After months of essay-writing and a few weeks of general drunkenness, I am delighted to finally return to the greatest forum since the Forum Romanum, and in doing so, announce The Shed End's player of the season.

 

For anyone new to these parts, after every Chelsea game we take a vote on who was the man of the match, and following in Loz's tradition I've been tallying up the numbers in a now quite bloated Excel spreadsheet. As a result we can find out whether we as a forum actually have a clue what we're on about or whether we've somehow managed to make Torres win again.

 

Anyway now that your buttocks are appropriately clenched and palms appropriately sweaty, here are some opening stats:

 

Total number of games: 54
Total number of votes cast: 2648
Average number of votes per game: 49
Game with highest number of votes cast: Burnley (A PL): 86
Game with lowest number of votes cast: Watford (H FA): 18

 

We have three measuring sticks: total number of MOTM awards, total number of votes, and a points system in which the player finishing 1st receives 3 points, the player in 2nd receives 2 points and the 3rd place receives 1 point. However, there is once again a clear winner in all three categories:

 

 

 

 

 

Eden Hazard is The Shed End's 2014/15 Player of the Season.

 

So via most MOTM awards:

1) Hazard (16 awards)

2) Courtois (6 awards)

3) Oscar (4 awards)

3) Willian (4 awards)

3) Matic (4 awards)

 

Via total votes:

1) Hazard (560 votes)

2) Courtois (276 votes)

3) Matic (252 votes)

4) Willian (249 votes)

5) Fabregas (197 votes)

 

Via 'points':

1) Hazard (64 points)

2) Matic (33 points)

3) Willian (31 points)

4) Courtois (28 points)

5) Fabregas (23 points)

 

Other stats (feel free to stop reading at any point):

 

Premier League:

Hazard was way ahead of the pack with an astounding 12 MOTM awards, nine ahead of his closest competitors, Oscar, Courtois, Matic, and Willian, who received 3 each, while Fabregas, Drogba, and Terry each received two.

 

Champions League:

Hazard was the winner again with three MOTM awards, followed by Courtois with two, and Mikel, Matic and Willian, who received one apiece.

 

FA Cup/League Cup:

The FA Cup was almost not worth writing about with only two games played (Mikel and Zouma got the two MOTM awards). The League Cup, our first trophy of the season, saw a fairly even spread of awards, with Fabregas, Oscar, Hazard, Drogba, Courtois and Terry each receiving one award.

 

Against the top 7:

This seems about right - 5 MOTM awards for Hazard, 2 for Terry, and one each for Azpilicueta, Zouma, Courtois, Drogba and Matic. Should have been top 6 really but I thought Southampton were quite comfortably better than the 13 teams beneath them, although I would be unsurprised to see an improvement from Swansea next season.

 

 

So a really quite emphatic win for Hazard. Last year he won comfortably in all three categories too, but this year he has won by even more. I'm still haunted by the time we voted for Torres, so it's nice to have the MOTM method vindicated, then again it doesn't take a particularly large amount of footballing insight to know that Hazard was our best player last season.

 

Here is the full table if anyone is interested:

 

 

Thanks for reading!

Good effort that, Plokoon. Nice job!

Cheers Plokoon! Looks like Terry was the most underrated player this season then!

Mikel ahead of Costa.

 

I smell trolling     

Mikel ahead of Costa.

 

I smell trolling     

 

Ha! If I was trolling you'd better believe I'd have him higher than 8th!

 

Mikel always does oddly well in the MOTM contests, especially in comparison to his general popularity level on the forum. They are technically tied I suppose as they both got 3 MOTMs, but I used the points as a tie-breaker. If you prefer, Costa has far more individual votes than Mikel, then again he played far more games.

 

One thing the MOTM votes don't take into account is the context of the opposition; Costa received his three awards against Everton (A), Swansea (H), and Newcastle (H), whereas Mikel's came against Palace (H) (admittedly an important game as we won the league), Sporting (H) (when he scored), and the FA Cup game against Bradford (H) (when he was the lesser of 14 evils, although we did collapse as soon as he went off).

