Good season yes, and his breakthrough season and if this thread was titeld best "young" players of 18/19 then I agree but not I would not say in top ten in PL this season, let alone rest of Europe.
Tadic vs Real Madrid was a ridiculous performance, personally not seen enough of him the rest of the season but a good shout.
No, I agree, it depends on the parameters. He has been arguably the best RB in the PL and maybe even in Europe.
Ziyech is a typical example of someone that only can play for Ajax and in Eredivisie, just look at his weak body, in no one serious league he could play with his level of physique at front.. that's why guys like Tadic are better against decent/good teams, but if you look at national league stats (whoscored, sofascore) Ziyech is rated higher than the Serbian.
48000 people had their vote on SkySports: https://www.skysports.com/football/...pfa-player-of-the-year-award-should-he-win-it I'm actually not sure whether he deserves it (just as I've doubts about Aguero as #2) but it's nice he now gets the plaudits. He has been doing well and very influential in results for a while now (also at Southampton), as evidenced by the high OPTA/WS/SofaScore ratings of the past four years (top 10 in each season of his league since 2015, two different teams). Also scored again for his country this week.
He is the best in the league so far; Man City 7 & 8 Tottenham 8 Arsenal 8 & 7 United 8 & 8 Chelsea 7 Wolverhampton 9 Watford 7 & 9 Followed closely by Sterling, Bernardo in third (up till now). Fernandinho was the top-rated for extended periods just dropped off due to injury. All the above came up big in the most important games. Laporte, Robertson, Kane, Mane, Hazard, Son, Salah, Patricio.. all had a good case to be at top ten in the PL season. Aguero clearly has no business at the top three leading performers in the club, vs Liverpool, United, Arsenal (home and away) and 10/10 Chelsea - that's all.
Both are utterly exceptional. He's 2nd best player in a Ajax team at the Champions League nearly excellent all games, against Bayern he was the star both home and away. Tadic far more importantly the most influential player in the UEFA club competition at the end of group stage and the round 16 and he delivered the best display in a game against Real Madrid where it mattered most.
Agree re Aguero, this poll was done I think with Aguero's two hat tricks versus Chelsea and Arsenal fresh in the memory and a lack of a clear challenger versus Van Dijk, Sterling however is now proving to be a real contender.
I've barely watched the Premier League over the past year or so, but I still tend to watch the big league games, and I was very impressed by Raheem Sterling vs. Chelsea, if I'm not mistaken. Sergio Aguero was rated as the MOTM by Being Sports, but I thought that it was Raheem Sterling who carried most of the weight in that performance; absolutely brilliant performance. On a different note, I think Eden Hazard needs to move to a better club and also to a less physical league in order to prolong his dribbling-prime. In season 2017/18 Hazard was very impressive in the Champions League, but Chelsea still somehow finished 2nd in their group... Meanwhile, Hazard's Premier League 2018/19 is very similar to what the 2017/18 Champions League was, in that Hazard is at the height of his powers but playing for the wrong team.
There isn’t too much to split between those candidates IMO even though I think in form hazard during early 18/19 was the best level by anyone in the PL this season Personally I think Sergio aguero should be awarded the PFA award as a career achievement award(a bit like Giggs in 08/09)for services rendered to the premier league Many players have come and gone but aguero has once again maintained a world class level in the PL In a year during which no single PL player has truly stood out aguero should finally be rewarded This a breakout year for sterling so he will have more chances for sure and I’m not sure a defender as VVD who will probably win nothing should be seriously considered (rare cases for vidic 10/11 and Terry 04/05 came in seasons during which they won the PL) https://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/289...ited-captain-nemanja-vidic-has-emerged-as-the
http://www.sportbible.com/football/...do-are-the-best-players-in-the-world-20190329 "I think today neymar,suarez,mbappe,hazard and aguero are the best players in the world I never mentioned cristiano because he is apart from the list and alongside me" Lionel messi
But a player has continued to stand out: VVD. I still think it was wrong Giggs was given that award. Should've just created a lifetime award for people like him rather than awarding him a seasonal award as equivalence. I'd argue last season was his breakout season. This season is him establishing himself as a top-level player.
If VVD was to win the PFA award without the league that would be setting the bar pretty low Individual awards more often than not should come in the context of winning trophies Rare exceptional cases are for players who put up numbers rarely seen or in the case of defenders iconic performances on big stages We know as a matter of fact CL performances do sway the vote in the PFA award as it did last year between salah and KDB So the jury is still out on VVD if he can remain a defensive rock in the latter stages Note Breakout season was meant to mean first season as a world class player Sterling despite the "stats" wasnt world class last season IMO
Suarez, Van Persie, Bale, Salah just to name a few all won without winning a trophy and were all in my view clearly the strongest candidtates.
