Team of the Season 2021-2022

Manager: Carlo Ancelotti

Bench: Alisson, De Gea, Lloris; Cancelo, Perisic, F. Mendy; Rüdiger, Skriniar, Matip, Laporte, Stones, Dier; Walker, James, Llorente; Fabinho, Casemiro, Rice; B. Silva, Thiago Alcantara, Kroos; Müller, Messi, Nkunku; Vinicius Jr., C. Ronaldo, Son; Lewandowski, Kane, Vlahovic; Mane, Jota, Leao

Best Player: Karim Benzema

Best Team: Real Madrid

Best Match: FC Liverpool – Manchester City 2-2, 03.10.2021

Ladies and gentlemen, it seems we have arrived in the post Messi & Cristiano Ronaldo era. For the last 16 years there has never been a Team of the Season the first eleven of which did not feature at least one of them. This time both make the bench, but they were closer to missing out entirely than to be in the starting lineup. Ronaldo was saved by his still impressive goal return and Messi by his Copa America, which counts as a part of the 2021-2022 season. I wouldn’t bet against one of them, or even both, having a fine World Cup at the end of the year but it currently seems like their reign at the very top is coming to an end. It may very well be a long time until we see their likes again. Applying my points system (see the end of this post) to these selections which currently go back to the 2006 World Cup, Ronaldo stands at 68 points and Messi at a staggering 96. No one has more. Busquets is their closest pursuer with 50 points.

One noteworthy feature of both this Team of the Season and other recent selections is that the generation coming after them did not quite live up to its full potential. It is rather players from Messi’s and Ronaldo’s own age cohort that succeeded them. The last three Player of the Season titles were won by Robert Lewandowski (born 1988) and Karim Benzema (born 1987). At least some of the players born in the first half of the 90s that were poised to take the reigns from Messi and Co. did not do so. Think of Lukaku, Hazard, Pogba, Dybala, Coutinho, Griezmann and, most of all, Neymar. None of them make even the bench this time around. The two great creative midfielders of this age cohort, De Bruyne and Thiago Alcantara, too, aren’t having careers that fully match their enormous talents. Both have the means to win at least one Player of the Season title. (Admittedly, De Bruyne’s career in particular is pretty good, but is it among the top 25% of careers he could have had?)

I want to thank Rob Fielder for contributing the profile on Luka Modric. It goes without saying that it is one of the highlights of this blogpost. You should check out his books on the history of the World Cup and European Championship. The team selection, however, was done by me and any righteous anger about it should be directed my way. Selection is, as always, based on both quantity and quality of performance. The players selected should thus have played really well for large parts of the season. Finally I should note that I watch a fair bit of football but I, too, only have so much time. Players from smaller clubs in particular will often be overlooked by me. That is unjust but I want to keep these selections truly mine, meaning that I want to select players I watched myself.

The 2021-2022 Season is defined as starting with the final whistle of the 2021 Champions League final and ending with the final whistle of the 2022 Champions League final.

Without further ado, here are the player profiles:

Thibaut Courtois
To put it simply, no other keeper this season made the goal look as small as Courtois did. If the Belguim No. 1 is in goal, you feel like strikers just have to aim a bit better than with any other goalkeeper around. There are tiny pockets near the posts where they might find the back of the net, the rest is Courtois territory. His giant frame evidently helps in creating this impression but the truth is that Courtois excells in basically every aspect of classic shot stopping. He reaches more shots than almost everyone else due to not just reach but also positioning, speed and technique. Plus he’s very consistent: I’m not sure I’ve seen him commit a major mistake this season (everyone makes mistakes, I’m sure there’s one blunder somewhere, but not much more). Courtois is far from being the spearhead of modern goalkeeping. He is a very traditional, no-nonsense keeper with only limited footballing skills. But his role at Real Madrid did not ask for more and under such conditions conservative players like Courtois can still be at the very top of the game. For a particularly strong performance watch the second leg against Chels… ah, scrap that: the profile was written before the Champions League final. I think it it stands up well but by now you all know which game of Courtois to watch.

