'Surprisingly Good' Team of the Season

SlickRic

sorry, I'm not normally one for posting threads, never mind a couple, but just to put a positive edge on the morning.

whose surprised you with their success this season?

who performed to a much higher level than you thought possible of them at the start of the season?

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Gomes

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Cuellar----R.Johnson---Kyrgiakos----Ridgewell

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Song----Huddlestone

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Milner

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Bellamy

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Tevez

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Bent

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Manager: Alex McLeish

again...argue away!

Spiritoftheseventies

Bellamy has done well. The move has been a good one for him.

Wreck

Why is Tevez there? He's been excellent this season, but I don't think that's in anyway surprising.

SlickRic

Wreck wrote: »

Why is Tevez there? He's been excellent this season, but I don't think that's in anyway surprising.

i think to be as good as he has, it deserved a mention.

Ush1

Wreck wrote: »

Why is Tevez there? He's been excellent this season, but I don't think that's in anyway surprising.

Agree.

Out of the team posted the main one is Gomes, some turn around from him, good mental strength. Has showed great quality.

NabyLadistheman

Jamie O'Hara & Dindane at Pompey. Rodagella is a quality striker. Ricaro Fuller at Stoke. Michael Dawson had a great season

Unearthly

I'd have Zamora in there instead of Tevez.

Royale with Cheese

Hasn't played a huge amount of games but I think Sol Campbell definitely deserves a mention.

SlickRic

Unearthly wrote: »

I'd have Zamora in there instead of Tevez.

excellent call to be honest.

flahavaj

Steven Carr is surely in with a shout at right back.

Zamora definitely warrants a place.

Also have been a little surprised at Duffer's renaissance at Fulham.

Kyrgiakos has absolutely shocked me with how well he has done this year, I thought he'd be a total donkey.

I had written off Gareth Bale as well, I must admit, so I've been surprised at how amazing he has been.

The bauld Lucas was heading for POTY for Loiverpool there for a while before others bucked up their ideas.

Nani has pleasantly surprised me too, I thought he was never going to develop a brain in his head.

Whoever said Fuller of Stoke is spot on, some of the footwork he has shown has stunned me.

Glico Man

I'd put Bowyer in ahead of Huddlestone. He's been immense for Brum

NabyLadistheman

Ya Nani is a good shout - come on leaps & bounds

Frisbee

SlickRic wrote: »

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Gomes

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Cuellar----R.Johnson---Kyrgiakos----Ridgewell

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Song----Huddlestone

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Milner

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Bellamy

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Tevez

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Bent

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Manager: Alex McLeish

Only changes I'd make would be:

Zamora over Tevez.
Bowyer over Huddlestone.

Goalkeeper is a hard one. Gomes is a very good keeper, he just had a woeful start to his time at Spurs.

Hart suprised me by just how good he was.

Spiritoftheseventies

torresistheman wrote: »

Ya Nani is a good shout - come on leaps & bounds

Dizzy and sick spells aside, Nani has been produced some flashes of brilliance this year

shoutman

Milner has been playing in the centre this season, this move is the reason why he has gained all the attention this year.
He was this good last year too btw

flahavaj

Theres a good case to be made for putting the entire Birmingham first eleven in here to be honest.

Essien

Malouda deserves a mention imo, he's looked like a different player for the best part of the season, probably what was expected of him when he signed though (aside from his miss of the season yesterday )

The Davestator

Was just going to say Malouda. Also, Diaby for Arsenal has been a real surprise, I'd love for chelsea to sign him

Frisbee

The Davestator wrote: »

Was just going to say Malouda. Also, Diaby for Arsenal has been a real surprise, I'd love for chelsea to sign him

Tell you what.

We'll trade you him for Essein.

And even at that you may as well be wearing a balaclava.

leninbenjamin

The Davestator wrote: »

Also, Diaby for Arsenal has been a real surprise, I'd love for chelsea to sign him

:eek:

He's had about 3 or 4 good performances this season, the rest have been pretty muck. He's got the ability but he's not able to maintain his form. Not good enough for a title contender on the back of this, or any of his previous seasons.

Chardee MacDennis

how can you include Gomes, it was more surprising he had such a bad start to his spurs career, this season he has shown how good he had been with PSV for years imo...

noodler

Campbell for the Greek.

Both have surprised me but big Sol's has easily been the more impressive for me.

