Monday Night Football's Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher tonight named their team of the season. Consensus on 8, debate on 3. Gary Neville GK: Petr Cech RB: Séamus Coleman CB: Gary Cahill CB: John Terry LB: Leighton Baines RM: Adam Lallana CM: Steven Gerrard CM: Yaya Touré LM: Eden Hazard ST: Luis Suárez ST: Daniel Sturridge Jamie Carragher GK: David Marshall RB: Séamus Coleman CB: Gary Cahill CB: John Terry LB: Luke Shaw RM: Raheem Sterling CM: Steven Gerrard CM: Yaya Touré LM: Eden Hazard ST: Luis Suárez ST: Daniel Sturridge The three differences were then put to public vote with the public on Twitter choosing... GK: Marshall beat Cech LB: Shaw beat Baines RM: Sterling beat Shaw Thoughts? DTLW
Mine: GK: Marshall RB: Coleman CB: Cahill CB: Terry LB: Shaw RM: Lallana CM: Yaya Toure CM: Gerrard LM: Hazard ST: Suarez ST: Sturridge
My thoughts are why isn't Azpilicueta getting more attention when he's been quite a bit better than both Shaw and Baines?
Mine: GK: Guly RB: Guly CB: Guly CB: Guly LB: Guly RM: Guly CM: Guly CM: Guly LM: Guly ST: Guly ST: Guly
Sterling's had a good few months, Lallana's had a consistently good season. Surprised the public think Shaw's been better than Baines, but I'm not moaning.
Neville's team is 'cock on' for me. Shaw hasn't been as good as Baines. You can't discount that many assists and goals. The public vote is purely on Liverpool fans voting. I would guess they have 1 or 2 more than us
GK: Paulo Gazzaniga RB: Phil Jones CB: Martin DeMichelis CB: Jos Hooiveld LB: Alex Buttner MF: Marouane Fellaini MF: Lee Catermole MF: Tom Cleverley ST: Jozy Altidore ST: Dani Osvaldo ST: Ricky Van Wolfswinkel
Careful there, mate. We all know Guly's only got the power of TEN men. You've put him in ELEVEN positions!
GK: Paulo Gazzaniga RB: Ondrej Celustka CB: Roger Johnson CB: Santiago Vergini LB: Andrea Dossena CM: Giorgios Karagounis CM: Marouane Fellaini AM: Gabriel Obertan AM: Guly do Prado AM: Aleksander Tonev ST: Carlton Cole
Think Sterling and Shaw are both benefitting from being young and English. Sterling has had a fantastic few months, but I can't recall him being anything like in his current form before christmas. Azpilicueta has been solid defensively, but doesn't seem to carry quite the same threat going forward as he did on his natural right. Baines is by far the most productive going forwards, but Shaw is the media darling and the more exciting footballer. Every match he seems to have at least one or two bursts down the wing where he simply glides past people. It may rarely result in a goal, but it will make the highlight package and thats what the majority see.
No. Sterling vs Lallana. Sterling has had some good spells throughout the season but Adam has been top class virtually every game.
Footballers have very short memories, when they think of anything other than their own experiences. Sterling has been very special for weeks, but nobody has been as special as this guy. Here's a typical example of his brilliance: [video=youtube_share;_kX5MbT9cjQ]http://youtu.be/_kX5MbT9cjQ[/video]
Thats the trouble with 'open' and 'public' votes. If it was a 'vote for the team of the year' poll, Man Utd would win just from the volume of supporters that would sway the vote. Sterling being voted as the 'public choice' doesn't surprise me but the fact is that Adam is being talked about as a possible starter at the world cup whereas Sterling is being discussed as possibly sneaking into the 23 and that still isn't a definite. That speaks volumes about the reality
It's good that the proportion of Englismen is over 50% in the best team. Especially when the average number of English players in the prem is at an all time low at barely a third.
Actually, Sterling is being talked about as sneaking into the starting line-up too. Roy's biggest problem is becoming who to leave out.
Sterling has been on fire over the last month. But before that he wasn't up to much. He's on form at the moment but Lallana has been magic all season.
Yeah this is usually the way 'Team of the Seasons' and and the like go, two or three weeks ago there would be no question about Lallana over Sterling, but a bit of electric form is all it takes to make people forget months of excellence. I do think both should start for England, who are actually in danger of having a young, exciting and attacking team with the likes of those two, Sturridge, Barkley, Chamberlain and Henderson around - but I'm sure Roy will make sure that's not the case. I think most of the team is fairly cut and dried, one thing I would put out there is that I think if you removed set pieces from the equation for Gerrard (I believe he has one goal and two assists from open play, at least he did as of a week or two ago) people would not consider him to have had that amazing of a season. A year ago I thought he had pretty much descended to becoming a walking set piece for both Liverpool and England and was on the verge of becoming a bit of a liability and he has certainly proved me wrong and had a big revival but I still don't think he has been that great in open play. Think he still gets into the TOTS for me anyway though, Ramsey has missed too much of the season, Silva has missed some too and I don't think he really got back to his best until the last month or two, Cabaye buggered off and Henderson and Fernandinho have been excellent but in supporting roles.
It's pretty obvious that the player who should be left out is Rooney, but that would never happen of course...