Andrew Robertson
This was a really close call between Joao Cancelo and Andrew Robertson. Both played world class seasons at left back. Cancelo had the slightly higher peaks, matches where his playmaking presence and goal threat were highly impressive. He also had the lower lows, for example the second leg against Real Madrid where he was one of the players who looked particularly insecure. Robertson offers the slightly more orthodox package and is more of a vertical player compared to Cancelo’s more diagonal interpretation of the fullback role. Robertson has a great timing for overlapping runs and currently stands at 15 assists for the season, many of them from crosses and cut-back-passes. Without the ball he is very much a Klopp-player who offers lots of pressing and gegenpressing action which he applies with a good sense of timing. Robertson is by now an established current great in his position. Since his first call-up to a Team of the Season in 2017-18, he has never not featured in any capacity, making the first team once and the bench three times. I think this won’t be the last time we see him on these pages.

Thiago Silva
With 37 years of age, Thiago Silva is the oldest player to feature in a first eleven of a Team of the Season since Javier Zanetti in 2011-12, the latter decision being one that in retrospect seems to me to be based mostly on nostalgia rather than merit. The same is not true for the Brazilian skipper. He really was among the top three CBs of the season. I see Antonio Rüdiger, his partner in Chelsea’s central defense, as the only player with a real claim to Silva’s place in the team. It was certainly a remarkable decision by the Brazilian to transfer to a stronger league (and perhaps a more demanding team) at 35 years of age, but his performances since doing so are remarkable, too. His calm, his composure, his pressing resistance, his cultured passing, and his leadership qualities remain outstanding. He is the heart and the brain of the Blues’ defensive game and their primary playmaker from the back. The only blemish on his resume this season, just as for Rüdiger, were the games against Madrid when both were incapable of stopping the flow of goals coming from Benzema in particular. To his credit, he recovered with a very solid FA Cup final.

Virgil van Dijk
There were times this season when van Dijk looked a bit more ordinary than he used to, but the fact remains that he is the premier centre back of our times. A Rolls Royce of a central defender, van Dijk has everything – and he has it in abundance. Intelligence, power, ball-playing ability, speed, vision, and the knowledge when to make a tackle and when not. His status is by now universally acknowledged, including by his opponents who at times seemed intimidated by his mere presence. Some more shaky performances in the first half of the season like against Atletico Madrid away were quickly forgotten when van Dijk became once again one of Liverpool’s key players during their run to the Champions League final. He was also perhaps Liverpool’s most important player in the league. One thing about him that impresses me in particular is the way he often solves 1vs1 situations without really having to commit to any kind of decisive intervention. He just guides attackers to where they will do no harm; a friendly, yet stern “please come with me” and some of the finest strikers around just seem to comply. Van Dijk is no longer at the level of his miraculous 2018-19, but still the best in his position.

Trent Alexander-Arnold
Liverpool’s right back remains a phenomenon. 19 assists in all competitions as a fullback tell you as much. He is the prime example of the playmaking fullback in today’s game, even ahead of Cancelo. Yet I thought choosing a right back for this team was no easy task. There were a few games this season in which I felt that Alexander-Arnold was struggling defensively. Something that, for example, I could not say about Kyle Walker, who is pretty good going forward as well. Plus he’s just an outstanding 1vs1 defender. Alas, his injury towards the end of the season decided the race for this spot prematurely. One of the most remarkable aspects of Alexander-Arnold’s game is his passing range. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fullback link up so often with the team’s other fullback! Hence it is kind of fitting that this team features both him and Robertson. A special player, but one who I feel could be even better if his defensive game matures further.