Ush1

BastardPrince wrote: »

how can you include Gomes, it was more surprising he had such a bad start to his spurs career, this season he has shown how good he had been with PSV for years imo...

I'm suprised that he turned it around and didn't just leave.

SantryRed

I think we need 11 different polls.

LuckyLloyd

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Gomes

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Carr

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Johnson

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Krygiakos

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Baines

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Song

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Lucas

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Watson

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Rodaellaga

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Cohen

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Zamora

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Xavi6

Baines? Bit of a strange one. He's always been quality.

LuckyLloyd

BastardPrince wrote: »

how can you include Gomes, it was more surprising he had such a bad start to his spurs career, this season he has shown how good he had been with PSV for years imo...

Well, to be fair, last season it just seemed that he was yet another on a long list of players from the Dutch league who struggled with a move to one of the bigger leagues. I wasn't expecting him to turn it around to be perfectly honest.

LuckyLloyd

Xavi6 wrote: »

Baines? Bit of a strange one. He's always been quality.

I always thought of him as league average (i.e. 8 - 12th best starter in his position), but on the basis of his performances this year I think you could make a reasonable argument that he has only been behind Evra and Cole...

Frisbee

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

I think you could make a reasonable argument that he has only been behind Evra and Cole...

I'd agree with that.

But I also think it was the case last year also.

x PyRo

-Hahnemann-

Baird--Campbell--Nelson--Bale

Lee--O'Hara--Diame--N'Zogbia

--Zamora--Piquionne--

Fairly crap but they've impressed me along with being players that i didn't think would be as effective.

JPA

James Collins. I know most Villa fans were thinking who? WTF?

noodler

I had no doubts personally about the player but Duff has performed very well considering where he was last season.

x PyRo

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Watson

He has played 3 times this season dude. Hardly impressive!

LuckyLloyd

x PyRo wrote: »

He has played 3 times this season dude. Hardly impressive!

Haha, how red faced am I? That's pretty funny tbh. I watched Wigan's last two games in full (Arsenal, West Ham) and he was one of the best players on the pitch both times. Just assumed he had been an ever present since his transfer in January. Shows what I know!!

x PyRo

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Haha, how red faced am I? That's pretty funny tbh. I watched Wigan's last two games in full (Arsenal, West Ham) and he was one of the best players on the pitch both times. Just assumed he had been an ever present since his transfer in January. Shows what I know!!

Lol, Happens the best of us dude. :pac:

The only reason i know that is having to watch him score against Arsenal listening to Gray singing about him scoring on his second game back and wishing he had stayed away! Decent player alright, Steve Sidwell-esque.

Johner

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Haha, how red faced am I? That's pretty funny tbh. I watched Wigan's last two games in full (Arsenal, West Ham) and he was one of the best players on the pitch both times. Just assumed he had been an ever present since his transfer in January. Shows what I know!!

He signed for Wigan in January 2009, he's been on loan at QPR and WBA. I'd agree though when ever I've seen him play for Wigan he has been very good, surprised he went out on loan for most of the season, Wigan could have done with him!

Galvasean

I'd like to nominate Ricardo Fuller. I think he's done great this season with limited supply.

T-b0n3

Bale has improved huge amounts since last year when he couldn't even get on the winning side of an EPL match.

Gomes as others have mentioned, hes been immense too.

Bent has got back to goal scoring form after a disappointing time at spurs.

Dunne and Collins been great for Villa.

I think Rooney deserves a mention. We all knew he was quality, but I think he has really stepped up to the goal scoring plate even more so than people were expecting.

And Nani's turn around has been great to see too.

Warper

Bobby Z and Ryan Shawcross should be in there.

Adam Johnson looks like he will be a very good player too.

SlickRic

Bobby Zamora should really be the overall winner of this thread.

i can't believe i originally left him out.

Reganio 2

T-b0n3 wrote: »

Bale has improved huge amounts since last year when he couldn't even get on the winning side of an EPL match.

But he still can't defend, their were never doubts about his attacking ability, the United players just ran past him on Saturday, and he didn't even bother tracking back, he has been like that a lot of the season as well.

noodler

Can anyone tell me exactly when Bale got good this season?

I have to say I didn't see enough of him prior to the Arsenal game to comment.

noodler

SlickRic wrote: »

Bobby Zamora should really be the overall winner of this thread.

i can't beleive i originally left him out.

