2008/2009 most improved players

funny we don't seem to have done one of these yet after the season's finish.

what are this season's most improved players?

and, while we are at it, players whose lights seem to have dimmed somewhat (outside of injury problems in order to be fair to the individuals concerned).

for Barcelona, we had Iniesta with a great season, but probably Pique takes that prize for us.

Surprised by Busquets as well.

disappointed by no one really considering the season we had.

Stephen Ireland
Pique
Bastos
Giginac
Baines
Thiago Motta
Landon Donovan
Higuian

Bojan

Mesut Özil, hands down.

To save Glenn another post. Nani

Also Malouda towards the end.

EM La Liga wrote:Stephen Ireland
Pique
Bastos
Giginac
Baines
Thiago Motta
Landon Donovan
Higuian

Baines was at the same level as this season at Wigan. He simply had one bad year, settling in at Everton.

Thought Song improved greatly for us and David Wheater is another player worth mentioning.

For us, Gonzalo Higuain - had always demonstrated himself to be a very good footballer but in his first two seasons his finishing was not clinical. But in 08/09 he finished as our top scorer with 22.

Marcelo also showed marked improvement once he was moved into midfield by Juande which for me validated what I always said - he is a good footballer but a sh!t defender.

Fernando Llorente was another striker who finally came into his own in 08/09.

Matteo Brighi went from being behind Faty in the pecking order to being in contention for the National team.

Gourcuff was really gash for Milan, really gash.

Motta went from Barca, to Genoa, to Inter.

Fletcher

Batman wrote:Fletcher

No

COTR #2 wrote:

Batman wrote:Fletcher

No

Yes

Gourcuff
Johnson
Zarate
Higuain
Motta
Ireland
Bastos
Gignac

(i.e. I like EMP's list)

Glen Johnson, Stephen Ireland, Carlton Cole, Yossi Benyanoon, Frank Lampard, Cristiano Ronaldo, Joleon Lescott, Alex Song.....

Benoit Assou-Ekotto.

Song and Almunia for us. RVP as well although we knew the quality was always there.

Mark Yeates was amazing as per usual and Boro got him for 500k. Fucking steal

was a lost year for any bayern player

For Serie A, the most improved XI:


Others: Foggia, Gargano, Iaquinta, Zarate, Cavani, Floccari, Pazzini

Out of these, the most improved from previous years, was probably Brighi.

Dzeko, Ibisevic, Pato

Wijnaldum, Fer, Biseswar, Donny Gorter, Luis Suarez, Matavz, Holla, Beerens, El Hamdaoui, Romero, Zwinkels, Platje, Afellay, Strootman, Duplan, Falkenburg, Theo Janssen, Kenneth Perez, Demouge & Robert Maaskant

Edin Dzeko wrote:Dzeko, Ibisevic, Pato

Can't believe no one has mentioned the first two yet. Excellent selections. It'll be interesting to see how the perform next season, Ibisevic in particular. With the likes of Muslimovic, Misimovic, Pjanic behind them, Bosinia look to have some talent.

Carlton Cole.

Giampaolo Pazzini looks better with regular first team action too...

Darren Fletcher, Insua ? Played well when played.

Edin Dzeko wrote:Dzeko, Ibisevic, Pato

Dzeko and Ibisevic never heard of them until 2008/09 as for Pato it looks like he will keep on improving.