HANSEN: CARRA COULD BE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Paul Rogers 12 March 2007 Former Liverpool star Alan Hansen has singled Jamie Carragher out for special praise after revealing the five players he believes should be in the running for Professional Footballers' Player of the Year award.

Votes are currently being cast by players up and down the country and Hansen believes many of them will feature the name of the Liverpool Vice Captain after another remarkable season in the heart of the Reds defence. While Chelsea's Didier Drogba and Michael Essien and Manchester United's Gary Neville and Cristiano Ronaldo were also deemed worthy of special praise from the 'Match of the Day' pundit, it was Carragher who really caught Hansen's eye. "There was a time, earlier in the season, when Jamie Carragher suffered a couple of poor games and began to doubt his own form," writes Hansen in his Daily Telegraph column today. "It was the same player who dominated in their most recent games against Manchester United and Barcelona, a man who is at the pinnacle of his career. "Carragher has flourished because he has worked on his own best attributes; he is neither the quickest defender in the Premiership and nor is he the best on the ball. But when it comes to positional play, making a tackle or aerial prowess, he has sometimes been in a class of his own."