All hale Bee-Z.

Mr.Nice Guy

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Gomes

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--Carr

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Shawcross

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Collins

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Ridgewell

---A.Johnson

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Milner

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McCarthy

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Duff----

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Zamora

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Bent

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Manager: McLeish

therecklessone

Reganio 2 wrote: »

But he still can't defend, their were never doubts about his attacking ability

If people are lazy enough to assume he is a LB then he's is poor.

Those of us who know his most effective position is on the left of midfield know what he is capable of, and it is from there that he ripped Chelsea a new one 9 days ago.

This thread only confirms for me that the football narrative is dominated by the broadcast media and their love of soundbites. Gomes has surprised people? Why, anybody who made a modicum of effort to look beyond the difficult adjustment period (and more importantly the fact that his start in London echoed his start in Eindhoven) could see he had what it took to make it as a quality goalkeeper. Guus Hiidink said as much last season, and he should know as he was the manager at PSV who brought him from Brazil.

Darren Bent? Scored for fun at Charlton, still managed just under 1 in 3 in a stop/start 2 years at Spurs under 3 different managers, and is showing what he is capable of at Sunderland.

And James Milner? C'mon lads...

On the topic of who has surprised me, I think Stephen Carr's return to form at Brum has been fantastic.

T-b0n3

noodler wrote: »

Can anyone tell me exactly when Bale got good this season?

I have to say I didn't see enough of him prior to the Arsenal game to comment.

Assou-Ekkto was spurs left back at the start of the season and was playing well so Bale never really got a look in until he went to the African Cup. Then he was also injured when he got back for a spell. Bale impressed a lot at left back from then on. When Spurs had a bit of a center mid crisis, they pushed Modric into the center from the left wing and pushed Bale to left wing and put BAE back to left back. Then Bale really started to show huge promise. Since January he has played every minute of every premier league game for Spurs.

Maxi Rodriguez, he was brought in for next to nothing in January and has played some great stuff on the right for Liverpool and gotten very little recognition. He is a quality player.

That_Guy

Bale has been a revelation for Spurs this season. Definitely deserves a mention.

Pavlyuchenko (sp?) though he hasn't played a whole lot this season has got an excellent goals to games ratio. Should definitely start more often next season imo.

Aquilani for.......... eh keeping the bench warm?

noodler

Justice Enough Baritone wrote: »

Maxi Rodriguez, he was brought in for next to nothing in January and has played some great stuff on the right for Liverpool and gotten very little recognition. He is a quality player.

Absolutely not. We are losing all perspective for him to be even nominated.

He also cost around £3m in a signing-on fee.

Panthro

malouda has come on leaps and bounds since last season.
ivanovic has been an unreal full back replacement for boswinga.
i support the blues dont ya know

SlickRic

therecklessone wrote: »

Gomes has surprised people? Why, anybody who made a modicum of effort to look beyond the difficult adjustment period (and more importantly the fact that his start in London echoed his start in Eindhoven) could see he had what it took to make it as a quality goalkeeper. Guus Hiidink said as much last season, and he should know as he was the manager at PSV who brought him from Brazil.

yes, he was good for PSV.

but players have come from the Dutch League and tanked. and his start for Spurs was diabolical. people are fully justified if they're surprised with how good he's been this season.

nothing to do with my opinion being dominated by the media.

therecklessone wrote: »

Darren Bent? Scored for fun at Charlton, still managed just under 1 in 3 in a stop/start 2 years at Spurs under 3 different managers, and is showing what he is capable of at Sunderland.

yes, he did.

but to be as impressive and as prolific as he has been, particularly scoring against so many of the big teams, has been surprising.

he hit his stride immediately after a difficult Spurs career, and didn't look back. yes, it wasn't shocking of seismic proportions, but it was still better than i expected.

nothing to do with my opinion being dominated by the media.

therecklessone wrote: »

And James Milner? C'mon lads...

it's been his breakthrough season in so many ways. he's moved to the middle since December and has been brilliant; much better than i expected. very much the engine room of the team. he's greatly improved technically too IMO.

nothing to do with my opinion being dominated by the media.

therecklessone wrote: »

On the topic of who has surprised me, I think Stephen Carr's return to form at Brum has been fantastic.

100% agreed.