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Football, a Sterling effort, but Virgil got Dijk'd.


BigFatCoward

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So, the football writers gave the player of the year award to Sterling with 62% of the vote.  Absolute madness, Van Dijk is probably the best defender in the world at the minute, Sterling may scrape into the top 10 attacking players on a good day.  There was no buzz at all around Sterling for player of the year before he (commendably) began standing up and showing out about racism. 

In other news 2 former Liverpool managers have a big hand in where the title ends up, Rafa more likely to keep up his end of the bargain and lose, than Crazy Brendan taking anything off City.

 

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Just on the chase for 3rd/4th I actually don't think it's that bad. Ok, all the sides are stumbling a little to the finish, although Spurs have the excuse of making the latter stages of the Champions League plus a lot of injuries, but low to mid 70s in terms of points totals is pretty normal for the sides coming 3rd and 4th. It's just City over the last 2 seasons and Liverpool this year making what are actually phenomenal points totals look almost routine which is making the other sides appear so off the pace.

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Strikers and attacking midfielders will always win awards over defensive type players, it's just the way it is. 

Not saying it's right and I think VVD deserves it more than Stirling, but if you were to ask me who'd I'd rather watch there's only one answer.

 

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You can sure argue that VVD deserves to win it but suggesting that Sterling has only done so because of his racism efforts just goes back to what I was saying before about how he's weirdly underrated even by people not in the Daily Mail crowd. He's had a fantastic season.

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Sterling had an outstanding season. He has improved his overall game this year, while last year you could say, that he just put away the goals gifted to him by KdB or Sane. This year, that simply wasn't true anymore.

Personally I think, the awards could've gone either way, as both van Dijk and Sterling are equally deserving praise and awards this year. A bit like Salah and KdB last year.

 

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28 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

You can sure argue that VVD deserves to win it but suggesting that Sterling has only done so because of his racism efforts just goes back to what I was saying before about how he's weirdly underrated even by people not in the Daily Mail crowd. He's had a fantastic season.

He's having an excellent season. He's not having a notably better season than Aguero, Salah or Hazard. I'd probably say Hazard, especially given his supporting cast, has been the best attacking player in the league this year.

I think there's an argument to be made that what makes him stand out from the crowd is how impressive his off the pitch conduct has been. It was specifically mentioned by the chair of the FWA in giving him the award.

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28 minutes ago, ljkeane said:

It was specifically mentioned by the chair of the FWA in giving him the award.

From the organisation that awarded Cantona post kung fu, Keane post leg break and Suarez post bitey, divey shithouse.  

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Are there any neutrals who don't want Ajax to win the Champions league this year?  A properly run club, who would really benefit if there was a European super league (though would they get an invite despite being historically one of the 5 or 6 most successful clubs?).

Though partly its because I used to work with a load of Spurs fans and I can't wait to see their facebook updates if they lose. 

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18 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

So, the football writers gave the player of the year award to Sterling with 62% of the vote.  Absolute madness, Van Dijk is probably the best defender in the world at the minute, Sterling may scrape into the top 10 attacking players on a good day.  There was no buzz at all around Sterling for player of the year before he (commendably) began standing up and showing out about racism. 

Neither of the last two sentences is true. I mean, just factually. You can certainly say that Messi and CRonaldo remain the top two by a distance. Mbappe is better than Sterling, as is Hazard. After that you're down to Kane, Salah, Aguero, de Bruyne if you count him as comparable (I don't, different sort of player), and a range of other players who are excellent but among whom Sterling absolutely deserves to be considered as good or better. Good day or not. 

Just some numbers for context: 17 goals and 10 assists in the Premier League this season. 5 goals and 2 assists in the Champions' League. 23 goals and 17 assists in total this season from 54 appearances. 

VVD would have been a worthy winner for sure. But let's not bandy about the idea that Sterling's selection is not completely justified in footballing terms, and is somehow a bit of virtue signalling. That sort of talk underlies the attitudes that Sterling's off-field activities are designed to combat. 

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Factually Sterling was 14/1 (14/1 is not buzz, VVD was evens) in mid February for player of the year, so you are wrong on that score. 

Also, how can you say factually i'm wrong to say he just about scrapes into the top 10, then name 8 players who most would agree are better than him? And that includes not having Neymar (who I hate but is clearly better than him) and Suarez amongst others who you didn't even include. Hence, just about scrape into the top 10 on a good day.

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2 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Factually Sterling was 14/1 (14/1 is not buzz, VVD was evens) in mid February for player of the year, so you are wrong on that score. 

Well, I haven't checked out the odds... but factually, I heard and read numerous pundits discussing him as a potential winner, so you are wrong on that score. 

(For example, here is WhoScored.com describing Sterling as 'rightly among the favourites for the award' in early February: and a cursory search suggests Ian Wright and Gareth Southgate both tipped Sterling to win in interviews. I also found much shorter odds from early February being offered than the 14/1 you're quoting above.)

VVD was the favourite, but Sterling wasn't a choice that can be described as 'madness'. 

Quote

 Also, how can you say factually i'm wrong to say he just about scrapes into the top 10, then name 8 players who most would agree are better than him?

I didn't do that, so... not sure what you're on about here. I named four players better than him (two unarguably, two arguably), and some others that I said Sterling was 'as good or better' than. Looking at this season, Neymar and Suarez fit into that category too. 

ETA - now if we want to talk about something that really is 'absolute madness', there's this:

https://www.football365.com/news/man-united-seriously-considering-rio-as-sporting-director

 

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Why even include the likes of Neymar, Suarez etc though? We aren't talking about Ballon d'Or here. This is an award just for the premier league and Sterling is without a shadow of a doubt a top 10 player in this league - he's been a top 3 attacking player in the league this season imo. Anyway, Sterling winning it is hardly madness. It was a close call between him and VVD just like it was between KdB and Salah last season. Van Dijk did win the PFA player of the year award so it's not like he's been hard done by. 

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I would say VVD should certainly have gotten the award, but Sterling has had a great year and been pretty consistent. He should certainly be in the conversation for best player, and it wouldn't be too big a jump for him to win the thing. 

They have basically said that his stance on racism was a big part of why he got the award, so whether that should even be taken into account of whether someone is the best at football is another discussion.

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