The good vibes continue after Tottenham Hotspur’s Europa League winning victory over Manchester United last week. Today, UEFA released the Team of the Season for the competition, and to absolutely no one’s surprise, Tottenham are well represented with four players in the XI: Dominic Solanke, Pedro Porro, Cristian Romero, and Guglielmo Vicario.
The only (slightly) weird thing about this list is that Son Heung-Min didn’t make it. Maybe that’s due to the fact that he missed a bunch of matches with injury, and you’d have to leave Nico Williams out of that team to put in Son which probably feels like a non-starter. But in terms of importance to the team, there are few players ranked higher.
Solanke’s inclusion is also a little weird as he’s not in the Europa top ten for goals or G/90. He was, however, tied for second in assists with four, and second in G+A with 12, behind Rayan Cherki and Bruno Fernandes, who are both also on this Team of the Season.
As for the other three, they seem to be selected more on vibes than on any actual statistics that I can find. Pedro Porro shows up high on crosses and interception statistics, and Vicario led the Europa League in GA/90 but the weirdness with the injury crisis meant that Romero and Vicario missed a lot of time. Still, if you’re going to make a Team of the Season I guess you really want to have the champions well represented, and it’s fair to say that all three of them had a collective huge influence on Spurs winning the whole thing.
Ultimately, these Team of the Season things are a little bit silly as you’re trying to fit players into a formation instead of just picking the 11 best players or whatever, but it’s fun to have your team be recognized.