John Terry has been a unifying force for football fans in that most people, unless they support Chelsea, tend not to like him.
His picks for PFA Team of the Year almost definitely won’t change that, but aside from a few changes it’s a very hard team to argue with. Here’s what the Chelsea captain, who may be playing his last season in the Premier League, went for.
First of all, let’s have a run through of the players you can’t really argue about: Kasper Schmeichel has taken all that potential and turned it into something tangible this season, keeping 13 clean sheets in his 32 games – currently the joint highest in the division.
At the beginning of the season even when Leicester were winning games it seemed likely to come to an end due to their inability to keep clean sheets. They were so incapable of stopping the opposition from scoring that Claudio Ranieri took his team out for pizza when they finally managed it in October, so their recent run of recording one nil wins is all the more impressive – and that has a lot to do with the imperious Wes Morgan and Robert Huth.
Surely nobody would question the inclusion of Riyad Mahrez, who’s scored or assisted 27 of Leicester’s 55 goals this season – or N’Golo Kante, who has broken up play consistently to allow the Foxes’ counter-attacking game to flourish.
Dimitri Payet has probably been the signing of the season – just £11 million for a player who has set the league alight with his unerring ability to score from free-kicks and stats that are up there with the best playmakers in Europe – while Jamie Vardy and Harry Kane undoubtedly deserve a spot as they sit top of the goalscoring charts. Only Romelu Lukaku deserves an opportunity to sit atop their perch.
But John, this team isn’t without issues, and we’re gonna work our way up to the biggest one. Firstly, Chris Smalling at right-back? What about Hector Bellerin, John, what about him?
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Ryan Bertrand has had a very good season, and we have no qualms with his inclusion. But we do feel like Christian Fuchs and Nacho Monreal deserve a mention – as does Luke Shaw. If he hadn’t broken his leg and had continued the season the way he started, he would have stood a very good chance of making it into the team of the year.
Our main issue is this though. Dele Alli. Where is Dele Alli?
It’s a crime. Danny Drinkwater has had a solid season, but Alli has had a spectacular one. Did you watch the Crystal Palace highlights? Did you see what he did at Goodison?
You almost had our respect with that team John. You really almost did.
