vote and give opinion why

C.Ronaldo should win PFA player of the year. He is on fire this season!!

My vote is for Christiano Ronaldo and I think it's really obvious why. He has matured so much as a player and has single handedly won games for Man Utd. Your strikers have not been prolific this season and Ronaldo has picked up the slack. I also think that Paul Scholes deserves a mention after returning from injury. He's looked his old self again though I think his tackling has gotten even worse

Drogba...

He is the one who single-handedly brought Chelsea through so many games during Chelsea's injury crisis. He scores during crucial moments. Without him, Chelsea will not be in the current position already. He may not have those skills and pace, but his goalscoring ability is uncanny.

C.Ronaldo will be a good contender to challenge Drogba

cristiano ronaldo for me. not only is he a great footballer but an entertainer too. there's nothing more exciting than watching ronaldo running and dribbling pass defender after defender before firing away to a goal or just making a beautiful assist to another player. simply fantastic!

C ROnaldo...very consistent performace through out season. One of the key factor for Man utd..if they gona win trophies. Hopefully they win =)

C. Ronaldo!~
the best footballer we have right now

definitely is C. Ronaldo~

I agree with this.

He came here as a fancy and skilled player but now he's gotten much more intelligent/mature.He knows when he can and needs to do certain stuff.Definately lacked that when he arrived

Plus I wonder if it's just me,or has he not only gotten stronger,but also faster and has even more control with his dribbles now.It's simply fantastic to watch numbers of players going in after him only to fail.

fabregas, he scored the winning goal against bolton that could secured the 4th spot

1.C.Ron
2.Drogba
3.Scholes/Fabregas

1. my reason is same with others who pick him.

2. top scorer in EPL. 30 goals in all games. score a lot of important goals for Chelsea. improve a lot from his previous season. the best player for Chelsea rite now along with Terry and Lampard.

3. Scholes is an important player for MU. his partnership with Carrick is awesome. score a beatiful goal like the game against blackburn but 1 thing i dun like about him is his tackle. he is the only MU player who get a red card this season./Without fabregas' vision and passing, i dun think arsenal can even be in the top 4 this season.

C.Ronaldo hands down ... he is just a joy to watch. A world class talent.

I guess there's no question of who's winning this award other than C.Ronaldo. Heard that maybe Drogba might nick it, if Man Utd wins the Premier League.

C.Ronaldo has been the best player by far, this season. Drogba runs him close. Im just surprised that Essien didn't get the nomination. Biased Englishmen.

lil ronnie for me

I give my vote C. Ronaldo too

It's too obvious although I agree that Drogba is a good contender to him. C. Ronaldo has single handedly won a lot of games for MU when their strikers lost their plots.

Drogba on the other hand, has contribute a lot to Chelsea, not only he scores a lot, he also scores many crucial goals too. Without these goals, Chelsea may have a lot draw or even lost games this season around.

no one mention wayne rooney?

this season definitely c.ronaldo

my vote for ronaldo..
why? best current footballer on the planet..

C.Ronaldo. He is outstanding currently at the moment.

Surely i go for Ronaldo. He score goal and asist a lot this season. He is at his best now.

This should be a non contest
Ronaldo deserves it.

Damn it, good words for 2 Man United players by Duke Read. You must really hate yourself now ehh??? Hahaha.

Ronaldo for me as well. For obvious reasons. No one has been close to the class he has oozed this season. To the point that people has even stopped booing him and instead are now fearing him.

