Premier League 2019-20 season review: our writers’ best and worst
Ed Aarons: The performances of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Sadio Mané and Jordan Henderson were crucial for a brilliant Liverpool team that left Manchester City floundering in their wake but Virgil van Dijk held it all together. An inspirational leader in a team inspired by their manager’s vision.
Nick Ames: Kevin De Bruyne, Henderson, Mané and Alexander-Arnold are all up there. But Danny Ings’s achievement in scoring 22 goals, while also becoming one of the league’s best all-round strikers, cannot be overstated. The idea would have seemed a fantasy during almost two years spent on the sidelines with knee problems at Liverpool.
Simon Burnton: De Bruyne. The man is just a joy to watch.
Paul Doyle: Raúl Jiménez. The Premier League’s most complete striker is a delight, and not only when combining with the wonderful Adama Traoré. The Mexican scores all kinds of goals – from the scruffy to the sublime – yet is utterly selfless.
Ben Fisher: Mané. Jürgen Klopp’s first major signing has played an influential role at the club, especially in the past couple of trophy-winning seasons. The exhilarating forward’s acceleration, agility and knack for popping up in the right place have created a wicked cocktail for defences. Jamie Vardy, Ings and Jiménez have equally been immense.
Barry Glendenning: Alexander-Arnold’s reinvention of the full-back role and ongoing evolution as a consistently excellent performer despite his tender years remain a joy to behold.
Andy Hunter: Mané. Henderson is a worthy recipient of the FWA footballer of the year award for leading by example on and off the pitch but, by the simple definition of ‘best player’, it is Mané for me. Exhilarating and decisive throughout Liverpool’s title-winning campaign.
David Hytner: It has to be a Liverpool player because of what they have achieved so I’ll go for Mané, who has made the difference many times and been so thrilling to watch.
Jamie Jackson: De Bruyne. Bruno Fernandes (in half a season) comes close but the Belgian has been a tour de forceof midfield play all term.
Jonathan Liew: Van Dijk. The key player in the best team. Liverpool’s entire system depends on pouring bodies forward, secure in the knowledge if they get countered Van Dijk will bail them out. Without his presence, aerial dominance, one-on-one ability and playmaking, none of the other stuff works.
Paul MacInnes: Marcus Rashford. Substantially increased his goal tally despite moving out wide, recovered from serious injury to become a crucial part of Manchester United’s late resurgence and provided that wow factor on the pitch. But in a year like no other Rashford stands out for what he did off the field, making the feeding of children from poorer families a national priority, even among the government. Footballers aren’t role models by default, but this is what it looks like when a player becomes one.
Scott Murray: Mané, whose sharp, disruptive brilliance makes chaos out of order and gives Liverpool an extra lock-picking dimension. He also chips in with an absurd number of important goals.
Sachin Nakrani: Henderson. Stitched everything together for the champions with his leadership, desire, energy and, yes, ability. The cool kids may not want to hear it but Henderson is an excellent midfielder, quite old-fashioned in how he can do a little bit of everything, which this season even included setting up a fund for the NHS.
Jacob Steinberg: Alexander-Arnold’s hopes of redefining the right-back role did not seem so ridiculous after he contributed his 13th assist of a wonderful campaign during Liverpool’s 5-3 win over Chelsea last week, breaking the record he set for defenders last season. The 21-year-old is clearly far more than a very good defender. He is a generational talent, blessed with a right foot that evokes memories of David Beckham’s. Those crosses and free-kicks are potent.
Louise Taylor: John Egan. I’m using a wider definition of best than some. The Sheffield United player is no De Bruyne but he has been consistently excellent as the holding defender flanked by two overlapping centrehalves in Chris Wilder’s back-three. The Irishman was, foolishly, shown the door by Sunderland after suffering a leg break on loan at Bradford which necessitated complex surgery, and he ended up at Gillingham. Hats off to their manager at time, Peter Taylor, who nurtured Egan’s talent before moves to Brentford and then Sheffield United.
Jonathan Wilson: Henderson. Nobody so embodies Liverpool’s work ethic, organisation and capacity to press through midfield – and look at how performances have tailed off in his absence. He may lack the technical flair of many of his teammates but Henderson is both brain and heart of
Klopp’s Liverpool.
Best manager
EA: Jürgen Klopp. There is a reason everything runs like clockwork almost every time Liverpool play and it is because every player knows exactly what he is meant to be doing. Recovering from the disappointment of missing out to City last season and guiding Liverpool to the title 30 years on from their previous one ranks as one of the greatest managerial achievements of the modern era.
NA: If Leicester had held on to a top-four spot it might have been Brendan Rodgers, who should still take plenty of credit. In the event, the scale of Klopp’s achievement goes without saying and there are other candidates just behind him. Very honourable mentions to Chris Wilder, Nuno Espírito Santo, Sean Dyche, Graham Potter, Ralph Hasenhüttl and, for the way Aston Villa clawed it back, Dean Smith.
SB: Wilder is the romantic choice given his achievements at Sheffield United, but Klopp can’t be passed over just because he is a bit obvious. It has been another remarkably impressive season for the team and for him individually.
