[Albion] Albion player of the season…. So far….

[spence]

You know it’s a good season when there are so many credible candidates for this and nobody really knows who will win.

All I’d say is that it’s wrong to pick POTS based on relatively short periods of form. So as brilliant as Murray and Izquierdo have been in the last six weeks, I’m not buying the idea that either could be POTS as they both had very poor runs in the first half of the season.

For me, POTS should be somebody who has been at or close to their best for the vast majority of games and has had only a tiny number of bad days. Somebody who never goes missing and always has a big impact on the team.

Therefore, I’m firmly in the Dunk camp and would have Ryan as my runner up.

I think what you are underestimating is that Murray proved many people wrong including myself that he could make the step up to the Premier league. I thought his lack of pace would be his undoing. Also he isn't exactly young either. Murray's finishing is simply brilliant and his all-round team play. The amount of goals he has got, nobody could have predicted that.

 

[Da Man Clay]

Groß. Just. He is the only player in our squad who is totally and utterly irreplaceable. Losing Dunk would be catastrophic, but, there is a fair chance Goldson or the BFG could do a job. If Groß got injured we have no one else in the squad like him. Finding competition/cover for him in the summer is the single hardest job the recruitment team has.

 

[the right footed denilson]

Groß. Just. He is the only player in our squad who is totally and utterly irreplaceable. Losing Dunk would be catastrophic, but, there is a fair chance Goldson or the BFG could do a job. If Groß got injured we have no one else in the squad like him. Finding competition/cover for him in the summer is the single hardest job the recruitment team has.

Nick Powell is your man.

 

[Iggle Piggle]

Gross is in form at present, and playing brilliantly, but there have been long gaps during the season where he was ineffective, slow and makeweight baggage (first 70 mins against Swansea the most recent example). He wouldn't even make my top three.

'ineffective, slow, lightweight and makeweight baggage' About Pascal Gross. The bloke who runs 2km more than everyone else per game and if he plays bad so does the team.

Stick to virtue signalling.

 

[Da Man Clay]

Nick Powell is your man.

I’m not certain he is (although who am I to question our recruitment team!) I don’t think he has the same work ethic as Groß and doesn’t quite have the same vision. Although he would be reasonable cover I don’t think he is competition as such.

 

[Albion Dan]

Gross, Gross, Gross,
Another assist for Gross,
Gross, Gross, Gross,
Another assist for Gross,
And another assist and another assist and another assist for Gross...
Hey He might get two, another assist for Gross.

[emoji23][emoji23]

 

[Hammer15]

I'm biased because of the spreadsheet, but according to you lot, no-one has even come close to Lewis Dunk this year. So he'll get my vote.

 

[OzMike]

Ryan just pips Murray for me, a shaky start but has kept us in the game on countless occasions with double saves and good judgement.
We need to score goals I know, but he has been superb.........................for his size.

 

[Bozza]

This idea that Ryan had a bad start seems quite widely accepted, but really all we’re talking about is the OG against Man City and the incident in the first minute at Leicester. That’s only two matches out of 29, they just happen to be the first two. In fact it’s only the first 91 minutes if the season. Since then he’s been flawless (the crazy moment at Southampton that ended with the ball hitting our bar aside). For me that’s not enough to be considered a shaky start. I imagine all the other POTS contenders have had two below par performances in a row at some point but nobody remembers or holds it against them because it wasn’t the first two of the whole season. Six or eight bad games is a shaky start, two incidents in 91 minutes can happen to anyone in my opinion.

No, it extends before that (or whatever the opposite to extends is) into pre-season, and then carried through into those first few games of the season proper.

He's had an incredible season to date though - I can't disagree with that. We just need to give away 4 or 5 penalties in short succession so he can "do a Stockdale".

 

[seagull_special]

Dunk - He is just an inspirational player and having added discipline and leadership to his locker, the guy is potentially World Class. Ryan, Murray, Groß and Izquierdo deserve consideration as do Duffy. And Stephens but my vote goes without hesitation to Lewis Dunk.

 

[Tokyohands]

Dunk for me.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Despite the term being used quite a lot in this thread.....
None of the players are currently winning POTS by a country mile

This is the best squad I can remember.
It would be a nightmare even drawing up a shortlist for POTS let alone pick 1 player.

Hard to argue with Dunk, Gross or Murray winning it.
Ryan, Stephens and Propper, all deserving but most likely to be overlooked
Bong, Schelleto, Izquierdo - definite wild card candidates

And that excludes the likes of Knocky, Bruno, Duffy
You couldn't leave them out of the shortlist, could you?

 

[1234andcounting]

Knocky. Not voting for him, just observing that he has gone from hero to zero (literally in this poll) in a season. I haven't looked but I wonder how the polling looked this time last year.

So hard to choose, so many outstanding candidates. How I long for a return to the sort of season when there was so little choice, much easier.

 

[Guinness Boy]

This idea that Ryan had a bad start seems quite widely accepted, but really all we’re talking about is the OG against Man City and the incident in the first minute at Leicester. That’s only two matches out of 29, they just happen to be the first two. In fact it’s only the first 91 minutes if the season. Since then he’s been flawless (the crazy moment at Southampton that ended with the ball hitting our bar aside). For me that’s not enough to be considered a shaky start. I imagine all the other POTS contenders have had two below par performances in a row at some point but nobody remembers or holds it against them because it wasn’t the first two of the whole season. Six or eight bad games is a shaky start, two incidents in 91 minutes can happen to anyone in my opinion.

No, it extends before that (or whatever the opposite to extends is) into pre-season, and then carried through into those first few games of the season proper.

He's had an incredible season to date though - I can't disagree with that. We just need to give away 4 or 5 penalties in short succession so he can "do a Stockdale".

As I remember - and it was a while ago - he absolutely threw one in against Atletico but also made several other fine saves. I remember talking with Al from the Albion Roar and us both thinking it was quite a Stockdale-like performance. For me Ryan really didn't look confident at the start of the season at all and he has said as much in an interview.

All credit to him, then, to come back and be an absolutely stand out performer, proving me and a lot of other fans wrong in to the bargain. To go back to the OP he is up there for player of the season for me, along with Dunk, Murray and Gross. If it was player of the second half of the season then Murray would be winning by a street with Izquierdo in second. Somehow the addition of two strikers and the leaving of Izzy Brown has galvanised these two in to two of the most dangerous players in the PL.

 

[Barry Izbak]

It comes to something when i just cannot make a decision who to vote for.
It's only a football poll on NSC so it's not like it matters.
But I just can't decide.
Pathetic effort by me.