UEFA Season Review 4/10
Top 5 Leagues, seventh-placed everything.
The season 2020–21 finished in all the five leagues yesterday, and it is, I believe, my duty, to reflect upon it. Today, we shall decide on everything in the ninth place, the team, player, Manager, forward, midfielder, surprise team, and surprise player.
Let us Begin.
Best Team #7
Manchester United
Well, this is awkward. Villareal won, and they are not on this list, and the same day, I place Man United in seventh place. I know how this sounds, but believe me when I say that was unexpected. They finished seventh in La Liga, while Man U finished second in the Premier League. They have been playing counter-attacking football for almost three years now, and I am used to it, apart from the fact that they do it very well!
No trophies though, and honestly, I think that warrants a slide, but anyway.
Best Player #7
Ruben Dias
From the other side of Manchester, noisy neighbors are becoming unbearable now. Anyway, he was brilliant and I already praised him enough in this article. He had a similar impact that Van Dijk had on Liverpool, and I like him better, so yeah, he’s here.
Best Forward #7
Karim Benzema
Benzema was great, again. I wonder if he gets enough respect in Madrid now, that he is not overshadowed by Cristiano Ronaldo. I like to think he is, just like Sergio Ramos. Another solid season for him, 39 goal contributions in all competitions, and a very dependable presence who used all his experience to drive Real Madrid even close to the title. Champions League Semifinal, Second in La Liga. Not bad for most clubs, but unacceptable for Real Madrid.
Best Midfielder #7
Kelechi Iheanacho
24 Goal contributions in 25 starts in all competitions. He is a midfielder and just turned on the style later this season, and I loved every second of it, especially because Leicester won the FA Cup. Again missed out on the champions league places, but I am not blaming him for it, it was an annual tradition of bottle job. I am kidding, finishing fifth is respectable, with the kind of wage bill that they have, it is brilliant.
In terms of general play, he was good, not that he turned into Ronaldinho or anything, but he was a decent player even before he started scoring every time he stepped onto the field. Incredible, and I hope this ends in something bigger and better.
Best Manager #7
David Moyes
West Ham finished sixth in the league. Above Spurs and Arsenal. They are now the second-best team in London. Isn’t that frightening? To be clear, they did not play very well, but they kept winning and finished sixth. That alone warrants David Moyes a place here, and he also scouted Lingard on top of all that. Wow.
Surprise Player #7
Luke Ayling
Yes, Leeds were a surprise package as a whole, but two players stood out the most, the second will come later in the list. Ayling had the most tackles of any player in the Premier League, with 108, and started every match that Leeds played in the Premier League. That is pretty ridiculous, isn’t it? I am not saying he is Dani Alves or anything, but he was pretty good. To the point that I wouldn’t mind him in the Blaugrana jersey. He has the stamina to last three matches, runs all match long, tackles like he was born to do it, flies past players, is intelligent on the ball, what more do you need?
Also, finishing ninth in the league as a newly promoted side is hard, especially with a limited squad, and not filled with creative geniuses like Wolves were.
Surprise Team #7
Aston Villa
Premier League clean sweep, is it? 6/7 are from the Premier League, and why not? Three out of four European finalists are from it, so let us go with it.
Aston Villa was brilliant this season. I will keep this short because I already talked about them in this post. Honestly, I was lost when Aston Villa were about to finish above Arsenal. They didn’t, but 11th is still impressive for a club that barely stayed up just the season prior.
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!
