Biggest positive surprises of the season

I don't like being too positive, but I thought I'd follow up the flops thread with a positive surprises thread.

And notice the wording, not necessarily the best players, but players who did surprisingly well.

From the Prem:

Trent Alexander Arnold Schwarzenegger II: A 19-yo who capped his fine season off by going to the World Cup. Had Clyne not been injured, AA would probably on loan at Ipswich, so a very fat silver lining there.

Andrew Robertson: Another Liverpool full-back who had a real breakthrough season. Rumours going around that he'll be used a make-weight to bring Suarez back to Anfield and be the long-term Marcelo replacement.

Mo Salah: Just wow.

Nick Pope: The Burnley keeper will be qualifying for the Europa League and got a WC call-up.

Richarlison: Arrived to the PL like a boss with 5 goals and 8 assists.

Pascal Gross: But trust the Germans do it better, unless it's winning wars; Gross recorded 7 goals and 8 assists in his debut season at Brighton.

Marko Arnautovic: 11 goals and 7 assists in an ailing West Ham attack assured their regrettable survival.

Wenger: Actually finally left (or was sacked respectfully).

Ashley Young's emergence as an elite LB at the not so young age of 32

Man United managing to finish in CL spots

Not sure I'm supposed to be positively surprised by this though

Stop bringing your pettiness in this thread ffs. I'm genuinely curious about other leagues like Serie A and France. Think Arte managed to cover most of the PL standouts.

I didn't expect Skriniar was so good.

Firenze wrote:Ashley Young's emergence as an elite LB at the not so young age of 32

That happened before this season. Was a continuation much like Valencia's move to full-back.

I really dislike his name, I don't know how to pronounce it

not too surprising to me as the eastern bloc countries produce great CB's IMO

I wonder if Inter will be able to keep him? I already see some links from rubbish sources, but clubs are at least aware of him in a market where good CB's are scarce

Ok.

Asamoah for Juve although its more down to Sandro being completely useless this season.

Roma making Champions league semi-final in EDF's first season just after losing club legend Totti the previous year

Lazio scoring like 90 goals in Serie A with Immobile scoring a 3rd of them

Skriniar becoming an important figure in Inter's defense in only his first year (i am just surprised by this)

etc etc

Mo Diame becoming a dominant midfielder after Lascelles punched him in the face is probably my biggest personal surprise tbh.

The rest pretty much held to form.

-Under for Roma, out performed many of their established forwards.
-Alisson, also for Roma, been the best keeper in Italy by some distance, after losing Szczesny who was a top keeper the season before
-Torreira, in the first half of the season especially, Sampdoria were in the top 4 hunt in large part due to him
-Skriniar, he's been one of the best defenders in Serie A
-Luis Alberto, so vital to Lazio's amazing attack. He's probably one of the less talked about protagonists

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:Mo Diame becoming a dominant midfielder after Lascelles punched him in the face is probably my biggest personal surprise tbh.

The rest pretty much held to form.

I don't think anyone's going to remember this, but I used to hype Mo Diame and Nzonzi when they were still at West Ham and Stoke respectively. Been taking some real pleasure from both of them going on to some under-the-radar / underrated careers since then.

It's honestly really a funny one, he was pretty much a guy who would last 10 minutes and look like he would collapse.

Unreal level of un-fitness, but since Lascelles got in his face and basically told him to be better he's basically been our best player and the reason we ended the season really strong.

He's honestly looked like Yaya at times definitely the most shocking aspect of our season tbh as I pretty much accepted he was never really going to offer anything.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:It's honestly really a funny one, he was pretty much a guy who would last 10 minutes and look like he would collapse.

Unreal level of un-fitness, but since Lascelles got in his face and basically told him to be better he's basically been our best player and the reason we ended the season really strong.

He's honestly looked like Yaya at times definitely the most shocking aspect of our season tbh as I pretty much accepted he was never really going to offer anything.

