Jamie Carragher picks his Premier League team of the season so far on Monday Night Football

Tuesday, 23 December 2025 07:04

Jamie Carragher picked his Premier League team of the season so far on Monday Night Football.

Appearing on the final Monday Night Football of the year - in which Nottingham Forest were beaten by Fulham - the Sky Sports pundit chose his best XI of the 2025-26 campaign so far.

A stats team of the season and a Fananalysis team of the season were also picked alongside Carra's version, and you can vote for the team that you think is the best in our poll below!

Read on to find out who was picked and why...

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Jamie Carragher's team of the season

"I'm going to go with the Sunderland goalkeeper, Robin Roefs. I've been really impressed with him, he's got the second-best xG prevention and had a brilliant start to his Premier League career for Sunderland, who have one of the best defensive records in the league, and he's been a big part of it. It symbolises what Sunderland tried to do in the summer as well, this kind of quite ruthless approach to bring in 14 new players. They recognised that Leeds and Burnley were significantly better as a Championship team, so they decided 'we need to raise the standard right across the team' and Roefs has certainly typified that.

"I would say the right back position is probably the most difficult. I was really close to putting Timber in, who I'm a huge fan of. Also, Reece James, he's been outstanding, but he's played a lot of his football in central midfield. But every time I watch this guy, fantastic. Part of a really strong defensive unit until the last couple of games that he wasn't part of, I should add. But I think he's got three goals, a couple of assists as well, so I think he's fantastic - Daniel Munoz.

"Mark Guehi - It was a tussle between him and [Maxence] Lacroix really as well, I'm really impressed with Crystal Palace. But I went for Guehi, he's got a few more goals as well. [William] Saliba's missed a few games, he was close as well. But Gabriel, yes, he's missed a few games as well. But I just think this season, I go back to that goal he got at Newcastle, the leadership, how strongly he's been defensively as well. I think it's a huge miss for them, and they need to get him back quick.

"[Riccardo] Calafiori actually, I thought he'd almost lost his position a little bit with Myles Lewis-Skelly coming in at the end of last season. He was brilliant, so I actually put him in my team of the season last season. So for him to get that starting position as well, he got the first goal I think at Old Trafford. And he's not just a left back, he pops up all over the pitch as well, so he gets in as well.

"Formation wise, we've gone with a standard 4-2-3-1. So I've gone with [Granit] Xhaka and [Declan] Rice in there. The other one to put in was [Moises] Caicedo and that was a really tough one. I didn't want to put all three because I think they're almost, not defensive, but I want to put an attacking midfield player in there. I've obviously got Bruno Fernandes. I've said I think Rice just has the edge on Caicedo.

"But I just felt the impact of Xhaka this season is the biggest impact of a signing or effect on a team. It feels like he's just so important to Sunderland. So I just felt he had to be in the team. So I apologise to Chelsea fans, as I seem to do a lot! But no, I couldn't find room for Caicedo because of those reasons. And also, I had to put Bruno Fernandes in. They're going to miss him, he doesn't miss too many games now he's injured. But, I mean, you look at his numbers, I think he's still created the most chances, maybe got the most assists in the Premier League, or certainly very close. He's the outstanding chance creator in the Premier League even playing from a deeper position.

"[Erling] Haaland's almost a guarantee. He's so far ahead of anyone, 19 goals in 17 games. He's so far ahead of any striker. In his first season, he got over 40 [goals], didn't he? He was certainly close to that, so he must be on to beat that record. Morgan Rogers on that left side. It was interesting looking at Rodgers and [Antoine] Semenyo in that. They've both had brilliant seasons. But I don't think there was an abundance of wide players who were coming to mind.

"[Jeremy] Doku has been really good. Phil Foden as well. But no, I think Rodgers is probably the most in-form player in the Premier League. And Semenyo, he's probably gone off the boil a little bit in the last few weeks. There was a lot of talk about him moving on. But in the last few games, he got a couple of goals as well. He's had a brilliant start to his Premier League season as well."

Who have been the best three players so far this season?

"Haaland and Rice would be certainly the two that would stand out right away. And I think Rogers is sort of just on their coattails. If you're talking about a player of the year or something like that, or the player of the year so far at the halfway point, it'd be a toss up between Rice or Haaland."