PFA Team Of The Year

My pick would be:

 

Plumped for Heaton - and Toby over Jan, but that's near enough!

 

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Something like that, anyway.

 

There's an argument for picking the whole of one team with these things because it would be a better as a team.
When the supposed best players in each position are selected, the team always seems to lack balance.
Who is the playmaker in the PFA team? The team seems to be 4-4-2 with Mane and Hazard wide. Alii is not a central midfielder in that formation alongside a defensive midfielder.

EDIT: I do acknowledge that the team is voted for by the players, recognising the best in each position. They don't pick a team and set up a team as a manager would do. But there is still a strange look to the XI picked as they would never to selected as an XI if a manager had all PL players available to pick from.

 

With that logic, I don't understand how Alderwiereld and/or vertonghen aren't in there. The spurs back 4 has only conceded 22 goals and many football fans and pundits would say Alderwiereld is the best CB in the league. So how's he been overlooked?
I can understand the argument of players like Valencia not making it as he's been quality (although I still think Walker has been better) but Luiz? Yes he's been much better in his second stint in the prem, but there's quite a few who should have been ahead of him, IMO.

 

The players choose. They should know.
Luiz did very well earlier in the season when Chelsea were winning game after game. Chelsea conceded the fewest goals up to the end of January. They've let in 12 compared to Spurs 6 since then (Utd only 3 in this period incidentally). So you can understand why players might have picked Chelsea defenders.

 

In fact, since the debacle at Chelsea in October, Utd are unbeaten and have the best defensive record.
Rojo anyone?

 

Rojo is in the PFA team of 'most avoided red cards' along with Costa. Other Chavs also made the list.

 

I've been baffled by United's defensive miserliness for quite some time now. This isn't a Mourniho 'parked bus masterstroke', either: they conceded very few goals under LVG too. I get that De Gea is a top class keeper, but literally none of their defenders stand out as anything other than bang average. Add to this the fact that they more often than not play converted wingers Young and Valencia as full backs and the whole thing really is quite odd. Is De Gea really that good?!

 

You need the right raw data.
How many on-target shots against them. How many scored.
How many saved by GK. How many blocked by outfield players.

 

Playing with a lot of possession at a slow tempo. Keeping the ball in front of the back four for long periods ensures the opposition doesn't get a sniff, but it's not conducive to playing attacking football. I think weaknesses would be exposed if Utd played in the old style of SAF and were liable to be counterattacked more often.

 

Why does the team get announced before the players of the year?

I assume that their absence from the team means that Ibra and Sanchez haven't won and that as he is only young player in the team Dele is the winner in that category

 

Excellently taken goal from future Spurs striker Marcus Rashford.

 

I guess for many players it's too much to ask that they consider matches over the whole season. In fact, we could even pick the winners of the premier league based on the results of the whole season. How cool would that be?

 

They play really unambitiously a lot of the time and keep a lot of men behind the ball.
You'll probably notice it a lot more when they're attacking and there's virtually nobody in the box.
Compare that to some of our games, where you've got a fullback playing the ball in to about four players.

Ibrahimovic probably helps this somewhat, as he slows everything down and scores goals from nothing.
It takes a lot of the chaos out of things, allowing Man Utd's better players to pull moments of magic to win very stodgy games.
Quite hard to play against, but doesn't always work completely, so they've had a lot of draws.
That's empahasised at Old Trafford, where the other team's normally perfectly happy with that result.

 

Alli awarded young player of the year!

 

Hugely deserved. So effective for one so young. His future is unlimited.

 

2012 - Kyle Walker
2013 - Gareth Bale
2014 - Eden Baztard
2015 - Harry Kane
2016 - Dele Alli
2017 - Dele Alli

5 of the past 6 years. Quite remarkable and immensely proud to be a fan of pretty much the only club in the league consistently producing young British talent

 

And, judging by that list, doing a better job of keeping hold of it than we're given credit for...

 

Indeed. Although the way the media go on about it, you'd be forgiven for thinking that we run a free shuttle service between London and Manchester.

In all seriousness, we may see a few concrete bids for Dele. I think most clubs 'get' that Kane is Spurs through and through, but Dele isn't and is probably the most exciting young talent in world football right now. The saving grace is that we won't sell to a rival, and both Real and Barca are over-stocked in attacking talent. There is a small possibility that Barca will cast him as Iniesta's heir, and that Real may be planning a summer clear out of said talent regardless, with James and Isco likely to depart.

I can see Bayern potentially making a move for him. Robben and Ribery are at the end of their shelf life whilst Muller (a player who Alli reminds me a lot of) has been cack for a while now.

Beyond them, only PSG could afford him. He would in all likelihood break the transfer record again and possibly break the £100m barrier.

Next season at Wembley worries me sick and I am already bracing myself for a really poor season. I only hope this group of players can see the light of the cheese room at the end of the pitchside tunnel...