Interesting. I'd be tempted to put the POTY in for Clichy, but to be honest, I'm struggling to recall any stand-out defensive performances from him.

Tevez and Nani have every right to feel a little bitter this morning. Parker, Nasri and Berbatov should also be mystified.

For Clichy? Bale was a LB by reputation at one stage but he was terrible there, no coincidence when Spurs played him there they never won a game. And TBH as flawed as Gael is at time there aren't all that many better in his position.

But yeah Nani, Tevez, etc should all be miffed. In fact I'd be surprised if Bale does better than 3rd in the Spurs fan POTY vote.

Tevez would've been my pick. He's won a surprising number of matches for City with a very defensive setup behind him.

Silva's growing on me as well, he has adapted beautifully to English football after initially looking a bit small and terrified.

Really? To me Silvas been alot of sizzle and no steak.

I think he's a tidy and highly intelligent player, he just has no one to work with in that side. He's going to be important for them if they want to move up from 3rd/4th to challenging.

They're eventually going to have to jettison one of the two defensive mids that Mancini prefers to use though.

They can function with two DMs. They just need another chap like Silva on the other flank. Toure gives them power through the middle.

They struggle to create decent chances and they're going to keep doing so.

Agreed.

They'd be much better off with a Toure & De Jong pairing and a genuine attacking midfielder ahead of them.

With a selection from their squad and our squad you could own European competition for five years. For a long time it seems like they've been signing the players we need.

We could use Tevez, Kompany, and any of their central midfielders I'd even take Balotelli and tell him to leave his madness at the door.

qs! wrote:

asajoseph wrote:

Not like there were any other standout candidates.

Why so surprised?

Seriously? Nani fucking shits on Bale from a height.

That's a really unpleasant image.

And yeah, I don't think Nani's been THAT much better than Bale. I'd probably have given it to Tevez this season myself.

Anyway, another slightly odd pick is Sagna in the Team of the Year - another player with half a brilliant season.

asajoseph wrote:

Anyway, another slightly odd pick is Sagna in the Team of the Year - another player with half a brilliant season.

Doesn't that cover most int h team tbf? And some of them haven't even had that.

Burnwinter wrote:

I think he's a tidy and highly intelligent player, he just has no one to work with in that side. He's going to be important for them if they want to move up from 3rd/4th to challenging.

Silva was exactly the same in Spain when surrounded by other intelligent players, with real quality too. For all his amazing technique and intelligence, he has little to no end product. Fun player to watch though.

Ricky1985 wrote:

asajoseph wrote:

Anyway, another slightly odd pick is Sagna in the Team of the Year - another player with half a brilliant season.

Doesn't that cover most int h team tbf?

Yes, it does.

Thought Sagna had a brilliant first half of the season, but has been pretty ordinary for a while now, and back to his attacking worst all of a sudden.

Not sure there are really any other candidates.

Opta TOTY

B.Foster, B.Sagna, J.Terry, N.Vidic, G.Clichy, M.Essien, C.Adam, S.Nasri, Nani, C.Tevez, D.Berbatov.

No Bale? :o

Well, that's based on data not media perceptions.

Interesting that Essien made it. He's gotten a lot of grief from pundits. Between pundits and Opta, something needs to be fixed

Punditry in this country is awful, but Opta's not much more than an interesting reference.