EPL PLayer of the Year

Lex Luthor · 12-03-2007 1:06pm #1

While I think Ronaldo will get and probably deservedly so for his goals & assists tally, Jamie Carragher should run him close.

What do people think?

Nunu · 12-03-2007 4:50pm

There's usually 6 nominations, isn't there?
My 6 would be Ronaldo, Essien, Drogba, Scholes, Berbatov and Arteta in that order.

Honorable mentions for Finnan, Carragher, Vidic, McCarthy, Evra and Fabregas(would have scraped the top 6 if he could score goals!)

Undoubtedly Lampard and Gerrard will be in there though, as they always are....and probably even Henry:rolleyes:

PHB · 12-03-2007 4:58pm

I can't see Carragher pushing Ronaldo close.
It'll be between these 4 players, and who will win is anyones guess. I'd imagine Essien is last of the top 4 probably, and then it just comes down to what you value in a player. All three are very different types of players.

Ronaldo - Flair, Indivdual Effort, Lots of Goals and Assists
Drogba - Strong, Great teamwork, Lots of goals
Scholes - Simple, Key to entire team, few goals and assist

I think Scholes should get it myself, since he has never won it before. Give Ronaldo the young player of the year award.
I could see players player of the year award going to Scholes personally, I think there isn't a player out there who doesn't respect him.
I think the media award will go to Ronaldo, especially since they are trying to keep him up as the best player in the world so the hype of the PL can continue.

gucci · 12-03-2007 5:05pm

i like how you gave arteta a vote in there, hes keeping my fantasy football team afloat!! carragher has been sensational this year, hope his fellow professionals give him the vote.

Mr Magnolia · 12-03-2007 5:42pm

Carragher for me too.

cson · 12-03-2007 5:59pm

In terms of all round contribution to the team it should be between Drogba, Carragher, Essien and Scholes. Been fantastic all season every one of them.

As for Ronaldo...... having a good season scoring goals but all round contribution? Hyped up a little too much for my liking.

PHB · 12-03-2007 6:05pm

Yeh, it's not like has 9 assists either, or he is 2nd in the Actim stats.

cson · 12-03-2007 6:13pm

He's good, but in the same league as Essien, Drogba, Carragher or Scholes? :rolleyes:

He could be that good but IMO if Utd were to recieve the £50 million offer from Madrid/Barca mentioned, I'd take it.

WhiteWashMan · 12-03-2007 6:17pm

cson wrote:

He's good, but in the same league as Essien, Drogba, Carragher or Scholes?

actually.....

cson · 12-03-2007 6:22pm

Theres always a smart one.....

For those of you who will point out that yes Ronaldo is actually in the same league (EPL) as Essien & Co., what I meant was the same league in talent/experience/proven ability/consistency etc etc

_blank_ · 12-03-2007 6:28pm

In answer to that, compare Ronaldo and Drogba.

Both were berated for last season's performances, and both have improved immensely this season.

Now, why is Drogba being lauded by you and Ronaldo not?

What's the difference?

Both players turned on the style in the league they previously played in tbh.

A bit of ABUism no?

The Volt · 12-03-2007 6:34pm

Arteta has had an amazing season, consistantly the best player on the pitch weekin, week out at Everton. I'll be sorry if he goes. However, the two runners are Drogba and Ronaldo. I don't think anyone else can near match them

davyjose · 12-03-2007 7:36pm

I think Scholes will get it. Henry and Fabregas have both come out and said he's the best in the league. He also commands the sort of respect that Ronaldo & Drogba don't. Which has to count.

cson · 12-03-2007 7:37pm

seansouth wrote:

A bit of ABUism no?

Not quite. A bit of ABRism (Anyone But Ronaldo), I just don't like the kid. To me he represents a lot of what is wrong with the game. Whats he looking for £120K a week now?

Does any Man Utd fan honestly think Ferdinand and Ronaldo are worth £120K a week?

davyjose · 12-03-2007 7:42pm

cson wrote:

He's good, but in the same league as Essien, Drogba, Carragher or Scholes? :rolleyes:

He could be that good but IMO if Utd were to recieve the £50 million offer from Madrid/Barca mentioned, I'd take it.

Yes, a winger with 17 goals by March and a ridiculous amount of assist, who can only be dispossessed by being fouled, isnt as good as Essien :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

PiE · 12-03-2007 7:43pm

Considering his goals and assists have been the single reason Man Utd are top of the league and cruising towards the title... I'd hazard a guess that most Utd fans would say he'd have been well worth 120k a week. This season anyway.

While I don't see how they're similar, you compared Ronaldo to Essien. I'd take him over Essien any day anyway. But I guess that's from a Liverpool POV, and we've already got a bruiser in Sissoko.

hawker27 · 12-03-2007 7:44pm

don,t agree on ronaldo at all,for me its one of three.
giggs,scholes or drogba.