 

I'll upload the spreadsheet if anyone is interested in nerding out on the stats. Here's one for you though: Mikel was one of only two players to win MOTM off the bench (vs Palace); the other was Drogba vs Newcastle (A).

 

Willian is another strange one. He gets no end of stick on here but ultimately his MOTM record is almost identical to Matic's, who receives more or less universal praise and is touted as [one of] the best in the world in his position.

I know everyone's entitled to their vote but it does bug me abit when people go (for example) most will vote for Hazard so I'll vote Cahill etc. As I think if you feel like that then you really should vote for Haz. Of course there are games when say Dave will have played superbly and it's gone unnoticed so you vote for him. But if you think someone is MOTM but don't want to vote for him cause others are then really you're not been truthful.

Good effort, Ploks!

I know everyone's entitled to their vote but it does bug me abit when people go (for example) most will vote for Hazard so I'll vote Cahill etc. As I think if you feel like that then you really should vote for Haz. Of course there are games when say Dave will have played superbly and it's gone unnoticed so you vote for him. But if you think someone is MOTM but don't want to vote for him cause others are then really you're not been truthful.

Perhaps Ploks can add an intro at the start of the season, or is that done already?

PK13, thank you for your work :)

Thanks Ploks took a while to read but was really interesting to see who we all picked

Nice to see that Mikel has replaced Torres as the obligatory troll pick.

 

Coming next year: Falcao

Edited June 23, 201511 yr by Jonty

Salah got 1 vote.

 

I wonder who voted for him.

Salah got 1 vote.

 

I wonder who voted for him.

 

His mum. 

Cheers guys, next season I was thinking of trying out some sort of player ratings threads as well for each game to see how that turned out over the course of the season. I think I gave it a shot a couple of seasons ago but quickly forgot to maintain it.

If you want someone to write up an online system so you don't have to collate everything yourself, let me know. I've been wanting to come up with a useful Chelsea related tool for a while, that people on the forum could use. 

Mikel ahead of Costa, Dave and Ivanovic 

great work !! willian and oscar with 4 MOTM each really suprised me 

great work !! willian and oscar with 4 MOTM each really suprised me 

 

Surprised you because it was a lot or a little?

Mikel lol.

He should be fighting it out with Cuadrado and Salah for the wooden spoon.

Surprised you because it was a lot or a little?

well I think it's a lot consider the amount of sh*t that both these guy receive here ( I'm guilty too )

Edited June 24, 201511 yr by DidierDrogbalala

well I think it's a lot consider the amount of sh*t that both these guy receive here ( I'm guilty too )

Means that when they do perform people rally round and praise them hoping for more of the same.

Someone like Dave who is solid but unspectacular in what he does goes largely unnoticed.

Plus attacking players always get credit before defenders.

Plus attacking players always get credit before defenders.

 

That is definitely true. I remember looking at last year's top 11 and trying to construct a Shed End 'team of the season' out of it. It had Schurrle at left back, Willian at CM and about five other forwards so I gave up.

That is definitely true. I remember looking at last year's top 11 and trying to construct a Shed End 'team of the season' out of it. It had Schurrle at left back, Willian at CM and about five other forwards so I gave up.

 

Number of times Dave plays an absolute blinder but doesn't get a single MotM vote. One of the forwards can be absolutely pony for most the game but pop up with a fluke goal and they'll get votes. 

 

Just how people typically view football. 

Number of times Dave plays an absolute blinder but doesn't get a single MotM vote. One of the forwards can be absolutely pony for most the game but pop up with a fluke goal and they'll get votes.

Just how people typically view football.

He plays as a side-back which is the least important spot in the game of football. If he'd have contributed to some of our goals which he very seldom did he would have got some votes. I think the assesments on him are fair.

Now don't get me wrong he was very good. Usually it was Branna's side we got exposed from but if you play a sideback this is your life. Very little recognition. I think it is fair too.

But your comment that is typical is very right and I agree.

I disagree, I think the full back is one of the most important positions in modern football.