We're looking for player of the year,not player of the match

I'll be suprised if Ronaldo didn't win it

Maybe for Arsenal, the person saving them for the fourth place is precious enough to be the player of the season...
(No intention of flaming, take it easy, Gunners, alwayz love your style of play more than Chelsea's)

I saw Liverpool fans voting for Ronaldo. He is quick he is skillful and he is like from the other planet....
Any Chelsea fans can be as humble as Terry to say Ronaldo is the best in the world? Any?

well , rooney nominated for PFA Young Player of the Year






If ronaldo wins this , im pretty sure fabregas will get the young player award ...

unless they conspire to make ronaldo win the young player to let drogba take player award ahahahah





even if fabregas didnt score that winner to secure ... he is by far arsenal's best player this season

100% C.Ronaldo for me... He have been stronger since the world cup. Can play so well even after the Rooney case. It jus didnt haunt him. It seems to make him stronger. Last year SAF keep saying Ronaldo dribble too much and lose ball often therefore stopping him to do so. I guess now SAF advise CR to do anything he love ard ^^

2nd will be Drogba. He's been so influential for Chelsea this season comparing to last season where he canot even dribble pass defenders much. But now he can do anything he want and score magic goals. At start the limelight shud be on Sheva but he stole it and kept it till now...

so.. CR or Drogba..undecided for me ^^

I'll like Drogba to win it. Mainly because I'm Blues fan.

But anyway, I hate to say that I've just voted for C.Ronaldo too.

as usual they didn't notice about King Carra..

You're the first and I think you have the humble characteristics of your captain, John Terry, proud of yourself....
Drogba no doubt helped Chelsea a lot this season but I think mostly are mesmerise by CR's skills and pace... Even if he didn't score, he helped to score...

even though i am arsenal fan, i still vote for C.Ronaldo...he just on fire this season, just hope if Ronaldo win PFA player of the year award, the young player goes to fabregas..

c.ron for me. improve alot, challenge golden boot contender as a winger, consistency for entire season, at least 90% of the season.

Ronaldo for sure,his performance is outstanding,scored many goals,played great football..

if ronaldo nvr win this..i duno wat to say d luu....
not best in PFA only..but the WORLD..... RONALDO WORLD!~~

I dont think Carragher made enough impact compare to the other nominees.

Carragher may be consistent ... but not outstanding enough. If Carragher's criteria is 'the' important one .. then Denis Irwin should have won from 1999 to 2001 as he is the master of consistency

my vote goes to C.Ron

Then how'd you define outstanding? From my knowledge, without Carra, would Liverpool be at where they are right now? Without Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, would Man Utd be this winning this much? Can Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney attack without worrying much about their defensive duties?

By the way, as a Liverpool fan, has Stevie G done enough this season to be nominated? Reputation plays a big role. And to compare youngsters, I don't think Agger has not done enough to be nominated among the young player of the year, in fact, I thought he was consistent and one of the brightest young stars in the making. How about Lita from Reading? Micah Richards was mentioned because he was a Chelsea's target signing although he came out from Man City

Outstanding as in match winning performance.

ManUtd won Roma without 3 first choice defenders . Carrick is playing an extremely important role for ManUtds shape , but he is not doing stuffs outstanding unlike Scholes. hence he is not nominated



Besides that , this kind of awards usualy dun go to defenders because its usualy the strikers and midfielders doing the 'outstanding' performances, the match winning performances.

Thats why its cited as a rarity when Cannavaro won Player of the Year. And that to , is because his performance is outstanding enough.

i am a chelsea supporter but Cristiano Ronaldo should win the award for his contributions this season. Last season he was a nobody but this season, he has really strike fear into opponents...but his diving skills still cannot compare to robben.

my vote to Portugal wizard...he is simply the best this season..

now that is ironic, when you're saying that strikers and midfielders do all the match winning performances, how can they do it when defenders aren't doing their job? A very good example, Roma...how they got thrashed 7-1? Their defenders were just focusing on how to score goals.

What other things did Cannavaro do besides defending well and scoring from headers? Assisting? Scoring for every matches? The irony is there about your definition of the word outstanding. ManUtd won Roma without 3 first choice defenders, but there are still good defenders in their squad. Don't come and tell me that Brown and Heinze aren't good enough.

See how Chelsea suffer when they had so many injuries, Terry was the significant one.