PD: Smith. Villa were the last team to confirm their participation in the Premier League and had to draft in a dozen new and raw players after winning the Championship play-off. Then they lost the spine of their team to injury. Smith used lockdown to tighten up the way they played and secure survival. Top management.
BF: Wilder. A top-half finish with a modest squad is an extraordinary achievement for Sheffield United, who have given Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham bloody noses along the way. Dyche continues to work wonders with a small squad at Burnley and Nuno has superbly led a Wolves team whose season started 12 months ago.
BG: A toss-up between Klopp and Wilder, whose respective achievements at Liverpool and Sheffield United were stunning. Klopp, but only by a whisker.
AH: Klopp showed more shrewd judgment last summer when investing faith in his Champions League-winning squad rather than money on signings. Produced a truly outstanding Premier League champion and, what’s more, deflected the pressure of a 30-year wait throughout their demolition job.
DH: Klopp. No explanation necessary.
JJ: Wilder. In a first year back in the big league Sheffield United finished ninth. An admirable feat.
JL: Wilder. In terms of maximising resources, finding a style that works, building a cohesive unit and not just surviving but also thriving in one of the world’s toughest leagues.
PM: Wilder. Sheffield United are enjoying their greatest success in a generation and Wilder is the man responsible, so that is reason enough. But his tactical acuity, ability to react in matches, to continually get the maximum from his players and rotate his squad judiciously have been on display week in, week out, even after the restart. Plus, he’s a proper character, which should always be encouraged.
SM: Klopp turned doubters into believers, though Hasenhüttl did that too, an entertaining Southampton team with a clear identity emerging from the ruins of that nine-goal debacle. Hats off to his board for staying patient; compare and contrast with their carry-on counterparts at Watford.
SN: Klopp. I was tempted to go for Wilder but ultimately it’s impossible to look past the man who not only ended Liverpool’s long wait for a league title but also made them champions of the world. He did it through force of personality, incredible man-management and something that is often overlooked – tactical nous. A brilliant, allround manager and without doubt one of the best in Liverpool’s history. Which is saying something.
JS: Wilder did a remarkable job but it cannot be anyone other than Klopp, who deserves immense credit for ensuring Liverpool were able to produce another huge effort after missing out on the title to Manchester City last season. Liverpool’s success was a victory for astute coaching.
LT: Wilder. Comparisons are not so much invidious as impossible given the often vastly differing budgets and contexts but Wilder’s rise from League One to almost qualifying for Europe while introducing overlapping centre-halves and creating an incredible squad camaraderie takes some beating. But then so does Klopp’s achievement in choreographing Liverpool’s jaw-dropping lead over Manchester City. Honourable mentions, too, to Dyche and Newcastle’s Steve Bruce, the latter for confounding a host of doubters including this reporter.
JW: Wilder. Klopp has clearly done a remarkable job and the early signs are promising for Mikel Arteta, but Wilder has given hope to all lowerleague sides. Innovative tactics and smart man-management can still make a difference in a world dominated by budgets.
Best goal
EA: Crystal Palace fans are justifiably aggrieved that it didn’t even make Match of the Day’s shortlist because Jordan Ayew conjured up a magical goal that ranks among the best I have seen live to brighten up a dreary Boxing Day game against West Ham at Selhurst Park.
NA: Ayew’s pirouetting solo effort, finished off with a deft chip, against West Ham gets my vote for reasons expanded upon elsewhere. Immaculately planned team goals have their place but nothing beats genius like this.
SB:Tammy Abraham (Watford v Chelsea). Assist of the season, really, though the finish was not too shabby. Jorginho’s pass from the halfway line, though, was of supernatural brilliance.
PD: Jamie Vardy v Arsenal. This simple finish and the devastating sequence of one-touch passes that made it possible stand as testament to how beautiful Leicester can be when at their best
BF: Perhaps not the most obvious choice but Matej Vydra’s goal for Burnley at Southampton in February was a peach. He eliminated one defender, Jack Stephens, by taking a wonderful flighted ball by Jeff Hendrick on his chest before nudging the ball away from another, Kyle Walker-Peters, and lashing a left-foot effort into the top corner. Better still, it was his first goal for 511 days.
BG: SonHeung-min’s slaloming 70yard solo effort for Tottenham against Burnley – as the old band name sort of goes: And You Will Know Him By The Trail Of Defenders.
AH: Mohamed Salah v Manchester City. A brilliantly executed, difficult team goal made to look simple by the quality of those involved. Sums up this Liverpool team in a way. Trent Alexander-Arnold switches play from right to left with a superb cross-field ball, and with his ‘weaker’ left foot, Andy Robertson controls before delivering a typically inviting cross that Salah heads beyond Claudio Bravo after the ball bounces up at him at pace. Four touches that took Liverpool from their own half to the City net and underlined their superiority over their closest challengers.
DH: Ayew v West Ham. I’m not sure this received the coverage and adulation it deserved. First, the 360-spin away from one defender, then the dart between two more and finally the gloriously composed dinked finish to win the game in the last minute. I remember thinking it would win goal of the season; thanks to Son v Burnley, it didn’t even win goal of the month.
JJ: Bruno Fernandes. ‘Harry Ma