Murillo snub as Jamie Carragher names two Nottingham Forest stars in his Premier League Team of the Season

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Many see Murillo as the jewel in the crown of Nottingham Forest’s defence this season, but Jamie Carragher believes that two others deserve greater credit.

Despite Murillo making a costly error against Everton, there is no doubt that the Brazilian is maturing into one of the top defensive prospects in the Premier League, which has seen him attract plenty of interest.

Forest have put a world record price tag on Murillo to stave off interest from both the Premier League and across Europe as Nuno Espirito Santo attempts to keep his Champions League-chasing Reds intact.

However, Murillo’s teammates in the Forest squad have been equally as impressive this season, leading to Carragher tipping two of them ahead of the 22-year-old in his Premier League Team of the Season.

Nikola Milenkovic ahead of Murillo in Jamie Carragher’s Premier League XI

Murillo was handed a new Forest contract for his improvements this season, but fellow centre-back Carragher snubbed him when picking his best defence of the campaign, preferring Nikola Milenkovic instead.

In a segment with GOAL, Carragher said: “I’m going to go with Ola Aina at Nottingham Forest. At centre back, I’m going to go with one of his Nottingham Forest teammates, Milenkovic. The centre back next to Milenkovic likes to play on the left as well and his name is Virgil van Dijk.”

Forest fans won’t argue with one of the Liverpool hero’s picks as Milenkovic has had an excellent season, but Murillo missing out will sting after he was clearly hinted at joining his Forest partner in the Team of the Season with Carragher’s comment about playing on the left side.

Murillo being pipped by Van Dijk is something Forest fans will be able to live with, though, as arguably the bigger snub comes in the form of Carragher’s goalkeeper pick.

Matz Sels snubbed as Alisson makes Carragher’s best XI

It seems hard to look past Matz Sels as the Premier League’s top ‘keeper this season, given that he leads his competition in stats such as:

• Clean sheets (13)
• Goals prevented (4.1)

However, Carragher preferred Liverpool’s Alisson over Sels, saying: “I’m going to go with Alisson because of his performance against PSG away.” Aside from the reasoning having nothing to do with his Premier League displays, the comparative stats show that Sels had more than a case.

Even beyond the clean sheets, it’s clear that Forest’s shot-stopper has been the much busier goalkeeper, making more saves per 90 and also preventing goals, something that Alisson hasn’t managed once.

Busier doesn’t automatically mean better for goalkeepers but even Arne Slot has hailed Sels this season in campaign that has seen the Belgian play a significant role in taking the City Ground side to the brink of European football.