The Professional Footballers Association has released their shortlist of the Premier League Player of the Year (and this thing matters, particularly when a certain editor in need of handy player honours has to compile 100 player bios for an end of year list). It is as follows:
Robin van Persie – Arsenal
David Silva – Manchester City
Sergio Agüero – Manchester City
Joe Hart – Manchester City
Wayne Rooney – Manchester United
Scott Parker (!) – Tottenham Hotspur
First, RvP will win, surely. Second, no Yaya Toure? And no Paul Scholes? Third, Scott Parker? That’s my analysis. In case you want to commit some partisan griping down below, be my guest, but I recommend referring to whoscored.com before making wild claims about a particular player’s “quality.”
Scott Parker is quality.
Plenty to say about this but instead I am thinking of bringing back my top 100 Premier League players list instead – based around this season. Who’s up for that?
Ooooh that sounds good! :)
im up for it, sounds good.
I’m ‘Avin that
‘Avin that. Sounds great!
Please dooooo!!!
P.S. make Footy Show longer!!!
No surprised about Scott Parker. He won the ‘FWA Footballer of the Year’ last year. Not saying he deserved it but the fact he was nominated isn’t really a surprise.
As long as the Gunners don’t collapse (*knocks on all wood available*), it’s gotta be RVP.
I think van Persie will win easily. Its nice to see Joe Hart get recognized for his outstanding play, I’m a big fan of his and (at least with the people I talk with) feel like keepers don’t get enough credit when they are actually great players for their teams.
RVP seems the lock. The others are to spread some feel good around the league
Paul Scholes returned 3rd round FA, of course he isn’t on it.
Rooney’s been good too, but yeah RVP for sure. And Scott Parker…..I have no words. Very average player.
Newcastle gets no love? Cisse, Ba, Cabaye, Tiote, and Ben Arfa are all much better players than Parker.
I’m not necessarily endorsing Parker’s nomination, but he’s had quite a good season. His writer-voted award last year was obviously a bit laughable, but he’s not /that/ farcical of a nominee. I imagine that most Spurs supporters would at least entertain the argument that he’s been better/more important than Modric (who’s been quite poor for a significant stretch of the campaign) this season, despite being an obviously more limited player.
I don’t know that there’s any reasonable argument for nominating Paul Scholes, who, despite playing very well, has only started ten matches. That’s stops only verrrry short of “trolling,” in my (admittedly unimportant) opinion.
Obligatory caveat: These were, of course, voted on at some indeterminate point that we’re all aware was quite early in the season. Parker was the acting captain and one of the best players for a team that was just about challenging for the title at that point. Scholes had probably only played a couple of matches at that point. So obviously that accounts for the Parker nomination and the Scholes omission, specifically. Also see Silva’s nomination and Dempsey’s omission, but this debate is not exactly unchartered territory.
Good points on Parker. Modric, average season? Disagree.
It’s difficult, I suppose, to evaluate Modric’s season holistically when still in the middle (well, final stretch) of it. He was and is understood to have been excellent when Spurs were flying high. Obviously he deserves credit for this if we’re looking back on the season in its entirety. That said, he’s been genuinely mediocre, at least according to his standards, to my mind and those of many Spurs supporters, in a majority of matches since Christmas or so. It’s obviously impossible to measure how (sub)conscious of a decision on his part this is, but it seems pretty apparent that he’s mentally checked out and is just playing the season out in third gear.
To show how much Modric means to the side, check that Stevenage, which was during a time of high flying…and one of the only matches when Tottenham didn’t have Modric in the side..there was no offensive rhythm or flow…I think KJ puts it best when he says that Modric has to do too much at times, which leaves Tottenham vulnerable…Moddy gets unfairly judged in these instances…invaluable to Tottenham though!
I agree, while duly noting that were this poll taken today I don’t think any Spurs make either list. They just haven’t been good since Capello left England.
Re: Scholes, wasn’t so much an endorsement as a punt. Could one not be a player of the year without having played the entire season? In fact, Tevez should be on this list. Who else could refuse to play in a CL match and then finagle his way back into the side and score a hat-trick?
The Scholes point is interesting as a sort of thought experiment, I agree. A player would really have to absolutely set the league on fire in the <50% of league matches in which he'd played if he were to have a legitimate claim to POY, though, I'd think. Even if Scholes had kept up his current level of performance over the course of a 38 match season then he'd just about be in with a shout of a nomination, but I don't think he'd have done enough to muster a serious challenge, even then, to the likes of RVP.
3 Man City players but no mention of their best and most consistent player. Their captain, Vincent Kompany. Not sure how this was compiled and I don’t really care now as it has become irrelevant with his omission. He comfortably been the best defender in the league by a distance only measurable by his own forehead!
Honorable mentions for Yaya, Cabaye and Song.
this. no love for the backline in footy. not many goals scored = never making the MVP list
Good shout. City started to wobble when Kompany got the ban for the red that should not have been a red (a tangent I know) and also when Yaya left for the Cup of Nations in Africa that had African teams playing in a Cup Competition in Africa…. for African Teams.
Silva was immense until the Christmas period. He truly was showing world class form but City’s inability to score goals away from home when it mattered has shown their forward has been lacklustre when it matters. When United took over and the pressure was off City they started playing again. Coincidence? I think not!
As an aside, I’m not sure why Hoilett wasn’t nominated for the YPOTY award. Thought he’s been immense in a significantly sub-standard squad.
Problem is, the contributions of guys like Kompany go unnoticed when the team scores 3, 4 or 5 goals a game. Because then the counter-argument could be he isn’t getting the team results that they wouldn’t otherwise get.
If City were grinding out 1-0 wins and he were a rock in the middle (like Vidic is for United), then he would get way more love.
Agree on all points…ridiculous list.
No arguments w/ the 1st five players on the list?? But Parker?? C’mon. I’m a fan of the guy & all but there’s no way he deserves to be on the list
Ba, Cabaye, Tiote, Yaya Toure, Dempsey & even Grant Holt are players IMO that are far more deserving to be on the list
England’s Captain(what a fucking joke that was) has to be on the list come on now people….!
Oh and Joe Hart great goalie has no place on this list in my opinion. Many a deserving out field player could be on there before him specifically his teammate Toure Yaya
Any cynics out there on the same page as me on this one?
FA cup continues to blow sparkles up Harry’s captain’s ass (ie giving him the England armband, PFA nomination) in order to lure him into English management..?
What’s Mikel doing to Parker in that picture?