It’s official; the 40-man shortlist for the 2022-23 Premier League Team of the Season has been released; and there are certainly quite a few questions.
Defenders:
🇧🇷 Gabriel Magalhães
🇫🇷 William Saliba
🏴 Kieran Trippier
🇳🇱 Sven Botman
🇺🇦 Oleksandr Zinchenko
🇧🇷 Thiago Silva
🇦🇷 Lisandro Martínez
🏴 Ben Mee
🏴 Luke Shaw
🇦🇷 Cristian Romero
🇵🇹 Rúben Dias#TOTS— Squawka (@Squawka) April 17, 2023
Attackers:
🇳🇴 Erling Haaland
🏴 Bukayo Saka
🏴 Harry Kane
🇧🇷 Gabriel Martinelli
🏴 Jack Grealish
🏴 Marcus Rashford
🇪🇬 Mohamed Salah
🇵🇾 Miguel Almirón
🏴 Ollie Watkins
🇩🇪 Kai Havertz
🇩🇿 Riyad Mahrez
🇺🇾 Darwin Núñez#TOTS— Squawka (@Squawka) April 17, 2023
Not surprisingly, the likes of Manchester City goalscoring ace Erling Haaland lead the pack in the forward line along with many notable selections the likes of Bukayo Saka, Harry Kane, Gabriel Martinelli, and Ollie Watkins.
A midfield chock-full of exceptional talent is headlined by the co-creative genius of Martin Ødegaard and Kevin De Bruyne, with Bruno Guimarães, Palhinha, Alexis Mac Allister, and James Maddison among those to join.
At the back, there are few if any surprises of those that have been recognized among the forty best players in England’s top flight, with Brentford’s Ben Mee among some illustrious company.
Finally, Aaron Ramsdale and Nick Pope justify their moves to bigger clubs across fantastic performances throughout the campaign, while former Arsenal keeper Bernd Leno’s inclusion in the shortlist shows a player who still had plenty to give, and just needed new surroundings.
Ivan Toney has been directly involved in more Premier League goals this season (22) than Darwin Nuñez and Kai Havertz combined (19).
Guess who has not been nominated for #TOTS pic.twitter.com/EdDK36P4Hm
— Squawka (@Squawka) April 17, 2023
But the shortlist is hardly devoid of criticism; quite the opposite. Though no one can be sure why, Brentford’s leading man Ivan Toney has been left off the shortlist despite sitting on 18 goals and only the aforementioned Haaland and Kane ahead of him in the goal chart, though somehow, Chelsea’s Kai Havertz was given the nod.
Most chances created from open play in the Premier League this season:
71 – Bruno Fernandes
70
69
68
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63
62 – Kevin De Bruyne
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51 – Bukayo Saka, Martin ØdegaardNo Bruno in the #TOTS nominations…
— Squawka (@Squawka) April 17, 2023
Despite the cadre of head-scratching selections, the bulk of the shortlist has been included on merit, and the arduous task of narrowing a list of such unfathomable talent down to just eleven players remains a truly difficult one.
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