Marcelo Brozovic, Tammy Abraham and Dusan Vlahovic are among the Serie A stars that didn’t make the team of the season and here’s why Football Italia omitted them from the ideal XI for 2021-22.
Football Italia has published the Team Of The Season, in which Milan players dominate. Mike Maignan, Fikayo Tomori, Theo Hernandez, Sandro Tonali and Rafael Leao have made the team picked by our staff writers, Susy Campanale, Apollo Heyes, Andrew Cesare Richardson and Lorenzo Bettoni.
It has sparked a huge debate on social media, especially from Inter fans who saw Marcelo Brozovic excluded from the team. The Croat was the best midfielder in Serie A, according to Lega Calcio, and we are aware that he was among the most influential Inter players this season.
How did the decision process work? Every writer picked three players for each position, with the first one getting three points, the second one two and one point for the third pick. Brozo got eight points, one less than Tonali and Leao, who was the second-best striker after Ciro Immobile, level on points with Dusan Vlahovic.
The Serbia international wasn’t included in the team despite getting the same points as Leao who has been named Player Of The Season by Lega Serie A and Football Italia. Internally, we’ve also discussed the omission of Roma striker Tammy Abraham, the most prolific debutant in the history of the Giallorossi. The Englishman got eight votes, compared to Immobile’s 10 and Leao and Vlahovic’s 9, so, unfortunately, we had to leave him out of the squad, although he surely deserves mention for what he’s done this season.
Hopefully, he can finish the job in the Conference League with the Giallorossi meeting Feyenoord in Tirana on Wednesday. Victor Osimhen, Lautaro Martinez, Gianluca Scamacca and Giovanni Simeone all received votes, but a team can’t be made up only of strikers.
Other notable absentees who we feel could include are Inter’s Milan Skriniar and Alessandro Bastoni and Milan’s Pierre Kalulu, who was impressive in the second part of the campaign. Yet again, Fikayo Tomori got more votes than them, but the best defender was Torino’s Gleison Bremer, who was the first pick for each one of the four Football Italia writers as well as the Serie A Defender of the Season, according to Lega Calcio.
There were also many options in midfield with several players left out of the squad: Lorenzo Pellegrini got as many votes as Sandro Tonali, but we eventually picked the Milan midfielder because Milan were crowned Serie A champions. This, of course, doesn’t mean that Pellegrini or Brozovic or Nicolò Barella had a bad season. They were impressive, but there was only space for two midfielders. As for Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, he was the best-performing midfielder in Serie A, having contributed to 22 goals for Maurizio Sarri’s side. He was the best midfielder for all our writers. We are aware not everyone would be happy with our choices, but after all, that’s what makes this job and this sport so exciting and enjoyable. So we keep the debate open: What do your TOTS look like? Who should have been included and who should have been omitted from our squad?
Let us know in the comments section below!