Eurosport - Mon, 25 May 18:11:00 2009
Steven Gerrard scooped his second gong in as many weeks with the Liverpool skipper taking our player of the season award.
HOW IT WORKS
We tot up the marks out of 10 awarded in five national newspapers - The Sun, The Mirror, The Mail, The Times and The Guardian - to create a total out of 50. The top player in each position will be rewarded with a spot in the Team of the Week, while the worst scorers will be named and shamed in our Flops XI.
TEAM OF THE SEASON (minimum 19 starts)
Having won Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year two weeks ago, Gerrard made it an awards double by holding off competition on the final day of the season to clinch the crown every top flight footballer really wants.
The Reds skipper scored 36 points for his performance against Tottenham and, while that total was not high enough to see him make it into the team of the week (see below), it was enough to secure him the prestigious title of player of the season.
His nearest rival over the course of the season proved to be his team-mate Fernando Torres, the Spaniard having deservedly won his place in our elite XI after a fantastic campaign in a Liverpool shirt.
Meanwhile, Frank Lampard squeezed his way into the TOTS right at the death - without even playing. The Chelsea midfielder, rested by Guus Hiddink, was handed his place on a plate after a third Liverpool player, Xabi Alonso, saw his average drop after a below-par performance - at least by his high standards - on Sunday.
There was no place for last year's player of the season Cristiano Ronaldo, but his Manchester United team-mate Wayne Rooney - like Gerrard, Torres and Lampard - retained his place for a second year running.
Completing the midfield quartet are Shaun Wright-Phillips and Ashley Young, both wide men having enjoyed tremendous individual seasons for Manchester City and Aston Villa respectively.
Villa stopper Martin Laursen, who managed to make the required 19 appearances before his season - and ultimately his career - was ended by injury, takes up his rightful position in our defence, alongside the towering Brede Hangeland of Fulham.
Glen Johnson of Portsmouth and Everton's Leighton Baines fill the full-back slots while Shay Given, having jumped the Newcastle ship at just the right time, impressed on a regular basis for Manchester City and gets the nod in between the sticks.
GK: Shay Given (Manchester City) - 33.68 average
RB: Glen Johnson (Portsmouth) - 32.52
CB: Brede Hangeland (Fulham) - 33.56
CB: Martin Laursen (Aston Villa) - 33.84
LB: Leighton Baines (Everton) - 31.77
RM: Shaun Wright-Phillips (Manchester City) - 33.52
CM: Frank Lampard (Chelsea) - 34.84
CM: Steven Gerrard (Liverpool) - 35.77
LM: Ashley Young (Aston Villa) - 32.90
FW: Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) - 34.76
FW: Fernando Torres (Liverpool) - 34.95
Click on the links below the photo for team-by-team breakdowns!
FLOPS OF THE SEASON (minimum 19 starts)
With no changes to our team of losers since last week, the unfortunate 'winner' of the flop of the season title goes to Newcastle full-back Jose Enrique.
Put simply, the Spaniard has been awful this season and there is no doubting some of his performances on the pitch have contributed to Magpies' ultimate downfall.
But he was not alone - quite how team-mate Fabricio Coloccini managed to score a higher average remains a mystery to many. Nevertheless, the Argentine was still bad enough to fill a centre-half slot, alongside Carlos Cuellar of Aston Villa, who has largely struggled to adjust to life south of the border since his switch from Rangers.
Kevin Nolan completes the shamed Magpies triumvirate, the midfielder lining up alongside League One player Keith Andrews, Stoke's Amdy Faye and yet another man with Toon connections, Charles N'Zogbia.
And to think that triumvirate very nearly became a quartet with Michael Owen teetering on the brink of the flops XI. The Newcastle striker ended the season a mere 0.09 points ahead of Afonso Alves - had he started on the final day of the season, there would have been a strong likelihood of him being included in this section.
Alves leads the line with Roman Pavlyuchenko, one man who can rival the Middlesbrough striker for the title of 'worst buy of the season', while Scott Carson is handed a large pair of comedy goalkeeping gloves and defender Andre Ooijer completes the line-up.
GK: Scott Carson (West Brom) average 29.91
RB: Andre Ooijer (Blackburn) - 28.70
CB: Carlos Cuellar (Aston Villa) - 28.74
CB: Fabricio Coloccini (Newcastle) - 27.74
LB: Jose Enrique (Newcastle) - 26.67
RM: Keith Andrews (Blackburn) - 28.26
CM: Kevin Nolan (Newcastle United) - 28.63
CM: Amdy Faye (Stoke City) - 27.47
LM: Charles N'Zogbia (Wigan) - 29.04
FW: Roman Pavlyuchenko (Tottenham) - 27.29
FW: Afonso Alves (Middlesbrough) - 27.96
TEAM OF THE WEEK (4-4-2)
Back to this week, and Arsenal's 4-1 win over Stoke sees three Gunners included, with Robin van Persie's impressive all-round performance winning him the player of the week title.
Blackburn's goalless draw with West Brom provides four players - three from Rovers' ranks - while Nicolas Anelka's fantastic strike to claim the Golden Boot sees the Chelsea man pair up with van Persie.
