Mid Season Report: Premier League Team of the Season so far
The first half of what has been an unbelievable Premier League season has been done and dusted. As 2016 beckons, one thing is absolutely guaranteed – a grandstand finish to the campaign.The happenings of this season have been nowhere close to mainstream – be it Leicester’s incredible rise from the bottom of the table in January to title-contenders in December, or Chelsea’s equally astonishing dip in form from the Champions tag in May to relegation candidates at present, or Louis van Gaal’s jibes at the media, or headline transfer sagas or even the great war-of-words between Jurgen Klopp and Tony Pulis – these 5 months of Premier League action have literally given everything a football fan could have expected, thus living up to its billing as the ‘best league in the world’.Football is definitely a team sport, but it is moments of brilliance from a single or couple of individuals which can shape the game and decide the result at the end of 90 minutes. We pick out 11 such players who have positively influenced their respective side’s progress this season and are likely to do so in the second half of their respective campaigns.Criteria for selection into the XI1. The player should have made at least 15 league appearances for his club.2. No more than 3 players from a single team shall make it into the first XI.3. Only the best players from each position shall feature in the XI.Formation4-1-3-2Disclaimer: The views expressed here are that of the author and not of Sportskeeda.
#1 Goalkeeper
Jack Butland (Stoke City)
Since selling Asmir Begovic to Chelsea in the summer, Jack Butland’s rise from a second-choice keeper of a mid-table club to Joe Hart’s contender for the English Numero Uno spot in between the sticks speaks for itself. His brilliant reflexes to keep out certain goals and presence of mind in and around the penalty area to make vital clearances have been the key factors behind Stoke City’s defensive solidity this season.
With Ryan Shawcross out for the early weeks of the season and Phillip Wollschied not in the best of form, the 22-year old has done a fantastic job for Mark Hughes to cover up errors in the back-line and keep Stoke City alive in games.
| Appearances | 19 |
| Total Saves (including clearances) | 74 |
| Clearances outside the penalty area | 28 |
| Clean Sheets | 8 |
| Goals conceded per game | 1 |
Who narrowly misses out?
Heurelho Gomes (Watford)
David de Gea (Manchester United)
Petr Cech (Arsenal)