The Red Article - Player of the Season Poll

The end of a crazy season has come. I don’t want to keep treading over the same old ground, everybody knows how desperate things became under Hodgson when it became more likely you would hear a Liverpool fan talking of relegation battles instead of Champions League qualification. Of course, that’s not to mention the ownership situation which almost strangled this great football club to death. Both issues were resolved during the season which lead to a strong recovery. That recovery however, ultimately ended fruitlessly when losses in the two decisive, and final, games of the season put paid to our hopes of European football for next season. The impact of failure to qualify for the Europa League has effected Liverpool fans in different ways. Some find it a relief, some a disappointment, but regardless of how you feel the fact is we will not be playing in Europe next season and though it may be a major step backwards Liverpool fans are very optimistic about next season. This optimism is based on a few factors, the afore mentioned change of ownership, the return of King Kenny to the Anfield hotseat, the return to quick and offensive football. But another reason has been the Players. By which I mean the improvement of many previously underrated players, the maturing of some younger players and some high profile new additions.

That is the point of this article, to acknowledge the outstanding performers in the squad throughout the 2010/2011 season. These kind of decisions often split opinions, not everyone will agree on the number one so instead of just putting up my pick for best player of the season, i thought it would be best to pick my top 5 players of the season and then put it up to a vote for all The Red Article readers to vote on. So here are the options in no particular order.

LUCAS LEIVA

Lucas has been Mr. Consitency this season and has already been named the official Liverpool FC player of the year, as well as being revealed as the choice of Steven Gerrard. According to official statistics Lucas completed more tackles than any other premiership player this season. Lucas has been much maligned since coming to Liverpool, ridiculed by most although now of course those who slagged him off will swear blind they always thought he was a great player and never gave him stick. He is the unspectacular but always dependable player every team needs, and boy, didn’t he show everyone this year!

DIRK KUYT

Another player who has split opinions a lot during his time in Liverpool, Dirk also converted a number of non-believers this season. He looked lost at times under Roy, then again who didn’t, but since Kenny has returned, accompanied by a more intense pressing game, Dirk’s form returned to its previous levels too. For a time when Carroll was injured and Suarez was acclimatising Dirk lead the line imperiously. He also forged a formidable partnership with Suarez, which culminated in an unforgettable hat-trick against Man U.

MARTIN KELLY

Young Martin Kelly was one of the very few outstanding performers under Roy Hodgson. I mentioned at one point in the season that every time i did a “positives and negatives” article Martin Kelly was mentioned as a positive. At first this was down to encouraging performances from a youngster but increasingly due to him being a standout performer in a struggling side. Kenny believed in him so much that he moved Glen Johnson to the left back position to accommodate him. Strong defensively and exciting going forward he gave Liverpool fans some great excitement throughout the year. His season was unfortunately cut short by injury but there is no doubt that this youngster will go on to cement a place in the side.

RAUL MEIRELES

The one lasting legacy of Roy Hodgson’s reign has been, and will be Raul. We are still to find his strongest position but he has performed very well in a number of positions. Deep Midfield under Roy, Attacking midfield under Kenny, and a few games at right midfield under both. He plays intelligent football and is very much a Liverpool type of player. Everyone will remember his purple patch in the early Kenny days as when they took full notice of him, but he has done more for the team throughout the season than just his goals. He has been, and to a certain degree, still is acclimatising to football in the premiership. If he’s this good now, he can only improve next year!

LUIS SUAREZ

When FT’s departure from Liverpool was announced, most Liverpool fans just couldn’t imagine when we would have another player of his type. It seemed like dark days were ahead. That was until Suarez made his debut, he wasn’t quite there yet, but even in a short cameo we could see that we had reasons to be optimistic. Although he was only with us for half the season his performances were so exhilarating and exciting that it helped Liverpool fans believe again, and for this alone he deserves to be considered for this award.

So there you have it. 5 choices, as well as the option of “Other” for those who don’t agree with the 5 I have laid out here. The Poll is located in the top right corner of this page.

Please everybody vote as it is the only way we can pick an outright winner.

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I just found out a few people have been having trouble using the vote on this page when reading on their phones. If you do have trouble feel free to tell me your vote through Twitter, Facebook, email, text or whatever way you can.

All votes will be counted!

Fulham 2 - 5 Liverpool (Positives and Positives)

 

As the season approaches its end Liverpool’s form continued to soar as we romped to a 5-2 victory against Fulham at Craven Cottage. At some points this season it has seemed like most Liverpool’s fans wish would have been to just have the season end, just to put us out of our misery. Now of course, the exact opposite is true. Our wish now would be for us to be in this kind of form at the start of the season. All of a sudden people are pointing out how if you extrapolate Kenny’s points per game haul over the season we would now lie in second place in the table and still have a shout of winning the title. Such talk of course is absolutely pointless! We are where we are, and where we are is 5th place in the table, that’s not where we want to be by any means but it is a long way from the levels we had dropped to before the Kings return! There are an awful lot of positives for Liverpool fans right now, the style of play, the players, the academy not to mention the owners. We should keep these positives in mind when we are watching the club from down the road win the race to number 19. This hurts like hell of course, but it would hurt an awful lot more if had still not got our ship in order. At the moment we are poised and ready. I generally don’t like talking about next year this and next year that. Its become a cliché from Liverpool fans and is an easy stick for our detractors to beat us with. This year, however is an exception to that. I am genuinely excited about how much we can improve next year and I wouldn’t begrudge any Liverpool fan the same privilege. We have spent enough time with dejection as our driver, so now that positivity is snapping in its seat belt we should all take the opportunity to sit back and enjoy the ride!

Maxi Rodriguez goes down the wing for me:

In Kenny’s first few games in charge it seemed that for one reason or other he simply didn’t fancy our Argentinean star. He kept plugging away and working in training and forced himself back into the side. Since then he has scored 7 goals in his last 3 games, you don’t need me to tell you that includes 2 hat-tricks! Maxi is a classy player. I think some fans found it hard to take to take to Maxi for a while for a couple of reasons. One being that he was a cut price transfer deal due to his contract running down (which means some people don’t immediately respect him) and two he is not a tricky pacy winger, more a wide sided midfielder. While its true he is not a traditional winger , he is however a very intelligent player and he oozes class. He is the very epitome of a “squad player” in this Liverpool side. He is good enough for the starting 11 most weeks but when he is not in he doesn’t huff or slack off. He works harder so that when he is called upon he is 100% ready.

Six hundred and sixty six:

Jamie Carragher captained Liverpool as he moved clear of Emlyn Hughes and Ray Clemence to go second in our Liverpool’s all time appearance list. He may not be happy to have conceded two goals on such an occasion, in fact he is never happy to concede one goal.... even in friendlies! There’s not much more that can be said about Jamie, he is simply a Legend! He’s not done yet of course, who’s to say how many appearances he will have by the time he hangs up his boots. You can be sure of one thing though, Liverpool will have picked up more points because of him!

Hard work:

This team worked hard from the first minute through to the last. There were simply no passengers in red on that pitch. Every player worked their socks off from first minute to last. Even at a point when the game had clearly been won, in the 90th minute you could still see our strikers chasing down defenders, putting them under pressure. This shows great attitude and a real team spirit, and its another positive which we hope will improve next season too.

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I saw an interesting stat this week which just highlights how important Luis Suarez has alredy become to Liverpool FC

“Liverpool have averaged 2.7 goals per PL game this season with Luis Suarez playing, compared to 1.28 in his absence. “