to each other - well done David Moyes for his squad-balancing and quality-player-spotting work.

Earlier in the season I would have said Elano, but City have faded a bit, and I think Elano's form has also slipped a tad.


OK, you're probably gonna explain to me why i'm wrong now. fire away.

[Gandalf The Red]

On his Day Bentley his passes have vision written all over them, I really hope liverpool buy him.

[Harry Boulton]

It's probably to name the best player in the top 4 than the best player outside of the top 4!!

Berbatov? Bentley? Keane? Cahill at Everton is a bif favourite of mine. What about Yakubu or up until this season Pederson at Blackburn? Arteta is a brilliant player on his day.


Personally I think Cahill is a great player. He tackles, runs, and is a real threat on goal. I think he's a great player.......

[ranny fash]

is Pedersen having a sub-par season would you say? i have seen less of him so far this season than last. he has always impressed me with his technique and habit of making a telling contribution in games.

[ranny fash]

It's probably to name the best player in the top 4 than the best player outside of the top 4!!

Berbatov? Bentley? Keane? Cahill at Everton is a bif favourite of mine. What about Yakubu or up until this season Pederson at Blackburn? Arteta is a brilliant player on his day.


Personally I think Cahill is a great player. He tackles, runs, and is a real threat on goal. I think he's a great player.......

dude, i can't quite make sense of your first sentence:D

Cahill is class - Everton's most important player in my opinion - without him they still have good options, and varied play, but they are clearly stronger with him in the side, and he also has the knack of making the right play at the right time. good football brain, in other words.

I was at Goodison in december for the Fulham game [i'm a Forest fan, my mate who's a Toffee got free tickets], and although Everton were excellent and Fulham were dreadful, Everton's 2 most celebrated [highly rated] players - Arteta and Cahill - were peripheral for almost the entire match, whilst all their teammates put in tremendous performances. Particularly Pienaar, who was outstanding - best player on the pitch by a country mile. Lescott and Yobo were utterly dominant and contributed hugely to Everton's passing game, whilst Carsley and Osman are the 2 most underrated players in the league - they often seem to provide the platform and drive for much of Everton's play.

Yakubu got a hat-trick, of course - and all the papers gave him the man of the match award and all the headlines; when everyone who actually watched the game saw that Pienaar's performance was easily the outstanding one.

My point is that were Arteta and Cahill able to take their foot off the pedal a little because of their [very] weak opponents? Is this an indication of a top player?

[thebigman]

arteta is my favorite non top 4 player

and probably the best

[BoltonMassiv]

It's without doubt Berbatov, Barry is probably his closest challenger.

[Harry Boulton]

dude, i can't quite make sense of your first sentence:D


Sorry, I meanyt to say "It's easier to name the best player in the top than name the best player outside of the trop four". There's just too many to choose from.

is Pedersen having a sub-par season would you say?

I might be inclined to agree with that sentiment, yes. Usually he is either setting up goals or scoring really good ones, but I've not seen him on the score sheet too much this year. He's a great player though. Quick, with great technical awreness. He can shoot on either foot, it really doesn't make a difference for him from what I've seen.

[BoltonMassiv]

Pedersen was always just a good crosser of the ball, with a decent free kick, nothing more.

[ranny fash]

what u on abt mate? good left foot, good vision and positioning, pace, and knack of making important plays. he's a class player imo.

[RonnieWhelan]

The best player outside the top four is by a mile Mikel Arteta. For sheer consistancy of performance this man wins it hands down for me. His touch, vision, incisiveness, grit and composure on the ball are the reason why.
Bentley is good but can doesn't have as big an influence on the game as he's played out wide, Arteta is in the middle where everything goes through him and he's capable of taking a game by the scruff of the neck and lifting Everton.
Berbatov is a highly overated prima-donna. An inconsistant whinger, who's nices touches quite regularly glare over blunt inaffective performances and a ridiculously low workrate.

[BoltonMassiv]

Pedersen is usually anonamous for half the season, and then he'll but in a few crosses with his left foot which McCarthy or Santa Cruz will finish, his vision is totally average, Blackburn don't play as a creative team with loads of nice through balls, they hit it wide and get behind them, which suist Pedersen given that he's a winger, which ultimately makes him look alot better than he is, his pace is pretty average aswell, he really is just a set piece whore.