GK: Jussi Jaaskelainen (Bolton) - 34
RB: Bacary Sagna (Arsenal) - 36
CB: Kolo Toure (Arsenal) - 37
CB: Gael Givet (Blackburn) - 35
LB: Stephen Warnock (Blackburn) - 35
RM: Leon Osman (Everton) - 39
CM: Tugay (Blackburn) - 39
CM: Gareth Barry (Aston Villa) - 39
LM: Chris Brunt (West Brom) - 38
FW: Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea) - 39
FW: Robin van Persie (Arsenal) - 42
FLOPS OF THE WEEK (4-4-2)
No surprises to see the flops XI entirely filled by players from teams in the bottom half of the table this week - relegated Boro provide three players while fellow Championship side Newcastle offer one - the hapless Coloccini.
One of those Boro players claims the final flop of the week title for this season - Julio Arca was so bad at Upton Park, he was replaced at half-time.
GK: Brad Jones (Middlesbrough) - 20
RB: Sam Ricketts (Hull City) - 23
CB: Fabricio Coloccini (Newcastle United) - 23
CB: Ryan Shawcross (Stoke City) - 22
LB: Justin Hoyte (Middlesbrough) - 21
RM: Jermaine Pennant (Portsmouth) - 20
CM: Hayden Mullins (Portsmouth) - 22
CM: Julio Arca (Middlesbrough) - 17
LM: Rory Delap (Stoke City) - 22
FW: Geovanni (Hull City) - 21
FW: Johan Elmander (Bolton) - 20
Comment 272 - 291 of 291
"Anelka should be there instead of Rooney" You have got to be kidding me on!
Anelka over Rooney only a daft @#$% Chelsea fan would say something like that.
P.S My english team is Manchester City.
Shaun Wrigh-phillips in the team of the season?? and Laursen in the team of the SEASON ?? WTFF its should be cristiano ronaldo and Vidic in theis place
""every season all LFC fans say the same s**t "Were gonna win the league"..........""
So did all Man Utd fans from 1968 to 1993.
Guess what? In 1993 it finally happened. All spells come to an end, son.
Liverpool are going to @#*# everyone team up next yr man u are going to the @#$%. next season the wont have anyone to win anything for them Liverpool is a strong team now and next year will be amzing man u fans suck me
wow man united champions and just one player in team of the season.thats not fair as a man u fan i say carrick should been there and ronaldo.
Anelka should be there instead of Rooney.
Gerrard throughly deserves to be the player of the season, which I do not really like to say as I am a United fan. We all know the statistics are usually biased towards goalscorers, and no strikers or midfielders achieved more than 30 goals in the League this season. Which is why in my opinion it had to go to Steven Gerrard. Congrats Stevie.
Loserpool , team of the season with no championship!
Keep being the team of the season, while United keep winning all the trophies!!
LMAO
ITS SIMPLE MAN U ARE @#$%
You lost sum wieght BRAINofBRITAIN ? ;) Jagielka should have been in aswell, your not the best Christina.....once you were but hand on heart, LFC is a shadow of its former self, every one else had a @#$% season was why LFC finished 2nd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Get use to the fact you aint good enough anymore, every season all LFC fans say the same s**t "Were gonna win the league"..........the CL ??? your manager seems to care more for that anyway, oi` raf can i have the bill pls, not the best waiter either ! ;)
liverpool are the best tema, dont like chelsea as they are dirty scum bags, plus man u are complete tossers too, well done barca......
AGREE 100% STEPHEN IRELAND HAD FINE SEASON AS HAS PHIL JAGIELKA @EVERTON..........THIS IS ANOTHER BIAS TEAM!!!!
Stevie Ireland ? Hello ......1 of the best all season !!!!
Shay Given goalkeeper of the season no way! it has to be Jasskalienen and that's hard to say because I'm a Totthnem fan
Where is arshavin he had a gr8 season when he came in da jan transfers and deserfers a place i mean 4 goals vs runners up!!!!!
liverpool is the bst team in england now, thou man u mithy hav won the titlle but i wiil say they didn;t win it on due to hard work they win it over bad officiating some of the winning was due to biaesness of the ref against the small team
Why liverpool and not Chelsea
no way united will get any thing next season liverpool will get everything and now man u squad is @#$% u got no ferdinand tevez ronaldo vidic scholes and rooney is way over rated he cant work on his own, man u better be prepared to welcome 100 years of spiders in there tropy closet
Pepe reina has had the most clean sheets well apart from goal keepers who never play. reina for keeper of the season
wtf this list is rubbish ! LB: Leighton Baines (Everton) no way he was never over evra . and CB: Martin Laursen (Aston Villa) - 33.84 ... yea what ever we all know this was vidic ! RM: Shaun Wright-Phillips (Manchester City) - 33.52 like what? you even think what you guys are saying out here? there must be ronaldo he was not so good as last year but he was way over Shaun.
GK: Shay Given (Manchester City) - 33.68 average and there should be van der sar or this other guy from fulham dont realy remember guys name but he was way over Given imo.
so yea this list is rubbish!
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