Just because Carra is in Liverpool, not Chelsea, not Man Utd...He's not in the England squad. Many may argue that this is just an assumption, but for many years now he's proved that he's a great defender and even before people knew about John Terry. GH didn't notice his contribution, I guess that's why people didn't notice him and furthermore, back then Liverpool was just another average team like Tottenham now to you guys. Rafa Benitez noticed his contribution and had given him more credits than usual. Sissoko did well too last season and he wasn't even among the nominee for the Young Player of the Year.

Dont get me wrong here as I've voted for the Portugal winger and I truly think that he deserves it. It's just that I felt bad for Carra and fellow good defenders for not being nominated.

This post has been edited by lilredridinghood: Apr 17 2007, 11:53 PM

C.Ronaldo. He is outstanding this season. He assists and scores goals. His role is MU is too important.
2nd should be Drogba. Having his greatest season so far.

Ronaldo without a doubt... there is no one in the list worth comparing other than drogba who dont do much other than score goals

well i'm biased towards Didi, simply because i'm a Chelsea fan!

but actually his 30 goals is quite a feat esp considering that the last Chelsea player who achieved this was good ol' Dixie! (Kerry Dixon)

and C Ronaldo has been earning some negative reviews for his 'falls' recently (v Middlesbrough) so that may count against him. but i think it would boil down to honours won by the end of the season...

ronaldo will b the man....witout ronaldo..on the attacking side...man united would suffer....on scoring....

Maybe...
But I think Man Utd won't suffer, it's just that the goal margin they win the game will be smaller... and with the defense line stretching nearing a snap, it's important to have him on the side...

Gerrard now is like Becks was back then. The golden boy of English football. Be it whether he's crap in the season or not, he'll always be there in the list of nominees, down more to reputation than anything I reckon.

I reckon Vidic,Carragher or Essien should be in that list instead of Gerrard and possibly Fabregas. Personally I was surprised seeing that Essien was not in the list considering the season he's having for Chelski.

As for Man United suffering if Ronaldo was not around, bull I say. We play as a team and in that team we have many game changers i.e. Rooney, Scholesy, Giggsy, Carrick and Saha to name a few. So no, we'll still do fine.

yeah..Essien @ Carvalho are playing pretty well too..

C.Ronaldo. no doubt. Without him, MU could be disqualifed from CL.
Juz wish he can maintain his form every matches he play. Go go ronaldo !

how the hell can we be DQ'd from the CL is ronnie aint there??that certainly puzzles me...

I won't go and say that he's crap this season though... However, he doesn't deserve as much as Carra though. I'm surprised that Essien isn't among the nominees too

Carra definitely deserves to be nominated, even if it's in place of Stevie G. He has been a model of consistency since being moved to centreback. I disagree with the suggestion that isn't enough to get you nominated. How does a defender perform the spectacular? By scoring goals are Terry does? Then the voting would be biased towards strikers and midfielder, perhaps it is. Carra had made dozens of timely interventions or last ditch tackles playing behind what many consider an average Liverpool team. Terry is surrounded by a team of superstars. While I agree with Terry being nominated, I disagree that Carra's contributions have been of less significance.

well van Nistelrooy scored 46 goals in a season but lost out to Henry even though Henry scored less goals in EPL and UCL in season 2002-2003

I guess you misunderstood my point. Carra's contributions have been significant as usual. What I was saying was that Terry's is one of the most significant problem that has cause Chelsea their position for this season, they could've been better, but lack of leadership behind made them poorer than their usual self.

Ronaldo is obviously the winner of PFA Player of The Year. If one that win Player of The Year should give way to others in PFA Young Player of The Year, I hope Fabregas will win it. He carried Arsenal on his shoulder when Henry, RVP is injured.

If this doesnt happen, Ronaldo to win both.

Ronaldo Scoops Double Glory
http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?hlid=4...ps+double+glory


PFA Player Of The Year
1st: Ronaldo
2nd: Didier Drogba
3rd: Paul Scholes

PFA Young Player Of The Year
1st Ronaldo
2nd: Fabregas
3rd: Lennon

This post has been edited by maxizanc: Apr 23 2007, 05:18 AM

im a chelsea fan.

