Nominate your team of the season...XI players in a team that would actually function...not an unbelievable list of players that wouldnt work better than Christopher Samba as a centre-forward. This would be my team of the season... Schwarzer Arbeloa - Jagielka - Hangeland - Baines Carrick - Alonso Kuyt - Gerrard - A.Young Torres Subs: Reina, Vidic, G.Johnson, Lampard, Ireland, Cahill, C.Ronaldo I wouldve included Lampard, had Gerrard not been better this season. Carrick and Alonso would provide a better defensive stability than if Lampard and Alonso were paired. Although neither Alonso or Carrick are ball winners...they both do well at blocking passing lanes and pushing other teams attacks to the flanks. Masch hasnt been good enough for the whole season to get a place in my team. Also, just because Im bored, here's an U-23 team of the season. Hart Behrami - Shawcross - Bassong - Clichy Song - Kompany Milner - Ireland - A.Young Agbonlahor Subs: Carson, Evans, Mikel, Denilson, Lennon, Nasri, Fellaini I know that Behrami has played most of his football at RM this season, however he is adept at playing as a right-back, is the most successful tackler in the league this season and would give great support to Milner on the right flank. Also...despite Carson leaking more than someone would after 10 beers, there have been no other U-23 GK's that have played enough matches for me to include them. While Clichy has also not been great, he's been the best of the U23 LB's going around. Now discuss...
Well if its based on performance at the position/importance to your team winning rather than a fantasy team that might play well together, i would say: Pepe boswinga ferdinand vidic cole 2 1/2 twists gerrard alonso rooney out of position torres drogba could go to war with that.
Reina Bosingwa - Vidic - Hangeland - Baines Ronaldo - Gerrard - Alonso - A. Young Torres - Rooney Subs - Given, Skrtel, Arbeloa, Clichy, Carrick, Ireland, Drogba
Only 5 Liverpool players..? It is not spot on. It is better than the attempt made by Grinners89, granted, but not spot on. Reina should never appear before Schwarzer in these teams which is one of the things Grinners89 at least got right. Reina has even more individual errors and suspect play than usual. This time you cannot gloss over that by pointing to his clean sheets. Bosingwa had a long period of suspect form when he got exposed defensively and his attacking end product dried up completely. Meanwhile Baines has simply not performed well enough over the entire season to merit inclusion. Since we are supposed to construct a team that 'would actually function' the inclusion of Gerrard as part of a midfield duo is inexcusable because you are limiting what he can do which means you will not be seeing the same performances as he has put in when utilised in an advanced position and ahead of two sitting central midfielders. If he does try to play that role then he creates a weakness in central midfield and Alonso will not be able to cover for him. On the left is Young who has, like the rest of his team, been pretty poor this calendar year. I do not think Torres merits inclusion either due to his injuries but, as no-one has stood out this season, his inclusion is less of a glaring mistake than the others I have mentioned. One thing I will say is that these teams are going to be more subjective this season because, with the exception of a few positions, no-one has stood out for a variety of reasons. My team will be forthcoming.
I thought id keep it to a minimum. I agree with all these points. However, I chose Baines because other better LB's, such as Evra havent missed large chunks of the season and there has been no one else stand out. Even so, Evra has been beaten by shockingly poor players like Aaron Lennon so he's certainly no where near his best, defensively. Bosingwa has been basically shit...him and Deco have been two of the least inspired signings of this season. Defensively, he is very suspect and his attacking game can easily be limited. Also...you're right about Gerrard in a "central midfield two". You, me and others have discussed the fact in the world XI thread. There would be at least 5 immediate names that would be better than Stevie in that position. If you're sad about the non-inclusion of Vidic/Ferdinand in the starting XI, my reasoning was that individually, Jagielka and Hangeland have been more consistent over the entire season while Ferdinand has had many injury concerns this season and Vidic hasnt been excellent since the Liverpool match and only looked better recently with Ferdinand coming back into the side. Young has been poor this calendar year, however there are very few wingers/wing-forwards that have been consistent this season. Ronaldo had a slow start and despite being a good finisher this season and directly having an effect on the scoresheet, his play for the rest of the match has left a lot to be desired in terms of his complete ability. Your last sentence pretty much sums it up. There are very few players that have stood out for the whole season...IMO, Jagielka, Hangeland and Alonso have but others have not. I included Torres because other centre-forwards have been worse than him despite his injuries and interrupted pre-season. He has come back into a state of "enough fitness" (he actually needs a rest with his ankle) and has shown an ability to worry the best defences while managing to get into 3rd? in the leading goalscorers. The only other changes I would consider are this...and i'll actually change my team to this after more thought. Schwarzer Arbeloa - Jagielka - Hangeland - Baines Carrick - Alonso Kuyt - Gerrard - C.Ronaldo Torres Manager of the season...basically the manager who has got his squad to over-achieve would be Roy Hodgson at Fulham. Even with poor finishes like Andrew Johnson and Zamora and with a fairly average midfield, he has based his team on defence and done a great job with it. IMO he has also signed the two best value for money players of this season (Hangeland and Schwarzer).
