MNF Teams of the Season - Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher

So they agree with me then: http://www.not606.com/showthread.php/258858-PFA-Divisional-Team-of-the-Year-Premiership-2013-14


XI: Marshall (Cardiff), Coleman (Everton), Shaw (Southampton), Cahill (Chelsea), Terry (Chelsea), Gerrard (Liverpool), Hazard (Chelsea), Toure (Man City), Lallana (Southampton), Sturridge (Liverpool), Suarez (Liverpool).

Subs: De Gea (Man U), Baines (Everton), Kompany (Man City), Ramsey (Arsenal), Barkley (Everton), Rodriguez (Southampton), Rooney (Man U).

Notable mentions for: Zabaleta, Henderson, Barry, Delph and Bony.

 

Hope not. You'd be mad to leave Rooney out.

 

You don't need to leave Rooney or Sterling or even Lallana out. Best line up for me would be the following:-

Hart
Johnson Cahill Jagielka Baines
Henderson Gerrard
Sterling Rooney Lallana
Sturridge

 

I'd love to see the front four line up like that. With Lambert waiting to come on from the bench.

 

Good shouts orow. How come you are not doing better in the prediction league?


I have an amazing amount of respect for Neville as a pundit. He gives a good insight,is not biased and talks common sense. Carragher is better than I thought he would be too.

 

Sterling or Barkley with pace as an option on the bench? I would also pick Cole at left back as much as it is sad to say.

 

I would like to think that you won't be too far wrong with that side. Biggest question mark is probably over Henderson. Less because of his ability, more because of the competition for places in that position. Wilshere in particular.

Unfortunately though, I think it's inevitable that you can end up swapping Rooney and Sturridge around somewhat. Which completely defeats the point of playing Sturridge, whilst also potentially slightly limiting how attacking Lallana will be able to be (Rooney can out a shift in defensively, and/or drop deep - if he's not right bang up top).

 

Hi RedandWhiteManofKent, thanks for continuing to run the prediction league. You are right, this season I have done abjectly - I can only assume that the extra bits that you added including the joker feature and the pick a match to add to your total features have thrown me - or it could just be I am too pessimistic about Southampton's results and I forget to use the jokes .

Neville is a useful addition to the England backroom staff - it is interesting that most of the insightful pundits are defenders.

 

I do like your team although would have to hope that Sterling's run of form will last till Brazil, however............there is no way in the world that Uncle Roy is going to annoy the FA bigshots and leave 'the future of England' Wilshere out. If he is fit he will play the first 50 minutes of every game and lose the ball for 50 minutes of each game.

I would love for Wilshere not to be in there and I guess Sterling would be a decent choice (Barry for me) as without Wilshere and Lampard (who cannot keep up anymore) then maybe Rooney will be able to concentrate on his role rather than having to come to his own defenders to get the ball.

Like I say I can't see Roy droppping Wilshere and I can't see him lining up with a 4-2-3-1.

 

I really don't think we should take Wilshere after thinking long and hard about it as he always takes a long time to recover from injuries and we don't want to pick lots of doubtful players like we did in previous tournaments. Hopefully the euphoria of Liverpool winning the Premier League (if it happens) will act as a fillip for players such as Henderson and we can always have Milner and Carrick as cover. The biggest worry is centre back, I am loathed to take Smalling or Jones who are in dreadful form, I would consider Stones but we are still threadbare at the back; pity about Terry as defensively he has been immense this season and he is a great organiser - maybe we can transfer his footballing ability into someone else!

 

It's a shame that Shaw hasn't scored any goals whereas Baines

 

Sterling has been our (Liverpool's) best player since the turn of the year, almost 5 months, arguably outperforming Suarez and Sturridge. That's not to say I think he deserves to be in ahead of Lallana (he doesn't), just think it's harsh on the lad to say he's only been good for the last month or so. Baines missed the first couple of months of the season didn't he? Whenever I've watched Shaw he's been one of the best players on the pitch (alongside Adam), but I guess you guys have seen more of him than I have. I'd have Fernandinho in ahead of Gerrard, Gerrard has been phenomenal since he made the switch to a more defensive midfielder but over the course of the season Fernandinho has been the most important and consistent player.

GK: Marshall

RB: Coleman
CB: Terry
CB: Cahill
LB: Shaw

LM: Hazard
CM: Fernandinho
CM: Toure
RM: Silva

ST: Sturridge
ST: Suarez

 

I don't think many of us are saying it is just the last month, just that Lallana has been good all season and Sterling has improved to the point he is at now.

Someone above said 'It's a shame that Shaw hasn't scored any goals whereas Baines'. The reality is that he hasn't scored at all and has only 1 assist to his name. He will be great but at the moment it is a little more like Andros Townsend. Looks good, eye catching, not much end result. He will come good though.

So for me Baines' 5 goals and 3 assists even though he missed part of the season beats Shaw by a long way. Add to that his experience and that he has done even better than this for a fair while then he is most definitely the man for me

 

I think you can also take into account Baines' form for the last 6 years or so. He's earned that left back spot now that it appears Cole's legs have gone.
It'll be the same for Shaw soon (although he may not have to wait as long as Baines).

 

You mean Lallana, of course.

All I know is that if you took Sterling out of the Liverpool team, don’t reckon they’d be too far from where they are, but if you took Lallana out of the Saints side, reckon we’d have lost more points than Liverpool would have without Sterling.