EPL Team of the Decade

[HangTime]

...chosen by Premiership managers: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/9495163.stm

GK: Edwin van der Sar
RB: Gary Neville
CB: Nemanja Vidic
CB: John Terry
LB: Ashley Cole
RM: Cristiano Ronaldo
CM: Steven Gerrard
CM: Paul Scholes
LM: Ryan Giggs
S: Didier Drogba
S: Alan Shearer

Personally I think there's a couple of strange selections in there.
Firstly, Alan Shearer retired in 2006 and was nothing special in his last two years. From the 2000-1 season onwards, he scored a grand total of 84 Premiership goals.

Now compare this to Thierry Henry. From the 2000-1 season onwards, he scored 147 Premiership goals, wiping the floor with Shearer. Heck even if you ignored the extra season that Henry played in the Premiership, he still outscored Shearer by more than 50 goals. during those 6 seasons.

I can't help but wonder if some of those managers had rose-tinted spectacles and were influenced by Shearer's prowess in the 1990s (which of course should be irrelevant for this reward). In fact I'd say Shearer would be much more deserving in a team of the 90s rather than a team of the 00s. Heck you could maybe even make a case for taking Wayne Rooney over Shearer for the 00s.

Next lets look at the keeper. For me, the best keepers of the 00s are Shay Given and Brad Friedel. Both were truly immense at Newcastle and Blackburn and played throughout the whole decade unlike VDS who didn't even come to the Prem until 2001 and IMO wasn't as good anyway. Cech and Reina are very good keepers but again when considering teams of the decade you need to look at a 10 year view and penalise Johnny-come-latelies to some extent.

Looking at the rest of the team you'd have to maybe raise eyebrows at Vidic, didn't even join the Premiership until 2006. Although obviously you'd need to replace him with someone... Rio Ferdinand would probably be a decent shout inspite of occasional lapses in concentration, or perhaps William Gallas.

A few other areas you could maybe nit-pick at (some might take e.g. Lampard over Gerrard for example) but the real shocker for me was Shearer.

 

[HangTime]

erm didn't the EPL start in 1992? So to say

"rose-tinted spectacles and were influenced by Shearer's prowess in the 1990s"

That is 8 years?

Correct - but I'm not sure what point you are trying to make

 

[HangTime]

Shearer's just English player bias really. There's no way that he should be in there.

The same with Gerrard over Keane or Vieira. Laughable really.

I'd thought about that but Keane and Vieira left in 2005 - meaning that in a team of the decade I'd be giving the nod to the likes of Gerrard and Lampard who played much longer.

 

[HangTime]

I guess the question is whether you want to pick the most consistent XI from the last decade, or simply players from then who've been excellent at one point or another?

I'd say not even the managers that did this know, given that Terry would fall into the first camp, and Ronaldo the second.

I thought about that too but logically there is very little point having a 'team of the decade' if consistency isn't going to be considered. I mean, if you just look at players who have been excellent at one point or another, you could take it to extremes and pick a player based on a single match - lets have Berbatov and Defoe up front, they scored five! Even if you don't take it quite that far, you might go right, I'm gonna have David Seaman in goal because I think he was the best keeper 10 years ago, then I'm gonna have Tony Adams at CB or whatever.

So on my book it should be done on consistency but of course weighted for quality.
To give Ronaldo his due he played here from 2003-9 and had at least 3 very good seasons in amongst that. If he were to be displaced you'd have to find somebody who played longer and had as many exceptional performances, which would be tough.

 

[HangTime]

I was going to say the people who have voted are far better qualified than us to make this decision but then I thought how many of them even managed in the Premiership last decade? Of those how many managed for the whole decade? Wenger, Fergie and possibly Redknapp!

I wondered about that too especially in terms of overseas managers who have only worked here for a few years. I reckon former players who've lived here a long time like Hughes, Bruce etc probably have a fairly good idea what's been going on every if they haven't always managed in the top flight.

 

[HangTime]

Don't see how Bergkamp can get in ahead of Drogba, he played less and only scored 30 league goals in the noughties compared to like 3x that number from Drogba. I know he gives a lot more than just goals to the team but even so, he wasn't quite at his peak which imo was around 1997-8.