Rodri
Defensive midfielder is such a crucial position in Guardiola’s Manchester City system. With the ball you cannot allow yourself to be the weak link in a passing system that includes such masters as De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden. Without the ball you must snuff out attacks before they begin to gain momentum. Rodri easily ticks both boxes. The Spanish neo-Busquets (without that outer genius edge) impressed me all season long but never more than in City’s 0-2 loss against PSG in the CL group stage. That may sound a little strange, but I tend to view it as a sign of great quality if a player can play really well even when he’s on the losing end. In my notes for that match I call him a mixture of Busquets and Casemiro and while I think he has much more of the former, it is true that he adds considerable physical steel to the classic pivote game. It’s not like Rodri stands head and shoulders above his peers. Fabinho in particular I see on basically the same level, both in general and this season. But for this year at least, I see Rodri as slightly ahead of everyone else.

Luka Modric (by Rob Fielder)
Has he always been this good? With a player like Modric it can be hard to tell. The Croat has never been a player who shines in the more high profile statistics like goals and assists but through the way that he influences a team. This year’s Champions League campaign has been an odd one for Real Madrid. They have arguably been on the back foot in all six of the knock-out matches to reach the final and yet have continued to progress through a series of short bursts and individual moments, as well as crucial mistakes from their opponents. While Benzema has been the totemic presence up front, Modric’s creativity and guile in midfield have proved essential. Against PSG it felt like they were on their way out. Trailing 2-1 with just 15 minutes remaining, Modric picked the ball up on the edge of his own area and surged through the PSG midfield, releasing Vinicius before collecting a return pass and setting up Benzema to level the scores. Within seconds of play resuming they were 3-2 up. Against Chelsea it seemed like the Merengues had crumbled. 3-0 down and again on the brink of elimination, Modric received possession and struck as good a pass as it is possible to conceive of, perfectly directed into the path of Rodrygo whose cushioned volley beat Mendy. It was trademark Modric, the deftness of the outside of his right foot supplying a magnificent opportunity for the young Brazilian to convert. Again, Benzema did what was needed late on. But as well as those moments of magic, Modric’s presence can be felt throughout the game. He is the ultimate pressure valve for a team under the cosh, never seeming rushed or hurried and seemingly impossible to dispossess. If your side need to keep hold of the ball for a moment, give it to Modric and you know it won’t be lost. For a side like Real Madrid whose defence has failed to convince this year, the poise and composure of the veteran Croat make the whole thing work. Really that is where Modric excels and one of the reasons it can sometimes be difficult to tell quite how well he himself has been playing. On his own, Modric is never going to be the decisive factor because he doesn’t typically score a ton of goals or create an abundance of changes. If his teammates don’t perform then his skills can go unnoticed. But he will always make players around him better because he uses the ball so intelligently, controls the play so well and positions himself astutely to support his team. Whether with Croatia, Tottenham or Real Madrid, he has always stood out as the heartbeat of the side. Whisper it maybe, but could the little wizard be the best central midfielder of the modern era?

Kevin De Bruyne
De Bruyne remained a candidate for Player of the Season until late into spring. In the end he did not win it but his 21-22 season underscored his claim to being the best attacking midfielder around. The Belgian is one of those players who will make this team year after year after year if he only plays close to his full potential. His overall quality is such that he must count as one of the outstanding players of his generation, someone simply a cut above the rest of the competition. De Bruyne is the complete modern player. If one were to play the old ‘what would be the best eleven if all outfield positions had to be filled by the same player?’ game, I think De Bruyne would be the answer. He creates, he scores, he defends, he works his socks off, he’s smart off the ball – he’s basically everything a coach could wish for. While De Bruyne is perfectly capable of moments that surprise you, I think his value is based to an even higher degree in the way he executes the somewhat more mundane, the expected, in such a consistently excellent fashion. His passes, for example, are just a bit sharper, a bit more well-timed, and a bit more precise than those of the competition – even if, for once, they don’t make you lose your mind. A recurring theme in De Bruyne’s career are injuries and phases of being semi-injured. My guess is that the latter (and perhaps really the former) was the reason for his uncharacteristically timid performance in the Champions League semi-final second leg against Madrid, where he was substituted after 70 minutes. [Written before he scored 4 goals just a week later…]