Far be it for me to defend Evra's abysmal post-ban/injury performances but that 'shockingly poor player' has beaten practically every left-back in the league at some stage. The only thing holding him back has been what he has done after beating them. Bosingwa was, in fairness, a very good attacking right-back during the first part of the season (accumulating many points for me ) but he fell off his game (particularly when Joe Cole went down injured) and he was left isolated on his flank. Vidic has, with the exception of a few games, been very good and a crucial player for us. The poor play of Evra beside him has had more of an impact than Ferdinand being missing for me. I also think that his peak performances this season have been higher than that of more consistent players so it all depends on how you want to weight peak versus consistency. Even on consistency Vidic has been pretty good. Linking back to that last section it is one reason why I would still have Ronaldo in my team because, while he has clearly not been at his best, he has still been pretty consistent particularly in terms of goals. It highlights how good he really is that he can have a poor season by his standards and still have the impact he has had. By contrast you have Young who has had a season of two halves and Robinho who has had problems away from home. You could easily make the claim that both have had higher peaks than Ronaldo but Ronaldo has the consistency so again it depends on how you chose to view things. I would also agree with Hodgson for manager of the season.
Again, i agree I will re-word my paragraph/statement on Bosingwa. Due to the fact that under Scolari he was basically a main outlet/contributor for attacks and Scolari didnt seem to be able to change that plan or alter it to make it work, it made Bosingwa look even worse than what he is. Arbeloa has played every match this season except for when he has been injured as he has had no cover at RB. He has consistently been a good performer and apart from a few mistakes (Wigan & Arsenal) he has been good. In attack, he has also stepped up his game this season and has managed to get a few direct and indirect assists. I dont think Robinho deserves a mention and after what you said and a few thoughts I would add Ronaldo in for Young in my team as I did in my previous post. Kuyt has probably been the most consistent wide-player this season and all of his have been important (ie first goal, winning goal etc). Id say that Lampard has also been better than Carrick this season but Carrick is a much better fit next to Alonso, who should be a definite.
I agree with Teso on the fact that Hodgson should be manager of the year. His signings combined with his game management has been really good this season.
12 of the finest starts ever seen by man. And his goal! He scored it with his wrong foot. Talk about the fix being in. my god. Sure he shoulda won it before but this takes nudge nuge wink wink to a whole new level. Over the first 25 games or whatever they played before they voted i think you can make a damn good argument that xabi alonso played at the very highest level the greatest number of times. Hes tailed off somewhat at the back end here, but not much. evra better than cashme hole? not this year he was hurt too much. not ever reallly. Drogba, diving wanker that he is, motivated and fit is unplayable only torres is better. Ferdinand is the best defender by far vidicule is not close. and Gerrard is the best all-round player in the Universe.
The fix? The judges? It's voted for by the players themselves and themselves alone is it not? Also, can't you only vote for players from other clubs, which would have givwn Gerrard a significant advantage? Not definite about that last part, but I've heard it bandied around since the nominations came out. I am not saying that Giggs was the deserving winner of it - that's a Vidic/Gerrard toss-up for me. However I do think you are going a bit OTT there, talking about fixes, riggings and whatnot.
Here's my team...please don't yell at me. -------------------Schwarzer------------------ Jagielka------Hangeland-------Vidic-------Baines ---------------Alonso------Carrick-------------- Kuyt-----------------Gerrard------------Ronaldo ----------------------Torres------------------- Subs: van der Sar, Johnson G, Ferdinand, Lampard, Mikel, Anelka, Rooney.
That's not too bad. I would probably replace Mikel with at least 5 other midfielders, but otherwise not too shabby.
Well, no. Clearly the players voted for him becouse he deserved the award on a lifetime achievment basis, and probably should have won it on merit 2 or 3 times before. They were correcting a historical oversight . No argument with that, and no argument with the players right to choose him, more like honour him, on that basis. However, in this particular case in this particular year as his career winds down, it meant that the result was essentially pre-ordained. Or fixed. I'm not saying there should be an investigation or that it was wrong. But hes not the best player this year by a very long shot and even those that voted for him , sure they know it. .
No, actually, Everton has played atleast 5-6 matches with a back line like this: Jagielka-------Yobo-------Lescott-------Baines So, I think Phil is pretty accustomed to that place. I think I will replace Ferdinand with Lescott, Mikel with the other Mikel (Arteta) and Anelka with Young A.
Jagielka has played 3 matches all season at RB...against the major attacking forces of Stoke, Blackburn and Newcastle...that hardly makes him accustomed to the RB spot. This is also mainly due to the fact that Hibbert (15) and Jacobsen (2) have managed 17 starts for the entire season and Phil Neville, with 14 starts at RB, had to play in midfield due to an injury to Mikel Arteta and the lack of any CM replacements apart from Rodwell. Also, in two of those matches (Blackburn and Newcastle), the lack of attacking support from Jagielka along the right flank contributed to Everton's 0-0 draws. Im just saying that Jagielka as the right-back of the season is a fairly poor decision. Arbeloa and Glen Johnson have been the best RB's this season by far.
I was being nice this time...all I did was copy a page from Rafa's book and politely, point out the facts
Point conceded...although he did play RB for Sheffield as well, though of course, then he played every position he was shoved into, and wasn't really effective. And there's no need to bring out the Beatles, I'm new enough to be loved here... aren't I? Aren't I?