of course Ronaldo
no doubt,
others stay aside.

Ok, I can take it if people said MU midfielders and strikers are better than Chelsea. Or if they said our forwards was crap except Drogba. But, how about our back four including Petr Cech? Ask Sir Alex Ferguson or any MU players and fans - do you want to swap Petr Cech with Van Der Sar? Stastically, MU goals scored superior than Chelsea (78 - 60) but Chelsea goals against is better than MU (20 - 24).

For sure it's C.Ronaldo, without him on top form, MU wont be at where they are now...

This post has been edited by ckkean: Apr 24 2007, 10:22 AM

yeahh... veri weird.
Cech, Terry or Carvalho not in the list.

among 3, only carvalho deserve to be nominated

because cech and terry mostly spend time on injury list...

Would MU suffer more without Ronaldo or Chelsea more without Drogba?

I still have to say I find it appalling that Jamie Carragher was excluded. You speak of the back four at Chelsea or Man Utd. Defending is a team effort, with even the strikers often dropping back to support the defence. Both Man Utd and Chelsea are top teams at the moment and they have conceded the least amount of goals in the league. Jamie Carragher on the other hand plays in an average Liverpool side and along with Daniel Agger, has contributed greatly to keeping our defensive record comparable to that of Chelsea and Man Utd. Why then was he not selected? I just think that as in the case of Steven Gerrard's selection, it's the England syndrome of choosing reputation over current form. Put John Terry in Watford and see if he gets nominated.

i do agree with u that Carragher is a suprise not to be included, maybe he can replace Rio but certainly not Vidic

Well everyone is entitled to their opinion but I think Carragher is much more important to Liverpool than Vidic is to Man Utd. Even with him out of the side, you are getting positive results. Take Carra out of Liverpool and our defence will be in shambles. We're just lucky he's been ever present since Rafa took over.

Not really Duke. We are actually struggling without Vidic. Rio on his own is not as great as he is when he's with Vida. Vida gives him the freedom to move forward and all. And when Vida is in the team, it pretty much takes out the responsibility of Rio winning air balls as Vida will go and attack it and 9 out of 10 times, he will win it. This can clearly be seen as our defence struggled with the air balls directed towards Benjani during the Pompey game which of course would have become Vida responsibility had he been there. One needs toreally watch Man United's game to understand the degree of importance of Nemanja Vidic to the Man United team.

No denying the fact that we are getting positive results, but the back is not as assured as it was before when we had the partnership of Rio-Vida.

Well this discussion stems from the fact that Carragher was excluded from the nominations. I'm not going to be drawn into a debate over who is better because it's obvious that there will be some biasness involved. I've said before that defending is a team effort and a teams good defensive record should not only be attributed to it's defenders. I do watch Man Utd games (though obviously not as many as yourself) and I do realise that Vidic is a good defender. You can't argue though that you've been getting decent results even with him out, which emphasises my point on defending being a team effort. Carragher on the other hand plays in a very average team that does not defend as well as Man Utd. Carra and Agger are as important to us as Terry and Carvalho are to Chelsea. It's no coincidence that Chelsea struggled without the pair of them in defence. The same will happen with Liverpool if Carra or Agger were left out simply because we do not have as good a team as Man Utd. It is therefore my contention that Carra is a key figure in the team because we would not get the positive results you've been getting without him in the team.

The votings to me smell of biasness towards the bigger more glamorous teams. Ask any Man City fan and they'll tell you how important Richard Dunne is to them. Sadly he plays for a less successful team that has struggled and are leaking goals. Sol Campbell and Lindvoy Primus were instrumental for Pompey earlier in the season when they were near the top of the Premiership. Focus however is always given to players who are in the lime light. It is just my opinion that these nominations sometimes mean as much as the FIFA rankings. England are currently ranked 8th in the world. Go figure. It's sad that good players in average teams aren't given as much recognition as they deserve. Reading are a team that has played beyond expectations and yet, they are not given any recognition for it. Where are the likes of Sidwell and Lita? Any mention of Steve Coppell?

Duke Red, as i know those selection is from the players themself 1 ...

I don't think the NEW Chelsea really thinks too much of all these personal accolades. I, for one, don't really care if Man U packs the PFA Team of the Year, as long as we get the trophies. They can keep ALL these awards if they want.

---

Added on April 24, 2007, 3:29 pmwell said Duke i'd really think you've a point here. For us, Terry and Carvalho are the lynchpin of our defense, of which will not stand up to task if one of them is unavailable (case-in-point our game v Liverpool @ Anfield). For Liverpool, Carra is definitely important but he has always been one who shuns the limelight hence may have counted against him in the voting. But if you talk of importance to one's team, Carra definitely is a better nomination than Terry, Carvalho and even Vidic this season as he has been ever present for this season, thus underlining his importance to the team, unless injured of which happened to both Terry and Vidic. Carvalho deserves a mention along the same lines as Carra to be nominated as well.

as for Man U players packing the PFA team, don't really agree with that but WTH i'm not the one doing the voting.

