Great spot by Timmy. Football 365 have picked Danny Murphy as the second most influential player in the Premier League. As Timmy says, when you think of the number of players our skipper’s beaten to finish as runner-up to Cesc Fabregas, that’s some achievement.
2 – Danny Murphy
There are plenty of players who go about their business quietly, but there can be few who manage to be quite so commanding while making such little noise. Fulham’s defence has been praised again and again, but defences win very few games, they simply stop you from losing them. A creative force is required further forward, and Roy Hodgson’s men have that in an unassuming bald man in the middle of the park. Murphy can be summed up by his goal against Manchester United before Christmas. He picked the ball up, ghosted into space and passed into the net. No fuss, nothing spectacular, just an excellent goal from an exceptional footballer.
Before he started to play for Fulham I knew he’s an excelent playmaker, capable of passing some lovely balls. Buy I’d never expected that he such a hard-battling player. No only does he add lots of quality while constucting actions, but he also does brillaintly in the defensive aspects of the game. He really nicks away a lot of balls and is a constant nuisance for opposition midfielders. Carry on Danny!
That’s been the amazing thing Macu. Plenty of people doubted whether Murphy would have the legs to last very long when he joined Fulham and, at the start of last season, there was a lot of discussion about whether a Murphy-Bullard midfield would work. Playing deeper with Bullard in the side helped bring on Murphy’s defensive game and he’s become more influential since Roy sold Bullard. As well as popping up with important goals, I’m always surprised at how few bookings Murphy gets for the amount of tackles he puts in.