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For me, it's Mo. That's the only way to say it. This week footballers up and down the country have been casting their votes for the PFA awards and my star of the Premier League season is Mohamed Salah.

It's a long time since the race for this prize has been so close and it wouldn't surprise me if I've called it wrong. Kevin De Bruyne could easily win. I've played against him twice this season and his first performance, when Manchester City beat us 7-2 last October, was one of the best I've ever seen live.

He was magnificent in the first half of the season and has remained consistently brilliant. Had the votes been counted at Christmas, De Bruyne would have been the winner by a landslide but there is something about the time of the year we are asked to choose that makes me think Salah will get it.

Mo Salah's wand of a left foot has left rival Premier League defences spellbound this season

The Liverpool forward gets my vote for PFA Player of the Year after a stunning campaign

Manchester City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne comes a close second in my voting

What Salah has done over the last three months will be fresh in everyone's mind. I also think the impact he has had on Liverpool, with the amount of goals he has scored, is bigger than the influence De Bruyne, who is surrounded by world-class talents, has had on City.

Honestly, his quantity of goals - and how consistently he has scored them - is ridiculous. I was impressed by the way he started the season but I kept thinking, 'The barren spell is coming'. Those thoughts quickly changed to, 'Hang on a minute, there's no sign of him stopping!'

The night we faced Liverpool at home was the night he really made an impression on me. He came off the bench and scored two goals, the first being a volley that couldn't have been hit any sweeter. I was standing directly by him and it was going in from the moment it left his foot.

I just can't get over how clinical Salah has been - he has 15 goals in his last 13 appearances and the longest he has gone without scoring is three matches - and I'm pretty sure plenty of other players will have taken a similar view when completing their forms.

One thing I can say with certainty is Salah and De Bruyne will be in the PFA team of the Year. But who else will join them? I have chosen this 11, though there is no place for my Young Player of the Year, Leroy Sane.

It's an old-fashioned, British 4-4-2 but I'd guarantee you'd enjoy watching this team!

Salah impressed me when he came off the bench to score twice against Stoke in November

GOALKEEPER

David de Gea (Manchester United)

He is the best in the world at the minute and I reckon he'll be a universal choice for this position. The progress he has made since coming to England in 2011 is extraordinary. You can't believe he is the same player who looked so vulnerable back then and he beats City's Ederson.

David de Gea has proven his class once more in goal for Manchester United this season

BACK FOUR

Kyle Walker (Manchester City)

Nicolas Otamendi (Manchester City)

Harry Maguire (Leicester City)

Ashley Young (Manchester United)

This was probably the hardest section to pick. If Vincent Kompany and Virgil van Dijk had enjoyed uninterrupted seasons, they would have been certainties. I was going to include them but the more I thought about it, the less I could justify it.

Jan Vertonghen was another with outstanding claims but, in the end, Otamendi and Maguire get the nod.

I singled out Maguire in my first column for Sportsmail in November and he's only enhanced his reputation since. Otamendi, meanwhile, has come on so much under Pep Guardiola.

While Walker is an obvious choice on the right, some of you will be surprised by Ashley Young but, right now, he is the best left back in the country and he will get votes because of his form. He's been very solid.

Would I pick this as the best back four in the league? Probably not. But they are the four players who deserve the recognition for the seasons they have had.

Harry Maguire's form at Leicester has seen win his first England caps this season

MIDFIELD FOUR

Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)

Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)

David Silva (Manchester City)

Eden Hazard (Chelsea)

I've made my thoughts on Salah and De Bruyne pretty clear but I have to include Silva and Hazard ahead of Sane in this midfield because their form has been outrageous. Silva is one of the greatest foreign players we have ever seen in England, while Hazard has blown me away at times.

Eden Hazard has been breathtaking at times for reigning Premier League champions Chelsea 

FRONT TWO

Harry Kane (Tottenham)

Sergio Aguero (Manchester City)

It has been a long wait but, finally, this will be the year Aguero gets into the PFA team.

You wonder how someone who has scored more than 200 goals for his club has never had that honour but, surely, Aguero has done enough for selection.

As for Kane, I love watching him play, I love seeing the joy he gets every time he scores.

In a normal year, he would be a leading candidate for the main award but this season has not been normal. This has been the season of De Bruyne and, most of all, Salah.

Harry Kane has once again been Tottenham's talisman as they look to cement a top-four finish

Finally, it's an England team that excites me!

How do you feel about England's prospects at the World Cup after the games against Holland and Italy? Personally, I'm a little bit worried.

