So who will be voted PFA Player of the Year? Eden Hazard is the hot favourite but whoever wins will have plenty of tactical voting to thank.

I’m sure Hazard and the other leading contenders — in my mind David de Gea and Harry Kane — will benefit from their team-mates being careful with who they vote for. John Terry recently revealed he had chosen Liverpool midfielder Philippe Coutinho — who has been very good but not great — as his nomination. There’s no way Terry can seriously believe Coutinho has been better than De Gea and Kane this season! There is more to it than meets the eye.

John, I am almost certain, will have gone around Chelsea’s dressing room when the ballot papers came in and told the squad — given that you cannot choose one of your team-mates — under no circumstances should they vote for De Gea or Kane, who are Hazard’s biggest challengers. I’m sure the same happened in the Spurs and United dressing rooms.

Chelsea winger Eden Hazard is among the front runners to win the PFA Player of the Year award this season

The Belgium international has been in superb form for Jose Mourinho's side as they look set to win the title

Hazard will have to beat off competition from Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea

Harry Kane is another of the favourites to pick up the individual gong after his heroics for Tottenham

How do I know? I did exactly the same thing in 2006 when Steven Gerrard won! I was Liverpool’s PFA representative back then and I made it clear that, for Stevie to win, nobody should vote for Thierry Henry or Frank Lampard! You might think that’s unfair but it is the same in every dressing room.

The voting is, of course, already done but Hazard and De Gea come up against each other on Saturday and will both be eager to show that they should be regarded as the season’s standout performer.

United are flying and the reason they are in this position is down to De Gea. He has come of age during the past two years and his performances in the first half of the campaign gave them a platform to build from. He is now in the top three goalkeepers in the world — when he arrived he wasn’t even in the top three in the Premier League. He will probably be the club’s player of the year again and that is as big an achievement as being up for the PFA award.

The first time I played against him, he looked like a kid who had been pulled out of the youth ranks. He had no physical presence and it was something Liverpool looked to exploit during an FA Cup tie in January 2012.

Jamie Carragher says Chelsea captain John Terry will have told his squad not to vote for Kane or De Gea to give Hazard a better chance of winning the award

Chelsea captain Terry revealed his vote for PFA Player of the Year was Philippe Coutinho

Carragher believes De Gea is one of the main reasons United are enjoying such a successful run

De Gea endured a difficult start to his United career as he struggled with physicality of the Premier League

PLAYER OF THE YEAR NOMINATIONS Eden Hazard - Chelsea Diego Costa - Chelsea Harry Kane - Tottenham Hotspur Alexis Sanchez - Arsenal David de Gea - Manchester United Philippe Coutinho - Liverpool Advertisement

Daniel Agger scored a header to put us 1-0 up but his task was made easier because we crowded De Gea out and he simply didn’t have the power or the confidence to barge his way through a crowd of bodies. That is not something you could say about him now. But as good as he has been, I feel De Gea will miss out on becoming the first goalkeeper to win PFA Player of the Year since Pat Jennings in 1976.

First, I think it helps if the winner comes from a team that are on course to win a trophy. Barring an unforeseen blip, Chelsea will win the title and that is why, if I was still playing, my vote would have gone to Hazard. He, simply, has been the best player in the best team.

People may say ‘what about Luis Suarez, Gareth Bale and Robin van Persie?’ — the last three men to lift the PFA crown — but the consistency and quality of their performances meant they were impossible to ignore.

Hazard's Chelsea team-mate Diego Costa has also been nominated for the award after netting 19 league goals

Arsenal's Alexis Sanchez makes the six-man shortlist after an impressive debut season in England

Terry voted for Liverpool's Philippe Coutinho, who completes the six-man shortlist

PFA YOUNG PLAYER OF THE YEAR The PFA Young Player of the Year nominations are: Eden Hazard - Chelsea Harry Kane - Tottenham Hotspur Philippe Coutinho - Liverpool Raheem Sterling - Liverpool David de Gea - Manchester United Thibaut Courtois - Chelsea Advertisement

I mentioned Terry will have been influential in the Chelsea dressing room when it came to voting. But on a serious note about him, I am very surprised that he is not on the shortlist. I would go as far to say that if Chelsea should have two contenders, it should be Hazard and their captain, both of whom have started all 31 league matches — not Diego Costa. I’m not saying Costa hasn’t been good but has he done more to influence Chelsea’s play than Terry? I’m not sure. John is still the best defender in the country and the heartbeat of his team.