Though I voted C.Ronaldo for the award.

Why'd I lie about something that is witnessed by millions of others?

I'd love to see Drogba to grab it...but from a fair judgement,yeah...C.ronaldo deserves it.

p/s : forever Portugal fan,FYI lol

Glory Glory Man United. Really proud that Cristi won both the awards tonight. I was abit sceptical abt his chances to win both, but the professionals have voted rightly so !
I wont say that we totally depend on CR for the entire season, but none can deny his influence on the outcome of the match, and the beauty that he brings to the game.

Having sed that, kudos to the man united team, we have 8 players in the Team of the Year, and i guess that speaks volumes !

way to go from a Public enemy No.1 to being acknowledged by fellow player as the best player this season... Our show pony has grown into a stallion.

And how if Chelsea won the EPL? Even if MU became the champion, and Chelsea 2nd with only 2 or 3 points back, I think Chelsea players deserve more than 1 player compare to 8 by MU. It's like the whole EPL teams against Chelsea and thats not so professional if you take the emotion into account not the performance.

Then you'd have to ask why EPL footballers don't rate Chelsea personally.

how many times did chelsea have to scrap from behind or take last minutes equaliser and winning goals ?

no offence but chelsea is no where as good as they were last year in terms of performance .though they still can out result last year by winning all 4 =/

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

We have conceded 24 alright and without Vida, we have conceded 4 goals during his injury period 2 against Pompey,1 each against Blackburn and Boro. That's not even counting goals that we leaked when he wasn't playing in the earlier part of the season, when he was down injured, when Rio and Wes was our 1st choice partnership. We stopped leaking goals when he started playing with Rio which again underlines the important of Vidic to us and how his presence has even brought new confidence to an unconsistent Rio. Our defensive record would be a hella lot worse had it not been for the presence of Vidic. And yes,the fact that the team is doing very well also reflects on him as well,hence the moinations for the Team Of The Year thing.

As I said, I don't think Carragher wasn't overlooked, Vidic is just better than him this season and our position shows it. Had there been a substitue bench or something. i"m very sure Carragher would have been there and I do not mean anything sarcastic by it. Just to show that he is surely next in line after Rio and Vidic.

This post has been edited by air_mood: Apr 24 2007, 06:46 PM

1st C.Ronaldo for overall perfromance... and 2nd to Drogba he score crucial goals for chelsea...

not only that, if you watch the goal chelsea scored against liverpool in the CL, the power and determination to beat agger and a good pass to cole that score the goal show how strong he is to chelsea attack...

Your position is also based on your team's ability to play attacking football, which make your defenders' job easier. Our attacking ability however was weak but not our defence, find a team with Liverpool's calibre conceeding so few goals. Some people actually said that our keeper isn't good and our defenders are doing all the dirty jobs, which I strongly disagree, however that proved that our defenders aren't doing nothing.

Based on the match between Liverpool and Man Utd at Anfield, if it wasn't for our lack of finishing ability and your Dutch keeper, we would've scored and won. We made your defenders look vulnerable. When lady luck is on your side, it plays a big role too. The same goes to the game between Roma and you lots, had tonnes of chances but lack of the killer touch.

Carra has been wonderful this season with his influence at the back four as well as his ability to give instructions. His workrate is class as well as his playing spirit. You guys quickly forget how well he did this season against Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea. Without him, where will Liverpool be this season? Agger is considerably a fresh face without much experience and the much experienced Hyypia is now relegated to the bench. As for Vidic, Rio is a much experienced defender who plays for England all the time, Vidic isn't inexperience either, Rafa wanted him before signing Daniel Agger.

What happen to Matthew Taylor anyway? Berbatov? and also Agger for the PFA young player of the year? Duke, Kevin Doyle is among the PFA young player of the year's nomination.

Noone mention about Drogba's contribution to our back four especially when our opponents take corners or set pieces against us. He won most of the aerial battle inside our own penalty box.