All attackers whose contributions were more tangible so to speak Suarez and salah put up numbers rarely seen(i made this exception cleary but you ignored it) RVP was very close too and did carry arsenals attack Bale is a good example you mentioned but there was a feeling at the time (at least from january 2013 if i recall correctly)that tottenham was a 1 man show and bale was scoring worldies every other week He did on the last day of the season almost singlehandedly guarantee tottenham a top 4 finish which they missed out to Mr top 4(arsene wenger)
Since the EPL started McGrath, Shearer, Les Ferdinand, Ginola, Van Nistelrooij, Henry, Gerrard, Bale, Van Persie and Suarez have all won it without winning something big. Between 1/3rd to half of the winners did not win something major. Including a few close ones. For example Van Nistelrooij was competing with Pires and Henry, who both won the double. A season later, when RvN scored 40+ goals and was CL top assister, the order was reversed and Henry won PFA while RvN won the league. Likewise, the two Bale won (2011 in particular, 2013 to a much lesser extent but notice he wasn't very accurate in his actions) were close as well. Someone on Twitter said it well: Take Van Dijk out of that Liverpool team and they aren’t contenders. Put him in Chelsea’s team, Arsenal’s or United’s and they’d be second. Leadership, athleticism, footballing IQ, passing range, defensive nous are all in his repertoire. Thread: Thanks to Virgil van Dijk's textbook defending of a 1 vs 2, that Sissoko shot didn't even register as a 'big chance' according to Opta. Various xG models gave it just a 12-14% chance of finding the net. pic.twitter.com/GsgnLf6uWj— James Nalton (@JDNalton) April 1, 2019
Agree with Twitter comment, Liverpool would be approx ten points further back than if they did not have Van Dijk.
Yes I think so, especially since Allison makes at times a shaky and nervous impression and has had a few "obvious errors" this season. A defender who doesn't get dribbled past (as the only one in the top 5 leagues this season) and doesn't make errors (the mix-up with Allison vs Fulham was the first in 112 PL games; ironically it was the same Babel who blocked his path when Gnabry scored a week later) while also being decent with the ball etc. can be of that value. La passe de Van Dijk vue du dos. Quel bijou. C’est aussi pour ce genre de gestes qui paraissent anodins, qu’on aime le football https://t.co/FHGFJpkrmF— Julien (@Duroux_Julien) March 22, 2019 At the same time, I don't think VvD is that much better suddenly (I mean: previous season he was the only defender to limit CR7 to 0 shots in a game; one can also revisit various performances for Celtic and Southampton against elite sides; the SofaScore/WhoScored ratings) and the ability of an Eriksen or Hazard is taken for granted a bit. I'd say Eriksen has come to a point where he merits one. He has now 4 seasons with 10+ assists (for a rough reference: Ozil has one, Hazard two) and there's a limited group of players who has done as well or better once one takes out the set pieces: Bergkamp, Cantona, Giggs (Eriksen also two seasons with 10+ goals, excluding penalties). Plus, he was already good before Kane became a top player.
There were two exceptional pieces of defending yesterday, the first one you called out was excellent, and the other when he came across and shut down Kane who had a chance. I have seen VVD play live twice this season (Palace and Arsenal away), I was shocked at how big he was, but that coupled with his composure, pace, at times and I am not exaggerating here it looked like he was an adult playing against 15/16 year olds such was the ease of he tidied up situations, took ball away from players, out-muscled players etc.. Whether or not Liverpool win the league he would get my vote for PoY, I think he is definitely favourite for the PFA award (where voting closed Friday but a lot of votes submitted today) but the FWA award (where voting opened at 9am this morning) will depend on the next 3 weeks as voting ends on 28th April, but has a stronger case than anyone as of now.
I've been saying this for two years, but Eriksen was the player Barcelona should've splashed money on.
I had to crawl through the depths of Liverpool Reddit to find a clip of this defending without the obnoxious music that's in all the YT videos. This is some public service I'm doing here. https://streamable.com/yiaaq That kind of defending is why he has to be in contention for EPL PotY and World's current best CB. If strikers have highlight goals, it's good that defenders get recognized for their highlight defending as well.
Yes I agreed with that. I think it does not help Tottenham are tough sellers and reports are Levy demands a world record fee. That's of course an opening statement but it is indicative. Another aspect is it is well known Barcelona are sensitive to marketing aspects. Ever since the early stages of the Dream Team (with a Bulgarian, Dane and Dutchman at stars) they want to have the Brazilian corner covered at all costs. Which showed when they wanted to have Coutinho as Neymar replacement. Also for Frenkie de Jong they were looking if they could get a more lucrative option, but decided there isn't someone else with (potentially) that skillset/physical profile and age. This might work against Eriksen as well, given alternative options. (you already know it I think but Bergkamp trained on a daily base with him )
I saw later Rooney won it in a year he only won a League Cup (in which, to be fair, he scored the winning goal. I realized also those previous winners typically did not win it in their first full season for a top side.