Lemlin · 12-03-2007 7:45pm

davyjose wrote:

Yes, a winger with 17 goals by March and a ridiculous amount of assist, who can only be dispossessed by being fouled, isnt as good as Essien :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Haha, Ronaldo only losing the ball by being fouled, have you watched a United game recently?

I'd go with Drogba. I've always said he was a huge part of the Chelsea team. He's showed just how much this season and put the doubters to shame.

Mr. Presentable · 12-03-2007 7:46pm

PHB wrote:

Yeh, it's not like has 9 assists either, or he is 2nd in the Actim stats.

The voting will be coloured by his other stats. The ones not covered by opta or actim. His swan like qualities etc.

davyjose · 12-03-2007 8:09pm

Lemlin wrote:

Haha, Ronaldo only losing the ball by being fouled, have you watched a United game recently?

I'd go with Drogba. I've always said he was a huge part of the Chelsea team. He's showed just how much this season and put the doubters to shame.

Without being too literal

going forward he quite often puts defenders in a position where they have no choice but to lunge at him.
Indeed I think Drogba has been excellent, but he's a striker who has scored a lot of goals (impressive but nothing we havent seen before). What R/onaldo has done this season is very special, and wouldn't just consider him for English Player of the Year, but world player too.

PHB · 12-03-2007 10:22pm

The voting will be coloured by his other stats. The ones not covered by opta or actim. His swan like qualities etc.

Yeh cause Drogba is known for being a saint

Royale with Cheese · 12-03-2007 10:24pm

I wasn't aware Patrick Vieira playS for Arsenal :rolleyes:

Raskolnikov · 12-03-2007 10:39pm

To be honest, I couldn't possibly make my mind up about Scholes/Essien/Ronaldo/Drogba winning Player of the Year. Like PHB said, they're all good in their individual respects. However, do Champions League performances matter? If they do then Drogba would have to take the crown. Chelsea would not be where they are now without him. Ronaldo and Scholes (for me anyway) just haven't been at the races in Europe.

Pighead · 12-03-2007 10:42pm

Royale with Cheese wrote:

I wasn't aware Patrick Vieira played for Arsenal :rolleyes:

You weren't aware Viera played for Arsenal? My word, thought everybody knew that. Yeah he played with them from 96-2005. Joined them from AC Milan. Anyway, if you need any more info, send me a PM, no probs.

Royale with Cheese · 12-03-2007 10:48pm

Pighead wrote:

You weren't aware Viera played for Arsenal? My word, thought everybody knew that. Yeah he played with them from 96-2005. Joined them from AC Milan. Anyway, if you need any more info, send me a PM, no probs.

Damn you pighead

*edits misleading use of grammar in post*

cson · 13-03-2007 12:40am

PHB wrote:

The best thing about United, there's only two, Rooney and Ronaldo.QUOTE]

Where are their videos? :rolleyes:

Guy:Incognito · 13-03-2007 1:09am

seansouth wrote:

In answer to that, compare Ronaldo and Drogba.

Both were berated for last season's performances, and both have improved immensely this season.

Now, why is Drogba being lauded by you and Ronaldo not?

What's the difference?

Both players turned on the style in the league they previously played in tbh.

A bit of ABUism no?

I think it comes down to C. Ronaldo haveing played a few seasons and having one where everything seems to fall for him. Whereas Drogba had his "settling" season and is now doing the business.

You could compare Ronaldo to Lampard. Lampard gets a lot of stick for his rebound and deflected goals, but Roanldo gets praise heaped on despite the fact of a few of his goals being penalties and a couple of deflections (fulham) Others just seem to be dropping for him this season. One earlier in the season springs to mind where he ran the ball and fired a poxy shot straight at a defender standing a couple of yards in front of him. In the last couple of years that ended up going for a corner or dropping to an opposition player, but this time it dropped right in fron tof him to the right of teh defender for a shot on goal.

As fir Carra? Not a hope. Points (or in the case of these things, goals ) win prizes. A lesser defender, but one who scored a few goals (ferdinand? not him in particular, but just using him as an example) would have a better shot at winning it tbh.

Guy:Incognito · 13-03-2007 1:21am

PHB wrote:

Yeh cause Drogba is known for being a saint Just like Fabregas, or Gerrard right? I can find you a diver in every single team
The best thing about United, there's only two, Rooney and Ronaldo.

Chelsea

Drogba - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu_eodWmHlQ
Cole - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS3JH_WMbsY
Robben - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5_MCqwtOZ4
Lampard - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypR87D6kDyg

Arsenal

Vieira - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UL2guATTPk
Ljungberg - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRvcLhdtjbg
Lehmann - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu_eodWmHlQ
Abedayor - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_t3t_4T_cY
Fabregas - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pPemURClKU

Liverpool

Gerrard - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsImBj4bluY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Prcxxr4bJ3E
Alonso - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W75xQMTyU24

Liverpool seem to be on par. Sure Gerrard can match Ronaldo easily.