This post has been edited by aw13: Apr 24 2007, 03:29 PM

Is the PFA Team Of The Year get selected/voted by PFA themselves or its voted by the players? Can anyone confirm this?

If its voted by the PFA then we would say there could be some biasness towards the big teams. But if its selected/voted by the fellow players then we cant really argue about it as its the results of the votes from the majority of the players.

Another thing is that if not mistaken, the votes are done and finished during January 2007 so some of the selections might not reflect the latest/recent performance of the players.

This post has been edited by alien2003: Apr 24 2007, 03:38 PM

It is but both players and fans can be influenced by the media and reputation. What has Steven Gerrard done this season to be in the team? He got in by reputation. I'm not knocking Stevie G but the players himself has admitted he's not been at this best this season and is just now getting there.

The nominations were indeed made by players which is why I doubt the credibility even more. Who can argue with the fact that Reading have had an amazing season? Yet they don't have a single player mentioned in that list. Why? Just because they aren't challenging for the Premiership? The fact is they have played beyond expectations whilst everyone had already expected the likes of Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal to be exactly where they are.

This post has been edited by Duke Red: Apr 24 2007, 03:43 PM

the PFA is the players .....

dun forget , ManUtd had better defence then Chelsea b4 Vidic was injured and its the same case with Terry.

Of all the backfour , the most deserving is definately Vidic. The other 3 i have no comment.

Comparing Vidic and Carragher , Vidic will most probrably get more votes cause he is a nuisance for opponents attackers and defenders as well. where as carragher does the defensive work and isnt that potent during set pieces compared to vidic or even terry

Have you actually seen Carragher play? He is not the most talented of defenders granted, but makes up for it with heart and determination. Over the past 3 seasons, he has had to mark Europe's top marksmen and most of the time, he's come up on top. What does scoring goals during set-pieces have to do with defending anyway? A defender should be picked first and foremost on his ability to defend. I mean we don't pick strikers based on their ability to defend. As it is Carra is often overlooked in the England squad and I suppose Liverpool fans should have expected the same to happen here.

This post has been edited by Duke Red: Apr 24 2007, 03:48 PM

You got my point wrong. i'm not trying to say that Vidic is a better player than Carragher(not saying that he isn't either). I'm trying to stress the importance of Vidic towards the Man United team. Yes, we did win games without him in the game but we have been struggling without him as well, especially in the air. Our defensive unite is just not as good as it was when Vidic was in the team.

As for this award being biased toward glamorous teams, I don't really think so. Remember, Pascal Chimbonda got in last year. Maybe the fact that we do have a lot of players in that team is because of the fact that we have been playing the best football throughout the year.

I've already said before that Gerrard only got in on reputation. If it was up to me personally, I would have put Vidic, Carragher or Essien in his spot for the Player of The Year nominations cause he has been ordinary this season. As for the team of the year, Rio and Vidic has been class this season, no question about that. Even me as a Man United fan has been surprised with Rio's form this season,how composed and how strong defensively he is compared to the Rio of old who was always careless and suffers from lack of concentration lots of time. I can understand why most people chose them as they have been very,very solid hence the comparisons between them and the old great partnership of Bruce and Pallister. These awards are chosen by fellow players anyways so they must feel that it was more troubling for them to play against Rio and Vidic than against any other partnership in the league, hence why they are chosen. And yes, the fact that the team is doing well must have influenced their decision as well but not undermining their importance. The fact that the team is doing well means they must be doing things right. I don't think Carragher has been overlooked but just that Rio and Vidic has been a different class this season. And that statement has nothing to do with the fact that I am a Manchester United fan. I gave that as a view of a football fan.

Well this is where we have to agree to disagree. If you say that Rio and Vidic have been in a different class, then so has Carra. We have conceded 22 goals to your 24 this season and much of it has been down to the class of Carra (Agger's emergence has helped our course). Reina has kept 55 clean sheets in his first 100 appearances for the club, and much of it is down to Carra. A superb defender in an average team (and no one can argue that we are just an average side without him or Stevie in it). We've conceded less goal but are only in the position we are in now because we have scored way less.

I dont think anyone can undermine the contributions of Vidic to Man Utds run this season. Honestly speaking, I dont exactly watch other teams play, although Ive watched a few Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool matches, and if you ask me, id say Carvalho, Carra and Toure were wonderful this season for their respective teams, so im not gona take anything away from them.
But in terms of Vidic's contribution, the significance of his play at least in the first half of the season was of great magnitude. He won balls in the air, he made last ditch tackles, and he even scored a few goals which gives him a dynamic edge.
In direct comparisons with Carra, i think Carra's determination and passion is there for everyone to see, but maybe its sumtimes more than jus those elements and i refuse to believe that Vida has any less determination or passion in the sport that he loves.

In your (Duke) argument stating that the team was still getting positive results even with the loss of Vida, i think thats down to the attacking nature of the team. THe winner is the team that scores one more goal than the opponent.
When we lost vida, we started conceding goals, and the backline was abit shaken, and in that sense u cud see that Vidic really did bring sumthin diff to our play