SPORTS
UEFA Season Review Part 1/10.
Top 5 Leagues, tenth-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 tenth place, the team, player, Manager, forward, midfielder, defender, surprise team, and surprise player.
Let us begin.
Best Team #10
F.C. Barcelona
As a Culer, I am very sad. However, I strive to be a fair person, and I genuinely think Barcelona belongs in this list, albeit tenth-placed.
Barcelona, much like Man City, started and ended horrifically. However, the period where they were at their best was rather short. And, insignificant, apart from the Copa Del Rey trophy.
Barcelona played decent for most of the campaign, but the mental strength and desire to win was only present for a couple of months. The last game was the complete opposite. Barcelona were awful and won. Not to say that they had the desire, but they won.
This season was also riddled with injuries and changes for the club, with a new president, new coach, Ansu Fati and many other absentees throughout the campaign. I certainly hope for a better next season.
Best Player #10
Bruno Fernandes
Manchester United finished second in the Premier League, which is the best any team can do when Man City are in the form they were in. Bruno Fernandes, again, was a huge part of whatever they did, and might even win a trophy, the UEL.
Third in terms of goals, second in terms of assists and goal involvements. I would consider that a great season.
Best Forward #10
Neymar Jr.
He is a great player, you just have to accept it. Not every player can be compared based on numbers, just watch him. And if you want the numbers, 29 starts and 28 goal contributions in all contributions. I am not flattered, he can do much better, and if he did, he could be the best, which has been said many times, but still, it holds true.
He also won a trophy, so he’s not empty.
Best Midfielder #10
Thomas Muller
He still had a great season, like he always does. Not anywhere near the heights of last season, but good enough to be on this list. 34 goal contribution in all contributions and he was always there for Bayern when they needed him.
Winning Bundesliga, UEFA Super Cup, FIFA Club World Cup and DFL Supercup ain’t that bad either.
Best Manager #10
Stephano Pioli
A.C. Milan has been pretty good this season, finished second in Serie A, and are looking strong. I do not know how much of that should be credited to him, because he hasn’t done anything spectacular tactically, but this is a world of managers, not coaches and hipsters. I hope Milan continue being good. I want Serie A to remain in Milan, any side will do, but I would prefer this one to be it.
Surprise Team #10
Schalke
Let me get this out of the way, not in a good way. There will be 2 types of people out there, why? and why? Wait, what?
Sorry. I mean some will ask why they are here because they were bad even last year. Some will ask why so low, given how bad they were. To answer that, they were bad, yes, but I did not expect them to finish with 16 points. That is way too low. They are this low because we saw glimpses of this last season. But still, shocker.
Surprise Player #10
Hakan Calhanoglu
The Milan #10, at #10. He was a good player in the Bundesliga. I expected him to be good at Milan too. He wasn’t until he was, and that was during this season. I had given up on him, and then he turned things around. I absolutely loved watching him this season and would expect him to be brilliant a couple of seasons at the very least. But, as we all know, anything can happen in football.
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.
This is the first of 10 posts in the 10 in 10 challenge started by Martin van Soest, and I am participating because…well I have no reason, because I am already doing a 500-day challenge. I wanted to challenge myself further by trying to write 2 posts every day, and this is the first one in that. At the time of writing, I have another post going through a publication, so I am on time, for now.
I have a newsletter now! It will be a monthly email, a kind of monologue about literature, writing, philosophy and humanities, linking the articles I found most useful. It will be delivered on the 19th of every month. Do Subscribe if you are interested.
I am very excited about the future. Thank you for reading.
That’s it then!
