Didi Hamann: There’s no room for Alexis Sanchez in my Premier League team of the year

The Reds legend makes some controversial calls as he selects this year’s stand-out performers…

Now that another Premier League season has come to an end, we sat down with our football ambassador Didi Hamann to bash out his team of the season.

Let’s just say there were some interesting calls.

The Liverpool icon decides to only bring one player from his former club despite their qualification for the Champions League and only a couple of other players outside Tottenham and champions Chelsea make it.

So who’s made it in? Well, check out our nifty graphic our design wizards spent hours over below to find out.

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What do you think of that?

There’s no arguing with De Gea, Azpilicueta, Alderweireld and Luiz in defence, although we did raise an eyebrow at Danny Rose’s selection at left back. However, Didi points out “who in the Premier League in that position has been better?”

Having been ready to bite back, we couldn’t disagree with him. Moving to midfield, Didi has gone with Chelsea’s N’Golo Kanté sitting behind Tottenham’s Dele Alli and Man City dynamo David Silva in a tricky centre midfield trio.

On the left wing, Belgian superstar Eden Hazard gets the nod, while Liverpool’s Sadio Mane controversially is included on the right, ahead of want-away Arsenal talisman Alexis Sanchez (we’ll come back to that).

With only one position available in the front line, Hamann has put all his eggs Harry Kane’s basket. That’s after he claimed the Premier League’s Golden Boot award for the second season on-the-spin last Sunday.

So what about the men that didn’t make the cut?

Why didn’t Sanchez get in, despite carrying Arsenal through the season? Didi explained: “Alexis Sanchez has done well this season, but I’d like to see him at a top, top side now.

“When he’s contract talks broke down, I didn’t like how his attitude changed and that’s why he wouldn’t be in my team of the season. I’ve not seen him in a Champions League final because Arsenal get knocked out every time they play the last 16.”

“If you compare him to what Hazard does, the jury’s still out for me. He’s a good player, but, is Sanchez world class? I’m not too sure.”

Two other men who were unlucky to not to make the cut were Kanté’s midfield partner at Chelsea Nemanja Matić and Everton frontman Romelu Lukaku. According to the former German midfielder he agonised over this call the most.

“Romelu Lukaku and Nemanja Matić are probably the two toughest calls on players to miss out on my team of the season.

“Matić might have deserved a call up, because the reason Chelsea don’t concede is a lot to do with him and Kanté,” said Hamann.

“As for Lukaku, I just don’t believe he contributes enough outside of scoring and Harry Kane does.  Kane links up, he holds the ball when he needs to and sets up goals – Kane is a more rounded player.”

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