TBH, you could probably find footage of every player in the league going down easily/divign once or twice.Thelikes of Ronaldo, Robben etc take it too a whole new level. It's constant and in every game.

When someone is tripped while consentrating on running with a ball, it can be a bit of a shock. You certainly dont have time to arch your back and pull your legs up under you. Plus that fact that that is just not the way the body reacts to being tripped. If you look at Ronaldo and Robben for example, the top half of their bodies have dropped probably half a foot before/if any contact is made.

~Rebel~ · 13-03-2007 2:07am

Id agree with the general consensus, Ronaldo, Drogba, Essien, Scholes as the front runners, and then maybe Carra and one of gerrard or lampard i suppose, just because they're always in these things.

I hope Essien, Drog or Scholes gets it as, even though Ronaldo is an undoubted talent, as someone else pointed out he signifies everything thats wrong with the game from a bad attitude to diving and generally being a big girly.

(p.s did the "one larss dance" picture of Larsson and Ronaldo on PaddyPower.com for the weekend freak anyone else out?!)

event · 13-03-2007 9:57am

Stekelly wrote:

I think it comes down to C. Ronaldo haveing played a few seasons and having one where everything seems to fall for him. Whereas Drogba had his "settling" season and is now doing the business.

i dont understand you there?

ronaldo has been with manu for 4 seasons (including this one), so things are just falling for him now?

drogba has been with chelsea for 3 seasons (including this one), yet is doing the business?

The Rooster · 13-03-2007 10:23am

Team of the Season:

Van der Sar

Finnan --- Carragher --- Vidic --- Evra

Ronaldo --- Essien --- Scholes --- Giggs

Drogba --- McCarthy

Most of the positions are clear-cut but I hadnt got a clue who was to partner Drogba, so went with the guy who I think has the most league goals. Although the more I think about it the more I lean towards Berbatov

I think the player and footballer of the year awards will be between Ronaldo, Drogba and Scholes. I think Drogba might edge the players award and Scholes the media one.

redzerdrog · 13-03-2007 10:36am

ronaldo, drogba, carragher, scholes, are in with a shout be i thinks its really between ronaldo and drogba

WhiteWashMan · 13-03-2007 11:29am

Stekelly wrote:

I think it comes down to C. Ronaldo haveing played a few seasons and having one where everything seems to fall for him. Whereas Drogba had his "settling" season and is now doing the business..

wooooooooh!

so let me get this straight......

ronaldo has had a few seasons, but this year everything is 'falling' right for him. you know, kinda lucky in a way.

on the other hand, drogba has had a few seasons, but he has managed to 'settle in', and when he scores etc, he means it?

so then i guess if someone were to say it was the other way around, youd say they were kidding themselves.

that really doesnt sound like an unbiased refelection on either player tbh.

anyway, i think titus bramble should be player of the year, simply for the fact that he plays every time he is fit and hes a worse defender than anthony gardner. now thats got to be a bigger achievement than all of your high class fancy men!

PHB · 13-03-2007 12:09pm

If you look at Ronaldo and Robben for example, the top half of their bodies have dropped probably half a foot before/if any contact is made.

I'd say Ronaldo, Robben, Gerrard, Drogba are all in the same league in terms of dives.

eirebhoy · 13-03-2007 12:29pm

Robben is in a league of his own.

I watched the Chelsea - Porto game and he must have blatantly dived 3 or 4 times.

The Rooster · 13-03-2007 12:47pm

PHB wrote:

I'd say Ronaldo, Robben, Gerrard, Drogba are all in the same league in terms of dives.

In fairness PHB, its nonsense to class Gerrard in the same league as the others. Gerrard is in the same class as Rooney and Beckham. They do dive occassionally, but usually only when they are desperate for a decision and usually in an effort to win a penalty. But equally they could go 6 or 8 games without diving.

The likes of Robben and Ronaldo are always at it. Every game there'll be incidents of them throwing themselves on the ground, sometimes they've been touched, sometimes they havent.

WhiteWashMan · 13-03-2007 1:22pm

with the exception of zakora throwing himself to the ground after that vicious tackle by pedro mendes against portsmouth

i have to say that ronaldo and robben appear to be the 2 main players guilty of falling over at the drop of a hat.
the dive that earned utd a peno against spurs should have had him carded, and i still cant believe robben wasnt carded on sunday for falling over.

why do such fantastically gifted players feel the need to do that?

even drogba has been focused on scoring rather than falling over, and look at his tally for the year!

PHB · 13-03-2007 1:45pm

What, so Gerrard chooses when to dive while Ronaldo does it all the time?
Ronaldo has cleaned up his act significantly this year, and dives when he wants to win important things.

