Best players in 1st half of Premier League season

Claudius

This has been one of the best seasons in the Premier League in recent memory. As much as fans of the Big 4 complain that across the board, their teams are weaker, it has given us a more exciting, competitive league. We have also seen the rise of exciting new players. Without much ado, here's a list of some of the guys who have impressed me this season:

Carlos Tevez
Toure Yaya
Asamoah Gyan
Tim Cahill
Samir Nasri
Gareth Bale

What do you lot think?

goon

Gyan? They guy is on the bench half the time. Can see him having a big impact in the second half though.

Toure has been crap, though it's mostly Mancini's fault from playing him as an attacking midfielder.

Others fair enough.

I'd say VdV, Brunt, Adam, Elmander, Nani have all been fairly good.

Claudius

Elmander is a good shout. He has been excellent. Thanks.

I put Gyan in there because he has been really good in the time we've seen him. He missed training camp and the start of the season. He scored a bunch of games in his first few starts. Overall, he has 5 goals and 2 assists after 5 starts and 14 games. More than that, I've been impressed with his skill. Over the weekend he had a few moments of brilliance in getting away from his defender.

I left out v d Vaart because he made a BIG impact and then disappeared with suspensions and injuries. In the time he was healthy though, he was far better than Bale, so he's a good shout as well.

Burnwinter

I don't have a huge problem with your list Zico, but I'd take Yaya out.

Carroll, Malouda (prior to Chelsea's "blip" at least) ... Alex Hleb 😉

GaelForce

-----------------Cech

Sagna---Kompany---Vidic---Cole

---------------Essien
-----------Modric---Nasri

Nani----------------------------Bale
------------------Tevez

Would be my team of the season so far. Malouda, Drogba and Berbatov are close, but they've all had long stretches of average form. The likes of Elmander, Baines and Carroll are having good seasons but I think they're getting overhyped because so many of the league's best players are injured/stuck with such poor form/fitness after the world cup. It's been a very strange few months.

Burnwinter

Modric is a pretty decent shout actually. He has been quite consistently good.

Timbob

Modric has been Tottenhams best player in every game I've seen them this season, with the exception of Inter away when he went off after 9 minutes and Bale scored that hat trick.

Burnwinter

And as if on cue, he is named as a Chelsea transfer target:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/856206?cc=3436

Pepe LeFrits

The Guardian has put together a half season XI based on the average reader-submitted ratings on their site:

Richard Kingson (Blackpool); Bacary Sagna (Arsenal), Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United), Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United), Leighton Baines (Everton); Samir Nasri (Arsenal), Stuart Holden (Bolton), Luka Modric (Tottenham), Rafael van der Vaart (Tottenham); Johan Elmander (Bolton), Andy Carroll (Newcastle).

asajoseph

Baines has been quality this season.

Timbob

That Guardian 11 looks fair to me. Really dont think Bale has been as good as the media would have you believe. Hat-trick aside he's been decent but not great.

Claudius

Tim wrote:
That Guardian 11 looks fair to me. Really dont think Bale has been as good as the media would have you believe. Hat-trick aside he's been decent but not great.

Well, he's probably the 3rd best player on his team this season, but he's also the best British one :hat:

asajoseph

Surprised Kingson's been doing so well, to be honest.

Timbob

Oh, i know who I'd have in my 11. Scotty Parker. He's been immense so far this season. Pretty much a one man team. I wish we'd have bought him a couple of years ago tbh and I wouldn't mind getting him now, even for £10 million or so. Reckon he's got another 2-3 quality seasons left in him. I just hope he doesn't go to Sp*rs.

asajoseph

I've not been massively impressed with Cole OR Essien so far this season. Both started very brightly, but have been as culpable as anyone in their recent collapse.

James

Pepe LeFrits wrote:
The Guardian has put together a half season XI based on the average reader-submitted ratings on their site:

Richard Kingson (Blackpool); Bacary Sagna (Arsenal), Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United), Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United), Leighton Baines (Everton); Samir Nasri (Arsenal), Stuart Holden (Bolton), Luka Modric (Tottenham), Rafael van der Vaart (Tottenham); Johan Elmander (Bolton), Andy Carroll (Newcastle).

I would say that is about spot on really, although you really would have to include the cunt Nani. Malouda also started the season very brightly, but has nosedived in recent weeks.

Claudius

Apparently, we missed someone

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/dec/21/mario-balotelli-wilshere-fabregas-rooney

est

😆

Dumb fuck.

kamikaze

balotelli is deluded.

shout out to charlie adam, who's been having a great year for blackpool.

Claudius

Two lesser players who have really impressed me this season are Joey Barton and Scott Parker. Parker seems a little jaded already, but there are times when it looks like he is contributing 50% of the effort of the entire Hammers team. In the last game, he was running past 3 or 4 defenders to help set up a goal, managing the offense and defending. I wonder how well he would translate that work rate to a top team. Joey Barton has had a similar influence at Newcastle. He was most impressive in the match against Liverpool. He worked harder than any other player on the pitch, and scored an excellent goal.

I'm actually intrigued by the two of them as no-nonsense additions to our midfield.