How does it make our defender's job easier when we dont actually have a designated player to protect the back 4 i.e. Sissoko for you and Makelele for the russians??? Carrick and Scholesy spends most of their time in the opposition half and that leaves the defending, especially thru the middle solely on our central defense. I'm not going to deny, Bellamy did give Vidic a hard time in the 1st half but Vida did well in the 2nd. He's a human being and no robot so he's bound to have a bad game every once in a while. Are you going to tell me that Agger and Carragher had perfect season this season??? No missed tackles?? I seem to recall a certain Jamie Carragher being outmuscled by Henry en route to Arsenal's 3rd goal in the FA Cup game.

If you're basing your judgement of our defense on the game at Anfield, can I base my judgement on the game at Old Trafford??? We basically outplayed you for the whole game, got 2 clear goals and was a very clear, clear win. As for the game at Anfield, most have probably slipped my mind, refresh it if you will but the only things I recall is the offside goal and that chance towards the end by Crouch which VDS saved. So how was it that you made our defenders look silly?? You did have control of the game, I'm not denying that but you didn't realy have many celar cut chances either. Lack of finishing ehh?? Not gonna deny that cause your own Jamie Carragher said after the game that you just basically need better players. Not sure who exactly he meant but there you go. Not denying that lady luck helped but it helps almost every team so what's the big deal??? It's not like we get lucky every single game. Not like you never get lucky in your games.

If you say that we seem to forget Carragher's contribution in the games against us, Chelsea and Arsenal. You're basically doing the same with Vida and Rio. Vidic took out Kuyt at OT that he basically had nothing to do at all in the game. Same thing that he did with Drogba at OT. Rio has been commanding the back 4 as well. Along with Gary Neville, he has been the most vocal of our back 4, organizing it most of the time as well as Gaz normally bombs forward to help the attack. Not going to deny Vidic is experienced but Rio certainly helped. Vidic did took time to settle down here as can be seen with his performances last season where he didnt settle down. If you're saying that Rio's experiences has much to do with how good their partnership are, couldn't the same be said about Carragher?? he has played for Liverpool since 1996 so shouldn't that render the "Agger has been doing well despite his inexperience, forms a great partnership with Carragher despite the youth factor" argument useless??

As for Berbatov, he is in there in the Team of The Year but do you really think that he deserves a place in the Player of the Year nominations ahead of anyone else that's been nominated?? If it was up to me, I'd probably have switched Gerrard with Essien but that's about it.

There is no point in taking this argument any further. Your position in the league is also greatly attributed to the fact that you have scored 20 goal more than us. Ronaldo's contribution alone is comparative to the total tally of all our strikers.

For a player who isn't even a starter for his national team, Carra has outplayed many top strikers who do start for their national sides. Yes he may be out-muscled or out-paced every now and then but that comes down to genetics. Not may defenders can expect to out-muscle Drogba or beat Henry in terms of pace. Carra is not the most technically gifted player which makes it all the more amazing that he plays so well. He makes up for it with heart, passion, commitment and tenacity. While many players of today attend parties and are more concerned with getting their faces on magazines and newspapers, Carra often stays in his hotel room, watching tapes on football when on his travels. He is the consummate professional, preferring to work on his game, spend time with his family and avoid the Hollywood life. Sadly, these things are not taken into consideration during award nominations.

On a personal note, I could care less if Titus Bramble was nominated in place of Carra. I do however feel sorry for Carra and that he is always overlooked. What matters to me is that he continues to marshal the Liverpool rearguard until late in his career. I would not swap him for any defender in the world because though I believe there are those who are more talented, I don' think there is any that is more dedicated to the team and the sport. Heart over talent for me.



Anyone who remembers Istanbul will remember the moment we held our breaths when Carra went down on his back, grimacing in pain. Despite playing in pain, he had enough heart to play on and was called upon to make vital interceptions at full stretch.