I think the distinction you make it bull**** to be honest. Aside from their really being no distinction in terms of character, and Gerrard being a complete hypocrite, he dives a lot. Just look at Sheffield United. The difference between them is just in position. Ronaldo has more opportunity to dive, but whenever Gerrard gets a chance, he takes it.

No fans want to believe that their team has divers, and they always try to claim the other team has more, but Gerrard is an awful diver, and he does it on a regular basis. The only reason there aren't lots of videos of it is because he is English.

That said, perhaps Robben is in a league of his own.

WhiteWashMan · 13-03-2007 2:25pm

PHB wrote:

Ronaldo has cleaned up his act significantly this year, and dives when he wants to win important things..

ah, thats ok then.....

and just to add, that no, he doesnt do it just to win important things, he does it at the drop of a hat. im surprised that grounds keepers up and down the country havent been sued by him for having long grass. its the only thing i can think of that makes him fall over so much.

that or his other trick of flicking the ball passed someone and then running straight into them and falling over. side splitting comedy im sure we will all agree.

PHB wrote:

No fans want to believe that their team has divers, and they always try to claim the other team has more, .

um, i dont believe thats true, you just said it to try and bizarrely justify your next statement

PHB wrote:

but Gerrard is an awful diver, and he does it on a regular basis. The only reason there aren't lots of videos of it is because he is English.

QUOTE]

PHB wrote:

That said, perhaps Robben is in a league of his own.

having said that, cashley cole used to dive all the time at arsenal. i wonder what sort of team sheet we could put together for all the 'simulators' in the game today?

PHB · 13-03-2007 4:14pm

he does it at the drop of a hat

I'd really be amazed if you could find a total of ten dives or more this season from Ronaldo. That said, I doubt you will, cause you'd have to watch every minute of him, you're just basing your opinions of the times you've watched him.

ah, thats ok then.....

Personally I don't really care. If I had a flat out choice, i'd take a penalty from a dive in the CL final than no penalty. Liverpool took that choice, and I doubt most fans would, nearly any fan, would say that they wouldn't have wanted Gerrard to dive.

The only way to cut out diving is to make proper punishments for it, i.e. retroactive bans, which I'd be very much in favour of. But until then, I want my team to get any competitive advantage they can. That said, I don't think it's normally that beneficial to be a constant diver. Ronaldo has not been given many fouls that he should have been given because of his reputation, but in turn, because of his reputation, if he doesn't act up, the ref's assume it isn't a foul. It's quite a funny cycle really.

um, i dont believe thats true, you just said it to try and bizarrely justify your next statement

I do believe it's true, unsuprisingly, and it has no relevence to the justification for my next statement.

My next statement has the same level of justification as your statement about Ronaldo, it's not like any of us has watched every single minute of both players and noted when they dived, and then contrasted it. Both of us are justifying it based on whenever we watched them, I'd imagine the one you remember most is the penalty against Spurs, but they are really at the same level of justification.

ciaran76 · 14-03-2007 12:19pm

I'd say it will between Drogba and Ronaldo.

Knowing how it works over there Carrick will probaly win it !!!:eek:
Thats a joke by the way !!!

s8n · 14-03-2007 12:56pm

In fairness Carrick has had a good season. Not POTY standard though.

The Rooster · 14-03-2007 2:28pm

PHB wrote:

I'd really be amazed if you could find a total of ten dives or more this season from Ronaldo.

Now, that is funny

Kojak · 14-03-2007 3:27pm

I think, like a lot of people, the award is between Ronadlo and Drogba.

The deciding of the award could be down to whichever team wins the Premiership, IMO

WhiteWashMan · 14-03-2007 3:56pm

Kojak wrote:

I think, like a lot of people, the award is between Ronadlo and Drogba.

The deciding of the award could be down to whichever team wins the Premiership, IMO

player of the year, or diver of the year?

im confused now as to where we are at

mike65 · 14-03-2007 3:59pm

If efficency maters than Drogba wins hands down - he takes half as many shots on goal to score slightly more goals than the Step-over Kid.

Mike.

Nunu · 14-03-2007 6:06pm

Kojak wrote:

I think, like a lot of people, the award is between Ronadlo and Drogba.

The deciding of the award could be down to whichever team wins the Premiership, IMO

The players player of the year is already decided. They all voted a few weeks ago.

WhiteWashMan · 14-03-2007 6:18pm

who won?

Attractive Nun · 14-03-2007 11:41pm

If this award is just for the premiership - which I think it is - I'd have to give it to Ronaldo. If it includes the FA cup and Champions League, then Drogba deserves it. Drogba has been amazingly consistent in all competitions, whereas Ronaldo hasn't performed in Europe to anywhere near the same level.

EPL PLayer of the Year

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