Joint Winners Of HotspurHQ Tottenham ‘Player Of The Season’ Award
By Logan Holmes
After ten months, there are joint winners of the HotspurHQ Tottenham Player of the Season’ award. Hugo Lloris and Christian Eriksen finished top of the monthly polls.
Tottenham played a total of 54 matches last season in the Premier League, Europa League and the two domestic Cup competitions. After each game, the readers of HotspurHQ selected the players they thought deserved to win their Tottenham ‘Spurs’ for their performance. The top three received points which were totalled at the end of the month. For this final award for the 2013-14 season, the monthly awards were tallied and Hugo Lloris and Christian Eriksen are joint winners, well ahead of Emmanuel Adebayor and Sandro who were equal third.
= 1st: Hugo Lloris and Christian Eriksen
= 3rd: Sandro and Emmanuel Adebayor
In total 14 players managed to finish in the top 3 in the monthly polls but the voting was dominated by Lloris and Eriksen who are thoroughly deserving of their recognition. They have topped the poll for every month since December. At the start of the season as Spurs opened with two 1 – 0 wins, it was Lloris who topped the poll for August. He took top place on 3 occasions and was second in another 3 months. Eriksen made an immediate impact on fans, finishing second in September. He has also been included in the top-3 on 6 of the 10 months and topped the poll on 4 occasions, winning it for four of the last 5 months.
Hugo Lloris
Lloris has had an outstanding season with numerous excellent saves which have been vital in ensuring that Tottenham were in a position to go on and win numerous games. In taking just one game as an example, in the opening minutes of the match against Everton at White Hart Lane Lloris made a number of saves to keep a clean sheet in a match which Spurs were to eventually win 1 – 0. In a season when Spurs suffered too many heavy defeats, it was not the goalkeeper who was held responsible as Lloris frequently topped the poll. He had a very consistent season, apart from a short period after he took a blow to the head in the match at Everton. The defeat at Manchester City was his own personal nightmare but he had the strength of character to put that game behind him and come out stronger.
With transfer speculation upon us, Lloris is one player Tottenham really don’t want to lose this summer.
Christian Eriksen
Eriksen impressed on his debut against Norwich but after those early games found it more difficult to adjust to the intensity of the Premier League. He was out for a period with an injury picked up while on international duty and on returning he wasn’t a regular in Andre Villas-Boas’ constantly changing midfield. On the appointment of Tom Sherwood, Eriksen came into the team in mid-December and has been an almost permanent fixture with many outstanding performances. In his debut season for Spurs he has scored 10 goals and has been credited with 10 ‘assists’.
An outstanding player with vision and the ability to bring other players into the game with a telling pass. He is a player around whom the new manager will want to build his Tottenham team.
= 3rd Sandro and Emmanuel Adebayor
Sandro:
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On returning to the team after injury, Sandro impressed in the early season Europa and Cup matches. This brought him into AVB’s first choice team. In those opening months he topped the poll for November, having finished third in the previous two months. This made him the first player to be included in the top-3 in the monthly polls on three occasions. Injury then took him out of the team and he failed to impress Tim Sherwood in the latter months and was less than pleased to be on the bench.
Emmanuel Adebayor:
For Adebayor, the season was the reverse of Sandro’s. He was shunned by AVB but made an instant impact when brought back into the team by Sherwood. Having only returned to the side in December, he finished the season as leading goalscorer with 14 goals in all competitions. His introduction to the team and 3 goals in December saw him finish in second place that month, followed by a third place finish in January and second the next month.
Honourable Mention:
- All seven of Tottenham’s summer signings appeared in a top-3 place on at least one occasion, showing some of their true form but lacking the consistency and opportunity to do it on a regular basis.
- Andros Townsend’s season ended disappointingly with injury but his early season displays saw him as the first player to be recognised in two monthly polls.
- Lewis Holtby impressed in the mid-week games but was unable to repeat those performances in the Premier League.
- Jan Vertonghen and Mousa Dembele impressed in the early season games while Harry Kane made a late season appearance in the polls.
Thank you for your support throughout the season and voting to select the players who impressed you most in each game, even though, unfortunately, in a few it was difficult to select anyone.
Your contribution was greatly appreciated.