[Twix]

1. Arteta

He oozes class. Would get into the first team for any top 4 side.

2. Keane

Has been without a doubt Spurs' best player over the past 2 seasons and has also been the best SS in that time period as well.

3. Bentley

He's been coming on leaps and bounds and he looks better and better every time I see him.

[BlackburnRover]

Pedersen is usually anonamous for half the season, and then he'll but in a few crosses with his left foot which McCarthy or Santa Cruz will finish, his vision is totally average, Blackburn don't play as a creative team with loads of nice through balls, they hit it wide and get behind them, which suist Pedersen given that he's a winger, which ultimately makes him look alot better than he is, his pace is pretty average aswell, he really is just a set piece whore.

Pedersen crap?:eek: Yeah he is to be honest, he's been very frustrating to watch.

He's a big confidence player and when he loses it he falls apart. He was playing with a couple of broken ribs last year and an injury at the start of this season, both meant he lost confidence with a few bad performances. He hasn't got the nerve to take on players any more, his crosses have got worse, so have his corners and he's lost the bottle to have a shot. Bentley's mostly taken the free kicks off him too.

He's started to show signs of getting his confidence back lately and his goals have helped, so hopefully he'll improve again. But to be honest if our other decent left winger hadn't been injured for most of the year Pedersen wouldn't have been playing. He's popular with the fans though because we know what he can do, but we all know that for the past 2 years most of his games have been crap.

[BoltonMassiv]

2. Keane

Has been without a doubt Spurs' best player over the past 2 seasons and has also been the best SS in that time period as well.

I think Berbatov would take that title, goals don't equal best player sorry.

[Twix]

I think Berbatov would take that title, goals don't equal best player sorry.
When did I say that they did?

Anyways, "Berbatov would take that title", that's your whole arguement?

Earlier this season, when Spurs were suffocated by controversy, Keane rolled up his sleeves and carried Spurs on his back when they were in the shitter. While he was scoring goals, creating goals and trying to keep everyone else's chins up, where was Berba?

He disappeared and did nothing to help the cause. His performances were lethargic too and it wasn't until he scored like 6 goals against Reading that his season ignited. Last season, where was Berba against the top 10 sides in the PL and Sevilla in the Uefa cup? He's made a habit of disappearing when he's wanted the most.

On top of that, Keane has excelled in his nominal position and can claim to be the best at his position in the whole league. While you would struggle to honestly the same for Berba.

[BoltonMassiv]

All of that I disagree with. Mainly because you just made it up:D

Please remember this is about the Best player, not the player who rolls his sleaves up and is tireless, Berbatov has proven he is the best player mainly because Keane wouldn't have scored half his goals without Berbatov.

[Twix]

All of that I disagree with. Mainly because you just made it up

Is this a WUM?

Please remember this is about the Best player, not the player who rolls his sleaves up and is tireless,

So stamina, determination, grit, a never die spirit and all those other intangibles are not attributes that matter when talking about the 'best' player?

Are you one of those guys who will put Zidane over Roy Keane purely because the former knows how to do a pirouhette on the ball?

Berbatov has proven he is the best player mainly because Keane wouldn't have scored half his goals without Berbatov.

In the 2 seasons pre Berba's arrival.

Keane: 34 goals

Post:

Keane 44 goals

Also, it'd be silly to ascertain Keane's success to Berbatov as he's not been the only new creative spark in the Spurs side in the last 2 season. Huddlestone, Malbranque, Mido and even to a lesser extent, Jenas have all chipped in with the assists and played their part. Also, it could be said that Keane is getting better with age, Spurs have gotten better so Keane's goal output has increased, etc. etc.

Seriously, what's with the bullshit arguements?

[The_ChelseaSupporter]

Arteta
Berbatov
Keane

[BoltonMassiv]

I have no idea what WUM means.

They aren't bullshit argument I just disagree with you and you with me.:) Berbatov is Spurs' attack, almost everything they do offensively goes through him because he is the most creative and most able player on their team, he is a player that gets goals and assists, he's very much like Rooney with the role he plays, just with a better eye for goal.

Zidane was better than Keane because he could open up defenses single handedly. I hope you don't rank Keane above Zidane.