UEFA Season Review 10/10.
Top 5 Leagues, first-placed everything.
The season 2020–21 finished in all top five leagues, and it is, I believe, my duty, to reflect upon it. Today, we shall decide on everything in the first place, the team, player, Manager, forward, midfielder, surprise team, and surprise player. The best in every category!
Let us Begin.
Best Team
Manchester City
Manchester City lost in the Champions League final, and I am aware of that. However, City had a 21 game winning streak in all competitions. That is hugely impressive, and something that only six teams have surpassed in the history of top-flight football, and none in the Premier League.
That is some representation of the wild run they were from late December to March. Even if they weren’t able to sustain that much longer, they did more than enough to win the Premier League and Carabao Cup convincingly.
Best Player
Robert Lewandowski
Lewandowski has been scoring goals for fun for almost a decade now, and it was just these two seasons that he truly hit his peak, and yes, for the record, I do think this is, in fact, his peak. But, what a time to do that, just in time for him to be healthy, and just when Messi and Ronaldo are underperforming by their standards. If Messi had another great season, it was his, again. But he had a decent one, so he missed out.
Lewandowski scored a huge 41 goals in the league alone, breaking Gerd Muller’s record of 40 goals in a single Bundesliga season. No, it is not the overall record, that goes to Messi, with 50 goals in his record-shattering 2011–12 season. Nevertheless, 41 goals are impressive, and so is winning Bundesliga, Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup and DFB Supercup. A deserving winner, in my opinion.
Best Forward
Robert Lewandowski
The best player is also the best forward *surprise*. Anyway, I pretty much explained everything in the previous section. He was imperious in front of the goal and had improved playmaking abilities, like Kane, but he also won 4 trophies. So, he gets this honour of Mercier d’Or.
Best Midfielder
Phil Foden
The best midfielder over the past season was, by far, Foden. This is also the proof that Pep has a very good eye for players, which is not news, given that he pulled Busquets from the second team, but he proclaimed that Foden was the ‘best youngster he’d coached’. Now, let me explain this a bit better. He is, according to Pep, better than Busquets, Iniesta, Xavi, Cesc, Thiago, Pedro and the many more talents that he coached from La Masia in its golden period.
That compliment is not justified yet, but he is still good enough to snatch the best midfielder position due to his awareness, which is easily his biggest trait. His ability to know where, when and how to pass is only rivalled by the best of the midfielders to have played the sport. It is a shame that he plays for England, though. He would have slotted much better into Spain.
Best Manager
Pep Guardiola
Losing the Champions League final might mean that he wasn’t the best manager for many people, needless to say, not me. There are more things to management than winning. Last season, Manchester City were awful in defence and were unable to score even after being spoiled for chances, maybe that was the reason for the lack of goals.
This season, however, this team was a different animal. Solid defensively, scoring as freely as ever, and they knew when to wait and play out the game, all while playing the most beautiful brand of football, Pep’s way of playing which is not tiki-taka, contrary to popular belief. That is for some other day.
The way he handled the squad is appreciable, too. He had three outstanding center backs, and he gave all of them enough games, while quietly letting it be known that he does have preferences. That is harder than you’d think.
Most Surprisingly Good Player
Jesse Lingard
Lingard was the punching bag of football as much as Eminem is of legendary rappers. Yeah, he was that bad, too. However, this season, in January, he was given out on loan from Manchester United to West Ham, and he has been sensational. 13 goals contributions in 14 games for West Ham, and he was crucial to West Ham finishing in the top six.
I am happy for him, honestly. He revealed his mental health problems a few months ago, and he seems to be much happier now. Good for him.
Most Surprisingly Good Team
West Ham
A double for the hammers in the surprise category! In all seriousness, they finished sixteenth last season, and sixth this time around. Do I even need to expand on that? Well, I will. I will be open with you, I did not watch West Ham last season, because I had enough teams to care about. This year, whenever I missed a West Ham match, I watched the replay, they were that good, and were not involved in the Super League.
Lingard’s presence surely helped, but the real reason is Moyes, who I have already heaped praise on in one of these lists. Not that he set them in a unique tactical system or anything, but he caught Lingard and placed him so that he fits perfectly. That is hard to do, just ask Mou or Ole.
End of the Season Awards
Best Young Player
Pedri Gonzalez
If only Haaland didn’t break out last season, he’d have won it by a mile, but good for me, because I get to praise Pedri again. Pedri is a great midfielder, a better player and even better mentally. His work rate is surprisingly high for a young, creative midfielder, and his presence is mature beyond his years.
His decision-making abilities have been well documented and praised by many pundits across Europe, and I feel it is said enough. His connection with Messi, though, has gone under the radar since the draw with PSG. It is almost like the bond between young Messi and Ronaldinho. It is good to see, and I definitely look forward to it.
Best Moment of the Season
Alison’s headed goal
Alison Becker, one of the best goalkeepers in the world, scored a header for Liverpool in the most important match of their campaign to snatch a win in injury time. Crazy. These are the moments that we watch football for, don’t we? I, not a Liverpool fan, smiled uncontrollably for fifteen minutes straight after watching it. It also confirmed their top-four finish, so it was pretty an important goal.