That is what got me to hype him up in the first place. He's got that uncanny side-step under pressure that I don't see any Brexit lads have. Looks built like a train, but then he's gone off tracks and past you. I always thought he was a poor man's Yaya and am really pleased for him to come back up from the Championship and be a Premier League force again.

Alisson, Skriniar, Cristante, Luis Alberto, Immobile

Roma making the CL semi

Udinese in the relegation fight to the last matchday

90 point team as runner up

Griezmann performing in a final.

rincon wrote:Luis Alberto

I saw him being involved in plenty of Lazio goals when checking the score on Livescore on weekends, but I've never actually watched him play since he left Liverpool. Did he have a good season in the sense of cementing his place at Lazio or a good season in the sense of attracting offers from other clubs?

Suso and Luis Alberto are some of the best attacking talents in Serie A lol, kinda wild tbh.

Art Morte wrote:

rincon wrote:Luis Alberto

I saw him being involved in plenty of Lazio goals when checking the score on Livescore on weekends, but I've never actually watched him play since he left Liverpool. Did he have a good season in the sense of cementing his place at Lazio or a good season in the sense of attracting offers from other clubs?

It's a bit difficult to distinguish between the two. Lazio plays basically one way, and that's forward in a very atypical Italian way. Immobile gets a lot of the praise because of the amount of goals he scores and after that it's about Sergej because of the hype, Luis Alberto goes a bit under the radar but has just been class for Lazio this season. He creates, scores and makes the attack tick

Firenze wrote:Suso and Luis Alberto are some of the best attacking talents in Serie A lol, kinda wild tbh.

Suso is a scrub. The poorest version of Robben with the one move except he isn't half as good at it. Luis Alberto has been much better.

Firenze wrote:Suso and Luis Alberto are some of the best attacking talents in Serie A lol, kinda wild tbh.

You need to step up. This is Unique level trolling now

Even a Milan version of Tye(if ever there's one) wouldnt rate Suso

Luca wrote:

Art Morte wrote:

rincon wrote:Luis Alberto

I saw him being involved in plenty of Lazio goals when checking the score on Livescore on weekends, but I've never actually watched him play since he left Liverpool. Did he have a good season in the sense of cementing his place at Lazio or a good season in the sense of attracting offers from other clubs?

It's a bit difficult to distinguish between the two. Lazio plays basically one way, and that's forward in a very atypical Italian way. Immobile gets a lot of the praise because of the amount of goals he scores and after that it's about Sergej because of the hype, Luis Alberto goes a bit under the radar but has just been class for Lazio this season. He creates, scores and makes the attack tick

All right, happy for him. Seemed like a nice lad at Liverpool, only perhaps too nice. I guess he must have added some arrogance to his game to have the season he's had.

Suso was getting considerable hype last season and you know it. Maybe he declined a lot this season back to his true level, but don't pretend he wasn't well rated the year before.

Mattia De Sciglio i was positively surprised to watch being average, instead of extremely bad as he was before.

Art Morte wrote:

rincon wrote:Luis Alberto

I saw him being involved in plenty of Lazio goals when checking the score on Livescore on weekends, but I've never actually watched him play since he left Liverpool. Did he have a good season in the sense of cementing his place at Lazio or a good season in the sense of attracting offers from other clubs?

I'm not sure I understand the question. He had a great season. After a completely pointless first season where he barely even got into the team he said he got serious about football and hired a mental coach. The result was a sharp player always on point.

Very incisive and direct. His play-making made Lazio a lot more dangerous than expected during Anderson's injury. Even when Anderson came back Luis was doing too well and didn't lose his protagonism.

Lazio's attacking play does open up the possibilities for a playmaker to shine as players are always making runs and Immobile is in extraterrestrial form for them. Luis's through balls allowed it though so it worked very well.

I'll always have a soft spot for players that can score goals like this. Not the fastest, not the strongest, but creative and smart enough to make it happen on the field