Revealed: Alan Shearer’s Premier League team of the Year
Premier League legend reveals his XI for 2017
Goalkeeper
In goal I’m going for David De Gea. He has been simply outstanding throughout the whole year for Manchester United.
He could probably get into any team in the world.
Some of my later choices are sure to divide opinion, but as far as my number one is concerned, I don’t think too many people can argue with this decision!
Defenders
I’m playing three across the back in this line-up. First in is Cesar Azpilicueta. You know what you are going to get with him.
He is a regular 8/10 performer and was a key player in Chelsea’s Premier League success last season.
He has also got a number of assists for Alvaro Morata this season, and he’s at home playing in a back three.
Alongside the Chelsea man I’m going for the Tottenham pairing of Jan Vertonghen & Toby Alderweireld.
These two centre halves have been excellent for Spurs and were one of the key reasons why their side had such an excellent defensive record last season.
They also both play in a back three so if this was a real line up, they’d know the system well.
Looking at defending overall, the problem the top defenders have today is that they are not really allowed to tackle.
Players now get punished for that first tackle and then run the risk of another yellow card. In my day, putting it simply, the first intention of a defender was to whack you!
Look at that great Arsenal defence, Adams, Bould, Dixon, Winterburn, they’d get a free tackle inside the opening 10 minutes, and you knew they were there!
It doesn’t matter now if it is your first tackle, you get booked. A lot of the physicality in the game has been taken away, and I’m not sure that’s altogether a good thing.
Wing-Backs
My first wing back is Kieran Trippier. He has been a huge plus for Tottenham.
And the reason is simple – nobody has said that Spurs have missed Kyle Walker.
When you sell a player for £50 million, you normally have a huge void to fill, but Spurs got a massive price for Walker and they knew they had a player they trusted to fill his shoes.
On the other side I’ve gone for Marcos Alonso.
Again, quite simple – there are not many better wing-backs in this system in the Premier League than the Spanaird.
Chelsea were great last season, but I couldn’t include Luiz or Cahill on form this season. For me Alonso and Azpilicueta were the stand-out defenders for the champions.
Midfielders
Moving into the centre of the park, N’Golo Kante is straight in.
He has been brilliant for the past three years, winning back-to-back titles with two different clubs.
If I was a defender playing today, there would be one man I would want in front of me and that would be Kante.
He has a huge engine, covers so much ground and has plenty of class as well.
My next selection is another easy choice – Kevin De Bruyne.
He was brilliant last season but from August he has taken his game to a new level.
He has been the outstanding player in the league. There are no other words that do him justice. He appears to have absolutely everything.
When you look at all the quality in that Manchester City team, for him to stand out as the most influential player, that tells you how good he has been.
He’s strong as well, Dele Alli should have been sent off for his foul on De Bruyne last weekend, it was a horrid tackle but the Belgian brushed it off and got his revenge with a cracking goal.
Next on the team sheet is Eden Hazard.
Another easy choice, he is a top quality player who creates and scores some incredible goals.
He’s versatile too, you can play him off the centre-forward or up front, a real handful for defenders. Top class.
And the same description applies to my final pick, David Silva.
Incredibly he seems to be getting better with age.
What is telling is that he has only missed two league games this season, which is good going when you consider Pep has so many attacking options in his squad.
Strikers
Leading the line it has to be Harry Kane.
He has scored more goals than anyone else in the Premier League in 2017.
And of even more interest to me, he needs four goals in the next two games to break my record for goals in a calendar year.
They play Burnley and Southampton in their next two games, and I am hoping he does not take my record!
Away from that though, he is the complete centre-forward, good in the air and on the deck and most importantly of all, a goalscorer.
Honourable mentions
There’s no doubt that in the Premier League we are lucky enough to see some wonderful players, particularly forward players, and of those that haven’t made the XI.
It was tough leaving the Liverpool duo of Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane out, as they have been excellent this season.
Arsenal fans will no doubt question why there are none of their players in this team, but the only one I possibly could consider, Alexis Sanchez, just hasn’t been consistent enough, certainly not enough to replace any of my forward trio, who have all been outstanding.
Manager of the Year
As for the manager of this dream team, I’ve gone for Sean Dyche.
Looking at the alternatives, for all Manchester City’s great form this season, Pep Guardiola hasn’t won anything yet at the Etihad.
And while I know Jose Mourinho won two trophies last season, Manchester United were a long way off in the title race.
When you consider the resources and the players he has, Dyche has done a tremendous job at Burnley.
Firstly he did well to keep them up last season and they are now in the top-half table, just off the top four. We are halfway through the season now so that is no fluke, they are there on merit.
My team of the year: De Gea / Azpilicueta / Vertonghen / Alderweireld / Trippier / Alonso / Kante / De Bruyne / Silva / Hazard / Kane.
