Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville's Premier League Teams of the Season so far | OneFootball

We’ve hit the half-way point of the 2023/24 Premier League season. We’ve been treated to it all: the beauty of high-scoring thrillers, the unscripted drama and plenty of goals that have left your jaw on the floor but, more recently, we’ve seen Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher battle it out on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football with their respective English top tier Team of the Season's so far.

Many candidates have arisen from the depths of the top tier to be in with a shout of being named in the Team of the Season, while the usual candidates are also in heavy contention. But, in all seriousness, picking the bare 11 players to fill the half-way Team of the Season spots is beyond challenging.

But that’s what the aforementioned punditry duo were tasked with after the Newcastle United and Liverpool match-up at Anfield, one which finished 4-2 to the latter with the ever-reliable Mohamed Salah notching his 150th Premier League strike for the Reds – but does he make either Neville or Carragher’s respective sides? Let’s take a look, shall we?

Carragher and Neville pick similar backlines

The pair disagree on the goalkeeper

Neville and Carragher almost, and we mean almost, agreeing on their five back line choices (defence and goalkeeper) was not something we'd get to tick off our 2024 bingo-inspired card so soon in the New Year. Alas, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Destiny Udogie occupy the full-back slots with the former, particularly, looking back to being his creative best.

Despite only registering two goals and three assists, Alexander-Arnold's all-round play has been something to behold so far in Liverpool's title charge so far. Udogie, too, has enjoyed an excellent start to the current campaign amid the ever-growing injury crisis in north London. The young Italian has remained ever-present in Ange Postecoglou's defensive structure, missing just three games so far this season, and his new deal with Spurs is nothing short of what he deserves.

William Saliba and Virgil van Dijk are the leading choices and are - understandably - involved in both teams, with the pair's imposing nature making them standout stars, at least from a defensive standpoint, of the 2023/24 campaign. Saliba, 22, was rock solid for Mikel Arteta last season and has continued to be, alongside his partner Gabriel, relatively faultless, while Van Dijk is seemingly finding his feet again after a difficult 2022/23 season at the heart of the Reds' defence, and his recent performances earned him a place in 2023's highest-rated team.

Between the sticks, however, is where Neville and Carragher differed. Alisson, despite his consistency over the years at Anfield and the fact he has kept the joint-most clean sheets this season, is snubbed by former Liverpool ace Carragher, while Neville chose the Brazilian. Instead, Carragher went for Tottenham's impressive new shot-stopper, Guglielmo Vicario, arguing that the impact he has had since joining in the summer of 2023 is just too impressive to ignore.

Lots of differences in midfield

Arsenal ace Declan Rice is chosen by both

While the pair agreed on all of their defenders and understood each other’s shot-stopper selections, the midfield caused a lot of tension. Opting for a double pivot of Rodri and Declan Rice, Neville believes that solidity in the engine room was key to having a more attacking 4-2-4 shape. For that reason, he went for Arsenal's Declan Rice and Manchester City's Rodri.

Rice, despite his astronomical £105m fee, has been worth every penny, coming second in the best Premier League transfers of 2023 and slotting into Mikel Arteta's first team seamlessly. His impact on Arsenal meant that he did enough to also make into Carragher's midfield too. But the pundit chose to omit Rodri, despite his importance to Pep Guardiola's setup. Instead, he chose to go more attacking, picking the man who Neville thought about picking, Bernardo Silva, as well as Chelsea's Cole Palmer.

Palmer, since moving from Man City to Chelsea for £42.5m, has been one of the standout players under Mauricio Pochettino, despite only being 21. Jude Bellingham is the only U21 player in Europe's top five leagues to have more goal involvements than the midfield maestro's 12, and his classy finish against Luton Town shows just how insanely talented he is. Nevertheless, Neville refused to let Carragher get away with snubbing Rodri, arguing that he was the best midfield player in the world in his position.

Erling Haaland snubbed by Carragher

The Sky Sports pundits agreed on three players

With Neville playing one fewer midfielder than Carragher, he was able to squeeze an extra attacker into his XI. And although both pundits picked three of the same players, they disagreed over the fourth - Man City's Erling Haaland. For Neville, the Norwegian just had to be in the squad because of his status as the best striker in world football. But, despite being joint-top in the Golden Boot race, Carragher refused to budge over his 4-3-3 formation just to accomodate the sharpshooter. For him, West Ham's Jarrod Bowen was the more deserving choice over the best player from 2023 according to IFFHS.

Neville also went on to wax lyrical about Bowen, who is the division’s fifth-highest goalscorer in 2023/24. Included as Haaland's strike partner, the former Manchester United defender suggested that he had to get in based on his output for a team who were not hustling and bustling at the top of the pile.

Where there was no debate, however, was over the two wide players. Both men opted for Mohamed Salah and Son Heung-min, and rightfully so - they have been the best in their positions by a mile. The former became the fifth-fastest player to reach 150 Premier League goals, and currently sits on an impressive tally of 14 in the league this season. And while Son has played more centrally for Spurs at times in 2023/24, he has superbly filled the void left by the now-departed Harry Kane. 17 goals contributions already for the season really is something, and has helped keep Spurs in contention for a spot in next season's Champions League. God only knows where they would be without him.