Carragher and Neville agree on team of the year with Van Dijk left out
Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher don't always agree, not least when it comes to picking their best XIs, but the pair of pundits have made an exception for their EA Sports FC 24 team of the year.
The Sky Sports pundits were asked to come up with a best XI for the calendar year, including players from the Premier League and further afield. And neither had room for Virgil van Dijk, despite the Liverpool centre-back looking back to his best this season.
Van Dijk's Liverpool team-mate Alisson does make the cut, as another player the pair agree on. At centre-back, though, Manchester City's Ruben Dias and Kim Min-jae - who left Napoli for Bayern Munich over the summer - get the nod ahead of the Dutch internationa.
Elsewhere, there was a bit of disagreement between the pair. At centre-back and in goal, though, the former rivals were on the same page.
"Alisson, from Liverpool, by far the best goalkeeper in the world, and I think we were both pretty much solid on that one" Neville said on a video shared by Sky Sports. "Ederson's a great goalkeeper, there are a couple of other great goalkeepers in Europe, [Thibaut] Courtois is a good goalkeeper, but Alisson's by far the best.
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"Liverpool had such a poor season last season and it would have been a lot poorer without that man in goal," Carragher added. "I actually think Alisson, in the next few years when he finishes at Liverpool, I think we'll be putting him up alongside Peter Schmeichel."
"Ruben Dias on the back of the treble for Manchester City," Carragher added when asked about his centre-back pairing. "And I've gone for Kim who played for Napoli, won the Serie A title, and has been brilliant this season for Bayern Munich."
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Ruben Dias and Kevin De Bruyne both made the combined XI (AFP via Getty Images)The pair of ex-defenders agreed at left-back as well, selecting Federico Dimarco of Internazionale. There was disagreement on the right, though, with Neville picking John Stones and Carragher opting for Trent Alexander-Arnold after it emerged Kyle Walker wasn't an option.
In midfield, Rodri and Jude Bellingham were picked by both men, though there was disagreement on the third spot. Neville favoured Kevin De Bruyne, while Carragher argued for De Bruyne's Manchester City team-mate Bernardo Silva.
It was a similar story in attack, with two common picks between Neville and Carragher, No prizes for guessing Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe occupy those first two spots, with debate over the third.
Carragher made the case for Lionel Messi, but Nevillle said Messi would make the cut if the World Cup was played a little later. Instead, though, the former Manchester United man argued Vinicius Junior had done more than Messi in 2023 to warrant a spot.
Some compromise was required when it came to naming a combined XI. This meant Alexander-Arnold, De Bruyne and Vinicius Junior got the nod when push came to shove.
Neville and Carragher's combined EA Sports FC 24 XI: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Kim, Dias, Dimarco; Rodri, Bellingham, De Bruyne; Vinicius Jr, Haaland, Mbappe
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