But the reason I'm worried is because of the hope I saw in those performances. Say it quietly, but the way we played in Amsterdam and at Wembley against top-level opposition really does bode well and I'm genuinely looking forward to the tournament now. That shouldn't be the case with England, should it?

The win against Holland was good but I thought everything about the Italy game was better. We were a level above them with our energy and pace, and Jamie Vardy really suited that formation. We had youthful players who can excite and are enthusiastic.

Jamie Vardy impressed up front for England during Tuesday night's 1-1 friendly draw with Italy

I honestly haven't felt so positive after watching England for a long time and the pace they showed is something that could scare teams in Russia. This is not to say I am tipping England as potential winners in Russia. This could be a tournament too soon but the long-term signs are encouraging. I loved how Raheem Sterling and Jesse Lingard played, and James Tarkowski, Jordan Pickford and Jack Butland all emerged with credit.

It was interesting, though, to hear Sterling's comments about 'show us some love' in relation to the difference England fans could make by getting behind the team. I have one little message for him: it's not going to happen. There is a different pressure when you represent England. When you win for your club, your fans don't really care how you get three points but when you go to Wembley, you are playing in front of a crowd that wants to be entertained as well.

You also have to factor in the mood of the nation: we have not reached a major semi-final since 1996 and not provided any excitement along the way. Maybe, though, that is about to change. I feel optimistic about this squad. Going forward, it all looks good.

Talented forward Raheem Sterling has called for England fans to show the team move love

All focus in the Champions League this week will be on Anfield but I'm just as interested in the clash between Juventus and Real Madrid.

I've always made this point about the Premier League: we are a bit snobby about other European teams and I thought the assumption made before Christmas about us having four teams in the quarter-finals was premature.

Juventus did a real job on Tottenham in the last round and I don't think they received enough credit from this country for the way they played at Wembley. They are a brilliant side and I wouldn't be at all surprised if they shut down Madrid like they did Barcelona a year ago.

Juventus knocked Tottenham out of the Champions League thanks to this Paulo Dybala goal

How Gazza sparked my love affair with Italy

One of the benefits of having some free time last week came when I found a documentary online called One Night in Turin.

It was made a few years ago but, as you will guess from the title, it is all about the 1990 World Cup and shows how the tournament saved football in this country and changed the discussion to what was happening on the pitch, rather than the big problems off-field.

That was the tournament that made me realise I wanted to be a footballer. I was nine and loved everything about England then. I had the shell-suit that Paul Gascoigne wore, I loved Gazza as a player and the era makes me nostalgic.

Paul Gascoigne's tears are symbolic of England's memories from the 1990 World Cup

For that reason I won't be missing Golazzo: The Football Italia Story, which is a film on BT Sport being broadcast on Saturday night at 10pm. I never used to miss Gazzetta Football Italia on Saturday morning, the weekly programme hosted by James Richardson.

Italy seemed like a different world and I loved how James Richardson used to sit outside a coffee shop with an espresso, going through the week's papers and providing you with insight into the world's biggest stars.

I won't be missing a minute of it, which is more than I can say about One Night In Turin… half an hour before the finish, my iPad died and I couldn't carry on watching. But don't worry - I think I know how it ends. Gazza makes a bad tackle, he starts crying and we lose on penalties? Thought so!

Gascoigne became a cult hero in Italy a few years later when he played for Lazio

My Week

What I've been up to...

It's fair to say the relationship between me and my old man is being stretched at the minute. After beating him at 10-pin bowling before the international break, I gave him another pasting this week on the golf course.

I don't feel I can disclose what handicap I played off but let's just say he's absolutely fuming that he had to give me three shots and then hand over the money!

It was a great way to end a week that had started with me being able to spend some proper family time with my children.

I may have not been playing football last week but I was celebrating beating my dad at golf

Who's caught my eye... Raheem Sterling

He was a shining light at Wembley on Tuesday and I just hope that he carries this form into the World Cup. He's been brilliant for Manchester City and I'd love to see him become brilliant for England, too. When you see him play as he did against Italy, it's not hard to imagine him being the main man.

Sterling was brilliant for England vs Holland and Italy - I hope he can repeat that in Russia

What I'm listening to...

Judas are a band I am heavily into and are one of the best bands I've seen live recently. Their new track is called 'Big Mouth' and I've been giving it plenty of air time in the last few days.

Next up for me...

It's a tough game at Arsenal. I've been studying the games all the teams at the bottom have remaining and we have four matches - against West Ham, Swansea, Crystal Palace and Burnley - that offer us big chances. Saying that, if we are going to stay up, we also need points from elsewhere. So we need to get something from the Emirates on Sunday.

Me and my Stoke team-mates continue our fight for survival away at Arsenal on Sunday