I didn't take anything out from Vidic anyway. I'm just saying that with Rio and a better attacking team, it just make life easier for the defenders. When oppositions are being pushed behind and pressed badly, how do you expect the whole team to attack? I agree that Man Utd looked vulnerable when they lost Vidic and the Pompey game says it all. But that doesn't prove that Rio and Vidic are better than Carra.

I said that Vidic had a better time defending as Rio is experienced, as for Liverpool...being a weaker attacking team compare to Man Utd, Carra is only partnering Agger who is still fresh and currently in his first real season. Last season he didn't play much. Furthermore, Carra shouts for instructions, lead the team...all these duties are left to Rio when it comes to Man Utd.

Based on the OT's, Arsenal's matches this season, I do agree that we were outplayed. But for the Arsenal game, the poor keeping didn't help either. We were conceeding whenever Arsenal had a shot on target. As I've said, when there're 8 players attacking compare to 4, which causes more problems?

Sissoko didn't play much and if you had pay more attention to him, he has been shit with his passings this season. Some passes even gave the opposition chance to score against us.

Berbatov certainly does worth mention, his consistency and his ability to hold up ball has been the key factor why Tottenham is so successful this season. Though his finishing may not be the best, but without him, would Spurs be among the Quarterfinalist of the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup?

I voted for C.Ronaldo. Because his consistency and his ability to score goals.

You cant really blame anyone that Carragher has been overlooked. England for example, center of defence has got to be one of their strongest position. And with formation that England deploys, you can only choose 2, hence Rio and Terry are chosen whom in the eyes of many are the best central defenders in England. It's kinda like Cudicini in his heyday with Italy. He's one of the best Italian keepers no question but when you have the likes of then Peruzzi, Toldo and Buffon to name a few, not much he can do about it.


I f you're saying Vida has a better time defending because Rio is experienced, then same thing should be said about Agger as well. carragher has been at Liverpool since 96 so thats 11 years, if thats not enough experience, I don't know how much is. you're actually getting it wrong. With Vida and Rio, it's the other way around. Vida does most of the defending, he attacks high balls while Rio stays back and watch for the flick ons in case Vida missed the header. Vida stays back and Rio bombs forward on those runs. The reason why the work so well is because they complement each other. Vida with his defend 1st, ask questions later attitude and Rio with his slickness and pace.

Sissoko is exactly a carbon copy of Makelele, good defending at shit at attacking. his job is exactly like Makelele which is to protect the back 4, get the ball and get it to other players to do their job. He has been playing a lot before Mascherano came and partof the reason why Gerrard was shafted to the right was to accommodate him and Alonso in the cehtre if I'm not mistaken. Sissoko is sledom playign now, but Mascherano replaces him in that job. So you stil have a player that protects your back 4, kinda what Fletcher was supposed to do for us in the Milan game last Wednesday. So that should make you team's defending a bit easier.

As for why your attacking don't work so well, I reckon it may have something to do with Benitez;s rotation policy. Playes may not have time to click as they keep playing with different players all the time. that maybe where we might have something going for us. There were a time where we went for a good 4,5 games straight with the same unchanged lineup so players click with each other, they know what sort of balls their playing partners prefer, where to make runs etc.

Berbatov is a great player no doubt. His lack of goals probably has something to do with his non nomination. And as I said earlier, do you see him replacing any of the other guys that has been nominated??

Guys, there is no point in continue debating/arguing over the selections since its already been voted by the players so no matter how much we agree/disagree on the selections, it wont change anything.

^ True dat. The winner(s) has been announced and we all know the result. So shall the mods kindly close this thread. Let's get on with football peeps!!

Well that's like saying there is no point in talking about a match after it's over but yet we do it. We each like to give our analysis on the situation and justify certain things that happened.

Yup, 1 2nd that. As long as the arguments is healthy, it's good actually. I like to read as it gives me more info about other clubs or other players. I have no complaint about Ronaldo as he's been fantastic throughout the season and he's a popular choice. But, I still can't get it how out of 11 players, 8 came out from MU. The different between MU, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal is not that superior IMO. And regarding Carragher, it's like John Terry for Chelsea. They're both inspirational for the club. Chelsea suffer a lot without Terry's around. Not for his skill but more to his leadership and his spirit.

