AuthorBoth Outcasts There were plenty of players throughout the year that stood out this EPL league season. The awards are rightly dominated by players who have performed consistently well at the top of the table but what about some of those players lower down the league? Players, who despite the best efforts of a poor supporting cast of team mates managed to consistently perform week in and week out for some of the less glamourous sides in the division? The only caveat for compiling this list was that we had to pick the players from teams positioned 7th to 20th in the league who we thought had had a good season. It just so happens that we picked very similar squads (7 players to be exact made it in to both our sides). Our teams are below: Joe’s Team (Sports Billy) Tom’s Team (JeffEyesRimmer)
GK: Tom Heaton GK: Jordan Pickford CB: Virgil Van Dijk CB: Virgil Van Dijk CB: Kyle Naughton CB: Gareth McCauley CB: Michael Keane CB: Michael Keane LM: Wilfried Zaha LM: Wilfried Zaha DM: Idrissa Gueye DM: Idrissa Gueye CM: Joe Allen CM: Gylfi Sigurdsson RM: Gylfi Sigurdsson RM: Michail Antonio CF: Romelu Lukaku CF: Romelu Lukaku CF: Jermain Defoe CF: Fernando Llorente CF: Josh King CF: Josh King Goal Keepers Well heres a turn up for the books - we have picked two different goal keepers and both are English. Both Heaton and Pickford have performed admirably in teams that have both had leaky defences. However, without these two goal keepers between the sticks both Sunderland and Burnley could have had a much worse goal against ratio. Heaton and Pickford have made a total of 143 and 135 saves respectively, that’s the top two in saves in the league. Heaton has a shot stopping percentage of 75% and Pickford has 71% - that’s 3rd and 5th in the league respectively. Not bad at all and we wouldn’t be surprised to see both keepers being signed by bigger sides over the summer. Defence Both of us went for a three at the back approach, as it seems we both have joined the Antonio Conte tactical bandwagon! We have also plumped for two out of three of the same defenders in Michael Keane and Virgil Van Dijk. Both players have performed well this season and both are subject to interest from the bigger sides in the league. Keane is being chased by Manchester United and Van Dijk by Liverpool and Manchester City. We can see why as well, Van Dijk made 21 appearances this season and had averages of 2.6 interceptions, 1.9 tackles and 6.2 clearances per game. Keane has marginally worse stats but it’s to be expected when playing in a team lower down the division, Keane has 1.8 interceptions, 0.8 tackles and 7.4 clearances. Joe went for Kyle Naughton from Swansea as his other defender and was certainly one of the reasons that the Swans stayed up this season. Naughton made an average of 2.5 tackles per game and had 3.7 clearances; he also made contributions up the other end of the pitch too with averages of 0.7 key passes per game. I went for Gareth McCauley who has been a rock in the West Brom defence this season. The 37 year old has been their best player this season, 6 goals, 6.3 average clearances, 1.4 tackles and 2 interceptions, brilliant. It’s going to be tough to replace him. Midfield Three out of four players again picked by the both of us and it’s hard to argue with those players as well. A player that had his best season to date was Wilfried Zaha at Palace. The winger contributed with 7 goals and 9 assists and had a passing accuracy of 80%. Gylfi Sigurdsson was Swansea’s player of the season and was one of the major contributing factors in them staying up. The “Iceman” weighed in with 9 goals and 13 assists and probably the most likely to move in the close season with Everton already sniffing around. The other player that we both picked, Idrissa Gueye, has been a major coup for Everton. Brought in from relegated Aston Villa at the beginning of the season Gueye has been a force in the centre of midfield for the Toffees, dishing out 4.1 tackles per game and 2.5 interceptions which shows just how much the Senegalese player breaks up the oppositions play and allows Everton to counter attack. For my final player in midfield I went for Michael Antonio, a player that has played in every position this season it seems. I think he’s an attacking threat rather than defender and his 9 goals and 3 assists this season suggest that. Joe went for his name sake Joe Allen who has been a bit of an unsung signing of the season for the Potters this year. Attack We finish up our teams with two out of three of the same players. Jermain Defoe was one of the only shining lights at the Stadium of Light for a miserable Sunderland side this season. Defoe scored 15 goals this season and it looks highly likely that he will be joining Josh King on the south coast for next year’s campaign if the reports are to be believed. As for King, he started on the wing this season but after being moved into the centre scored an impressive 16 goals. Having him and Defoe could be a lovely little partnership for the Cherries next season. My other pick was Fernando Llorente who’s 15 goals helped keep Swansea in the league. The Spaniard was integral to the Swans great escape, especially towards the end of the season. We end this article with Romelu Lukaku, likely the most obvious pick from the lot. Only just nudged out of winning the golden boot by Kane in the final few games of the season, the big Belgian scored 25 goals this season and managed 3 assists. He is arguably the best forward in the league and it seems odd that the bigger teams throughout Europe are not rumoured to be interested. We can’t see him being at Everton though next season, sorry Everton fans! Anyone else you think should have made it into the team? Let us know your team and we will post in on Facebook. |
AuthorsJust Some Fans Writing About Football. Archives
June 2018
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