Looking Back...

It's been quite a year and while it isn't entirely wrapped up, I have a few minutes before I get on a plane for the West Coast and I was IMing with fellow-blogger Jeremy and we were discussing our All-Blog Team of the year. Not necessarily the best of the best (that's a little too obvious) but those guys who out-produced their reputations, came back from injury/down seasons, or otherwise got Jeremy and I in their corner over the course of this fantasy season.

We'd love to hear who your favorites are from this season and why in the comments section...

Strikers

Dean Ashton - he came on the scene (as predicted) like a house of fire and had three fantastic fantasy weeks in a row. He was slowed by injury and inconsistent playing time later in the year but you knew he was going to be on the team so I figured I'd get it over with early.

Collins John - Fulham's leading scorer this year with 11 goals in the Premiership despite starting only 17 matches (and coming on as a late sub in 19 more). He's fun to watch and more importantly, we were on the bandwagon early and he rewarded that faith. Now you have to wonder if Chris Coleman will find a way to get him on the field more next year.

Mido - We love him because he's a wildcard - you never know what you'll get but it's bound to be interesting - he also had a great run of things through the first half of the season (too bad for Jeremy Collins John was better pretty much every week)

Midfield
Harry Kewell - We love redemption and we love it even more when we see it coming and let our readers know about it. Harry started off shakey but came back to have a very good fantasy season. He faded a little bit late but you can hardly blame him with Liverpool playing an incredible number of matches this year.

James McFadden - A striker listed as a midfielder, even better when he's relatively cheap and very productive (which happened over a couple stretches when he and Beattie were both healthy and paired together). Here's to better health for both next year.

Stewart Downing - We've been on the Downing bandwagon since late in the 2003-2004 season and while Downing didn't play that many Premiership matches this season, he was effective when he was in there.

James Milner - Call him Downing 2.0 - the bandwagon started last year and built up a lot of momentum once he got settled at Villa - it will be interesting to see if he can be as effective for someone other than O'Leary.

Defense
Del Horno/Eboue - The perfect first half of the year/second half of the year combo - always good for some points going forward as well as more than their share of clean sheets

Bridge - Fulham didn't record many clean sheets but Bridge did a nice job of pushing forward and producing for fantasy managers when he was healthy.

Reo-Coker - Started the season off with a bang and ended it in similar fashion - the middle wasn't spectacular but we always like midfielders who are listed as defenders...

Keeper
Reina - Was clearly the best value in net for most of the season - he faded late but that shouldn't diminish what he did from August until about mid-March.

Honorable Mention - Darren Bent (nice first third of the season), Danny Murphy (ditto), Michael Carrick (solid and affordable all year), Yakubu (crap year but we still love him from the last two years), K2 (it's fun to have a new Kanu), Fabregas (nice final third of the season), Park (always cheap, occasionally productive), Dially (exceptionally cheap and had a few excellent weeks in the starting line-up).