Which is why I said there really is no more point in arguing. As fans of our respective clubs, we each would like to see our players in that team and we each have reasons to justify their selections. Terry has been amazing and I'm just as surprised to see both Rio and Vidic selected ahead of him. There is no doubting his importance in your defence.

Most probably we could ask the players themselves? I thought the nominations came from the players? And they themselves voted? I understand how important are Carragher and Terry to their respective clubs. As I'm not saying that both of them are not good. Most probably that Carra was overlooked or something. I'm not taking anyone's side or being biased towards my favourite team. But to be honest, I found that the partnership between Rio and Vida has been fantastic throughout the season. Our team conceded less goals when they were around and Vida scored a few important goals in UCL and Premiership. And not to forget that goal scored by Rio when playing Liverpool at OT. Maybe, because of this Vida and Rio was nominated. Frankly saying, Terry was out injured for quite a long time. How is he going to get nominated by warming up the bench and how fair is that if he's being nominated instead of Sol Campbell or maybe Carragher himself?

No offense to both of you, Duke Red and bwan. 8 players came out from Man Utd, well can we just discuss(rationally) whether these 8 players really deserved the nominations or not?

For the centre backs, it's kind of subjective to only nominate Terry and Rio as the best. Rio did many mistakes for the past few seasons, but yet still an undroppable player for England, just because he cost a lot. Terry wasn't even an England squad regular two seasons ago, till Sol Campbell lost his placing at Arsenal. Not to forget, there was Anthony Gardner, Ledley King and even Wes Brown before Terry was even considered. During that time, Chelsea was just another team fighting for fourth place with Liverpool, and Terry was already impressive. Moreover, Carragher hardly get his chance.

It isn't that only Rio is experienced, but don't forget that Vidic is 26 now, with reasonable experience whereas Agger is only about 21. This is Agger's first real season, some tackles are raw and decisions are bad. Carragher is the only one who is organizing the defence and shouting for instructions. You can always see him instructing Agger as well as the fullbacks all the time.

Sissoko is never a copy of Makalele, I'd take that as a compliment if you do say that. Liverpool will be in a better position if Momo is as intelligent as Claude. Claude is a defensive midfielder who stops opposition from attacking with his dirty work. That's all Sissoko does, but what makes Makalele special is that he distributes passes well too, his decisions are always good which is useful. What Momo does is just tackling and distributes bad passes which is useless. That's why you only see him distributing short passes earlier in the season. Not to forget that, he was injured for quite a while during this season. Mascherano is still pretty lenient with his tackles but I gotta admit that he is still a class player.

If the rotation policy affects the team's fluency in attacking, how do you explain Valencia when Rafa Benitez was there? How do you explain our fluency against teams like ManUtd and Chelsea? Most teams in Europe rotate players all the time, even Barca and Real Madrid just to prevent fatigueness of the players. Rafa had this idea even when he was at Valencia, it won them 2 La Liga titles in 3 seasons, 1 Uefa Cup. Furthermore, most of these passings and tactical jobs are done during training sessions. I can't deny that rotation policy may be one of the factors which made us poor while attacking, but there're still other factors like lack of creativity and consistency. A lot of players in Liverpool are in their first season such as Mark Gonzalez, Jermaine Pennant, Kuyt, Bellamy...etc, it is never easy to adapt into a new team, moreover...a few of them came from other countries or continents. These factors contribute more problems to the team when it comes to attacking.

If the number of goals is one of the factor why he isn't nominated, why is Rooney even nominated every season? He didn't score that much either, maybe more than Berbatov, but to compare to a player in Tottenham and a player in Man Utd? Rooney obviously get better services from Man Utd than the Spurs. How many goals have Rooney scored when he was in Everton? I'd see him replacing Gerrard at least. I rather not mention any players other than Gerrard as it might trigger some sensitivity here.