Best Goal of the Season
Lionel Messi v/s PSG
Need I elaborate? The swerve, the power, the moment and the player, everything was perfect.
Best Individual Performance of the Season
Kilian Mbappe v/s FC Barcelona
Mbappe was phenomenal in the first leg. He scored a hattrick and essentially finished the matchup. This is painful , but the moment I thought of ‘best performance’, I remembered that match, and I watched it live, so I could have cried, but I didn’t.
I would advise you to watch that. Do it.
Best Team Performance of the Season
Manchester City v/s Liverpool (4–1 at Anfield)
Away from home, at the defending champion’s stadium, and they produce this masterclass. Winning against Liverpool at Anfield is hard enough, humiliating them is almost impossible. Man City achieved it and in the process, gave us the best team performance of the season.
Biggest Turnaround…for the good of the Season(Team)
Borussia Dortmund
Dortmund started awfully, and by the end, they were oiled machines. Sancho started awfully, too. He ended on a good note, too. What I mean that this is the perfect candidate for this award. They won the last six matches in Bundesliga to finish third in the league and scored 75 goals in the process. Haaland and Sancho were running riot in attack, Hummels was as solid as ever and Can was orchestrating masterfully.
They were pleasant to watch, and are the true flagbearers of young and basketball-esque football.
Biggest Turnaround…for the worse of the Season(Team)
Liverpool
Liverpool felt like the only team that wasn’t falling off in the Premier League until they were the most affected team. They were not fantastic in the start either, but ever since that Aston Villa defeat, 7–2 by the way, they have never really felt like themselves and will look to keep their momentum of the last few games into next season.
Biggest Turnaround…for the better of the Season(Player)
Lionel Messi
Messi started uncharacteristically slow, but boy did he turn it around. He won his record eighth(!) Pichichi and was clearly above everyone else in La Liga while playing as a number ten and false nine hybrid. He really stepped on the gas in 2021 though, scoring or assisting in all but 8 games in 2021, out of 29. That is insane, and even more so considering he is 33 and unhappy.
After all said and done, Messi is probably the best player we’ll see in our lifetimes, and Ronaldo fans, do not at me.
Biggest Turnaround…for the worse of the Season(Player)
Eden Hazard
Yes, I know that he was injured, but I just cannot ignore the fact that his teammates and coach said he was ‘healthier and better than ever’ at the start of the campaign and it turned out to be even stinkier than the last one, all nicely topped by his celebrations with Chelsea’s former teammates, after losing.
This is Real Madrid we are talking about, and no player or coach can ever smile after losing in a Champions League knockout round. That is why Cristiano survived here so long. I just can’t wait for the stadium to be full and booing again, just to watch a game at Santiago Bernabeu and Eden Hazard having a lethargic night, and being booed.
Happiest Moment in Football of the Season
Leicester’s FA Cup win
Watch this video from 6:08 to 9:00. Wholesome, isn’t it? A father bought and developed a lower league club into a perennial dark horse, and his son led the club to a historic FA Cup. That is nice to hear, especially with the ESL still very fresh in my head.
An Overview
Best Teams
From Barcelona in tenth to Man City in first, we counted down the top ten best teams in top 5 European leagues this season. Both English and Spanish leagues were represented by three teams, with both Manchester teams and Chelsea for the Premier League and Barcelona, Atleti and Real Madrid for La Liga. Lille and PSG represented the French league and Inter and Bayern were alone from their respective leagues.
Best Players
Bruno Fernandes finished tenth in this list, while Lewandowski snatched first place. Premier League led the way with five players in the top ten, and three of them belonged to Manchester City. La Liga and Serie A had two players each, while Lewandowski was the only player from Bundesliga.
Best Forwards
La Liga had three players on this list, Messi, Benzema and Suarez, while Serie A, Premier League and Bundesliga were represented by two each. Neymar was the only player from Ligue 1.
Best Midfielders
Six players on this list are from the Premier League. That is ridiculous. Three are from La Liga and Muller comes from Bundesliga alone. the two best are from Manchester City, and two more are from Barcelona.
Best Managers
Again, Premier League dominate with five managers in the top ten. Two are from La Liga and Serie A, while Galtier is the only manager from Ligue 1. Premier League dominates, huh?
Best Surprise Players
And again, six from the Premier League, two from La Liga, while Bellingham and Calhanoglu are the only players from Bundesliga and Serie A on this list. I guess that explains why there’s so much from Premier League.
Best Surprise Teams
Five. Lille is the only team from France and Milan the only one from Italy. Cadiz represents Spain and Union Berlin and Schalke are here to surprise us from Germany.
That has been it, I guess! This 10 in 10 challenge was wild. Not only because I had to write two articles a day, but because I wanted to do justice to every article I wrote. This challenge definitely improved my writing speed and taught me to double-check everything in the end, sorry Martin van Soest. I am happy to have taken this challenge will retake it when I have the time and a unique idea to do it in a way that will stimulate my mind.
This is an opinion, and let me know yours in the comments! Not included defenders and goalkeepers because I found them very hard to rank. I felt I shouldn’t rank them at all. If you want to let me know your rankings of the same, again, let me know in the comments.
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That’s it then!