Kylian Mbappé
Rating PSG players gets extra hard in years in which they do not enter the later stages of the Champions League knockout phase. Their dominance in Ligue 1, a league that isn’t that bad, but not that good either, is so great that very few games they play all year have that ‘you should really win this match’ character that, for example, dozens of Premier League games had for the players of both City and Liverpool this year. Not because all of their opponents were oh so great, but because their single biggest opponent was expected to win all or nearly all of these games as well. Nothing remotely similar is true for PSG. That is why (ignoring all moral doubts about modern football in general and PSG in particular that one definitely should have) I feel that Mbappé, this generational talent, staying at PSG is a loss for football. I want to see the best players tested as much, or close to as much, as possible. Will not happen at PSG – did not happen at PSG this season. Having said that, Mbappé’s quality is obvious to everyone who watches him with an unbiased eye. His last minute solo goal against Madrid being the most obvious testament to his class. Here we have a player who is in some regards above the world class category. His numbers in Ligue 1 are superb: 28 goals and 19 assists in 35 games. An amazing dribbler, a good finisher, a good passer. My hope for him is that he does not allow himself to become the kind of luxury player one is surely tempted to become at PSG but rather integrates his qualities with state of the art team play. If he does that, and is lucky with injuries, he can become the dominant player of the next decade.

Mohamed Salah
The best player in the world – for the first half of the season. Roughly until the Africa Cup of Nations it seemed like Salah could replicate his Messi-esque form of the 2017-18 season. After his personal wonder year, Salah’s career was first hit by injuries before stagnating at a high, yet not totally outstanding level (in the last four years one nomination for the bench in 2018-19). I feel this season marks a return to a level that is higher than “just” very, very good. His personal highlight came in the form of two copycat wondergoals on the dribble in the span of two weeks against Spurs and City. The latter in particular is my favorite individual goal of the season. No one has scored this beautifully against such a big opponent. Both goals underline just how high the heights are that Salah can reach as a dribbler when he hits peak form. I still think he has a Player of the Season year in him. One player that Salah got chosen ahead of is Lionel Messi. His Copa America, which counts as a part of this season, was still vintage Messi but his first year at PSG wasn’t. I’m not sure he would have made the bench without the Copa.

Karim Benzema
So it turns out you can hunt with a cat.

If there were such a thing as a super league , I think the top four clubs this season would Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, and Bayern Munich. In some ways all of these teams are significantly better than Real Madrid. There are, admittedly, also some ways in which Madrid is considerably better than these four teams but I would still think that in a long and grueling league campaign Madrid would fall behind. The fact that the Champions League final wasn’t between two of these clubs had many reasons, but the single biggest one wears the No.9 shirt for Real Madrid. Karim Benzema is the reason why Real Madrid must be added to this elite circle while not matching the other contenders tactically. They might be a worse team in some ways – but they had Karim Benzema. Sure, they are no one-man-team, the presence of Courtois and Modric in the first eleven should tell you as much, but they are very much a team built around one talismanic player and that talismanic player is Karim Benzema. Playing as Real Madrid’s centre forward for a decade and not being their main man when it comes to scoring goals has its perks. One of them is that you are forced to branch out, to add other aspects to your game. This is what Benzema has done. At 34 years of age – the oldest player to ever win Player of the Season at the time of writing – he is one of the most multi-faceted, one of the most modern centre forwards around. Benzema has never become the single-minded hunting dog that focuses only on scoring goals that Mourinho wished him to be. He frequently leaves the classic CF position, drops deep, moves to the wings, and helps in his team’s passing game. But now he does so while scoring 44 goals in all competitions, bettering his previous record by a stunning twelve goals. The high point of his season came in the form of the Champions League Round of 16 and quarter finals, two ties against superior opponents in which he scored from pretty much every single chance he had.

Some hunting cat he is.


The spreadsheet with all my selections since 2006 and the list of top-ranked players: