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Season 2009-2010: Most Improved Players

gerd

gerd

Retired Footballer
Joined
8 January 2002
Location
Over the moon
Team
KRC Genk, Spurs
I was thinking about Gareth Bale, Florent Malouda, Man City's Adam Johnson and maybe also Spurs's GK Gomez and Bobby Zamorra.
I surely have fotgotten some players.
What do you people think
 
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Re: Season 2009-2010: most improved premiership players

gerd, can I make this a general most improved player thread? I think it would be interesting if we could talk about France, Italy, Spain etc.
 
Re: Season 2009-2010: most improved premiership players

No problem Stef...i've hesitated myself...go ahead.
 
I always rated Malouda, even before Chelsea, but I think he really has shown his true abilities this season. I'm also really impressed with Jeremy Menez at Roma. His dribbling and movement can really change a game, much like Roma-Lazio last night. Just needs to learn to stop diving so much.
 
Lloris is having a great season. Pedro is emerging as something special. Also, Rooney who found the right place in Manchester.

Ronaldinho improved from last season. Just to name a Milan one and he the closest thing to improvement. :D
 
Ronaldinho? Nah, to me Abate (a former wing), Antonini (a complete unknown reserve) or Thiago Silva (a future important player IMO) improved more than Dinho. Also Borriello wasn't expected to do so well (he was supposed to be Huntelaar reserve).
 
Most improved Bundesliga players this year:
- Bastian Schweinsteiger (constant class as a CM)
- Stefan Kießling (His best season by far)
- Kevin Kuranyi (Again: best season)
- Mats Hummels (from good to better to best German defender)
 
In Italy: Pastore, Kjaer and one of the CB's of Bari.
France: Eden Hazard
Belgium: Romelu Lukaku.
Spain: Pedro and the guy from Racing Santander (young forward)
 
gerd said:
France: Eden Hazard
Click to expand...

And Benoît Trémoulinas. He is number 2 after Evra. No doubt.
With Lloris, there's no real other player that improved.
Some Ligue 1 players have reach their full potential (Cheyrou, Pedretti, ...) but you can't say that's improvement.
 
Lucas Leiva has dramatically improved since last season.

Also Malouda has been superb, last season he was pretty average.
 
I dont think wonderkids should count really? My interpretation of 'Most Improved Player' has always been someone a little bit older (22 at least) with a fair amount of experience who never really stood out but is now shining. Players like Lukaku and Hazard for example have been fantastic but they are just kids so they have nothing to improve from!

With Malouda, he was always a good player, he was class at Lyon but since signing for Chelsea he's been unhappy and doesn't like the lifestyle in England, but since Hiddink and Ancelotti have taken over, things have changed internally at Chelsea and he's returned to the form we knew he was capable of, which is different to being most improved. That's my view anyway, no offence intended, everyone else may disagree!

My votes from the Premier League go to Bobby Zamora and Roger Johnson.
 
In the Premier League you've got a pool of players to pick; Joe Hart, Leighton Baines, Ryan Shawcross, Michael Dawson, Alex Song, James Milner, Gareth Bale, Aaron Lennon, Bobby Zamora, Louis Saha, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Jamie O'Hara and possibly Sol Campbell

For La Liga you've got the likes of Cesar Sanchez, Ever Banega, Gaizka Toquero and, of course, Gonzalo Higuain.

I hardly call Canales one of the most improved players in La Liga this season. He played so fleetingly last season that he didn't mark himself as being great, average or poor. He's emerged this season, like David De Gea and Iker Muniain, not improved.
 
Ruben Amorim (Benfica) soon to be one of the best box-to-box in Portugal.
Higuain for sure in Spain. No1 improved more then him.
 
I mentioned him at post 6 :)

Julio Sergio I think deserves to be here.
 
Lucio. Always thought he was quite average at Bayern, turned into a quality defender this season.
Burdisso. A quite poor defender turned into a reliable player under Ranieri.
Riise? Perhaps playing the season of his life.
 
Rooney's improved his goal output but not much else. If anything other parts of his game have suffered this season. Nearly all his goals have been first time finishes or at most a couple of touches and all from close range (i'm struggling to think of one that wasn't) whereas before he scored a variety of goals. He's also contributed less in terms of assists so i dont necessarily think he's improved, just added goals by changing his game, albeit at the expense of other things.
 
Well there's different ways of looking at it. You might say there's some things he doesnt do as much but his finishing is much better, his heading has improved immensely, his movement off the ball is a lot better, he seems like a smarter player now, the list goes on.
He has basically changed from a very good support striker to a very good target man.
If you remember, even Alan Smith used to score some cracking goals for us but didnt score enough so no one cared. Rooney now will almost never attempt a goal like the onces he scored against Newcastle or the double against Boro in the FA Cup but the amount of goals make up for it IMO.

Another positive is that with Rooney now a target man, it leaves room for someone else to be creative in the hole Rooney left.
 
ss4_goku said:
I'd like to add Pedro onto the list...
Click to expand...

Maybe I'm missing the point of this thread but Pedro is more of a breakout star, not someone who used to play at a certain level and then stepped up a gear this season.
 
Yep, Thats the reason I didn't mention him as he's someone new.

Regarding Rooney, I think his goal output means he has gone to the next level, hes a much more dangerous player at the expense of his other qualities (Its something I think Fergie does - Look at Ronaldo). Similar to Ronaldo in 07/08 his goal output was immense rather than his flash brilliance in 06/07 but im sure defenders and opposite managers feared the 07/08 version more.

Rooney will hopefully try and keep that threat whilst bringing back those other elements to improve him as a player, I think he'll be much better next year.
 
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