Is he playing better than he was five or six years ago? No. But he doesn’t allow his standard to drop. Put it another way — if he and Costa were absent for a game of great importance, I know who they would miss more.

You could say something similar about Kane. His goals have helped Tottenham collect 21 points they might have gone without. He was at his peak when voting started and I’d be surprised if he doesn’t win the Young Player award.

Terry has been as influential as ever for Chelsea this season and deserved a nomination ahead of Diego Costa, according to Carragher

Luis Suarez won the award in 2014 and Hazard picked up the Young Player of the Year award

One thing I cannot help feeling, however, is that the nominations show that this campaign has been anything but a classic. How can the same four players be up for both the PFA and Young Player award? Hazard won’t win the award by default but he certainly hasn’t got a highlights reel to match Suarez, Van Persie or Bale.

It is interesting to see how Hazard measures up with Bale, who is getting criticism in Spain for not making a big enough impact at Real Madrid, yet after 27 games in La Liga he has scored 13 goals and made seven assists.

Hazard, by contrast, has 12 goals in the Premier League — three of which have been penalties — and has eight assists.

There isn’t a great difference in the numbers. But only one of them is anywhere close to being voted player of the year in their league. That shows us it hasn’t been a vintage season.

Real Madrid forward Gareth Bale has 13 goals and seven assists compared to Hazard's 12 goals and eight assists, but is receiving criticism in Spain

Our league needs top-class defenders

The game of the week in the Champions League came when Madrid’s finest sides went to war at the Vicente Calderon.

I have heard it said that the 0-0 draw was boring and the lack of goals made it dull but, in my view, nothing could have been further from the truth. It was an absorbing contest, as good a 0-0 as you could wish to see, and it showed why English clubs are struggling to make an impact in the competition.

There will be a clamour this summer for our top sides to buy more and more exciting, attacking players but the displays of Atletico pair Miranda and Diego Godin and Real’s Sergio Ramos and Raphael Varane showed the kind of additions we should be making.

Atletico's Diego Godin closes in on Real Madrid's Bale during the pulsating 0-0 draw in the Champions League

Atletico defender Miranda challenges James Rodriguez as neither side managed to breach the other's defence

Ramos gets criticised in England for at times being rash but he is a top-class defender — Xabi Alonso emphasised that point on these pages when we spoke last November — and has been at the top for years, while Varane is a Rolls-Royce who could become the best in the world.

Miranda has attracted the attention of Chelsea and Manchester United and it is easy to see why, but my favourite is Godin, a player who would have no qualms about tackling his grandmother to keep a clean sheet. He plays with that pure South American grit and steel.

English clubs simply don’t have defenders who are willing to do that, perhaps with the exception of John Terry, and the statistics from our representatives in the Champions League this season prove that point emphatically.

Liverpool, for instance, never kept a clean sheet in six matches in the group stages. Yes, they were in the same group as Real Madrid but failing to shut out FC Ludogorets and Basel over four matches was the reason they fell at the first hurdle.

Former Liverpool man Carragher says Spain international Sergio Ramos is a top-class defender

Carragher says nothing would excite him more than the arrival of Raphael Varane or Godin to England

In the last 16, meanwhile, the numbers were just as damning. Chelsea couldn’t contain Paris Saint-Germain over two matches, conceding at both the Parc des Princes and Stamford Bridge, while Manchester City were easily breached twice by Barcelona when tumbling out.

Arsenal did keep a clean sheet in Monaco but by then the damage had been done. How could they expect to progress after letting three in at the Emirates? The tie was effectively finished by their inability to keep the back door closed at home. When English clubs thrived in Europe between 2005-2009, it was because we were defensively solid. The Champions League is the best competition with the best players, so scoring goals shouldn’t be easy.

With the new television deal about to kick in, we are going to hear stories about Gareth Bale returning and bids lined up for Paul Pogba and Marco Reus. Of course, they would be welcome additions.

Nothing, though, would excite me more than the arrival of Varane or Godin.

Chelsea failed to stop PSG scoring in either leg of their Champions League last-16 tie last month