JAMIE CARRAGHER AND Gary Neville were in agreement tonight on quite a few things as they handed out their end-of-season awards on the final Monday Night Football of the current campaign.
But, when tasked with putting together their Premier League Teams of the Season, they did differ on a couple of things. Here’s what they came up with:
Jamie Carragher’s XI: De Gea, Ivanovic, Terry, Koscielny, Azpilicueta, Sanchez, Fabregas, Matic, Hazard, Aguero, Kane.
Gary Neville’s XI: De Gea, Ivanovic, Terry, Cahill, Azpilicueta, Sanchez, Fabregas, Matic, Hazard, Aguero, Costa.
Carragher raised a few eyebrows with his selection of Arsenal’s Laurent Koscielny at centre-back while he gave Harry Kane the nod ahead of Diego Costa.
When it came to selecting the best Premier League players we’ve seen this term, the pair had little trouble in identifying Eden Hazard and David de Gea as the worthy winners.
There was a relative surprise when it came to the pair choosing their Manager of the Year though. The general consensus is that the miracle worked by Nigel Pearson to rescue Leicester may have put him in the running alongside Jose Mourinho while Tony Pulis and Alan Pardew have done well at West Brom and Crystal Palace respectively.
But, both Carragher and Neville went for Southampton’s Ronald Koeman instead. The Dutchman inherited a team that had just sold its best players last summer and many predicted they’d spend the season battling against the drop. Instead, Koeman’s signings have performed admirably and they can still grab a Europa League spot (if they want it) should results go their way next weekend.
Elsewhere, the ex-Liverpool defender voted for Charlie Adam’s superb long-range effort against Chelsea as his goal of the season while Neville’s favourite was this Cesc Fabregas strike against Crystal Palace.