Another football season came to an end. This year we saw many ups and downs, many turnarounds, many upsets, some team bought multiple players and there are teams who don’t even bought a single player, some teams sacked their respective managers even when they don’t have much options, many records were broken, some teams made history by winning trophies.Let’s remember one of the biggest moments happened throughput the season.
- CHELSEA – The Thomas Tuchel Way
Chelsea won the most prestigious club level trophy, The UEFA Champions League last night. When the tournament started, Chelsea was not favourites to win the trophy. But then they bought Ziyech, Werner, Havertz, Chilwell and Mendy. Everyone started believing that this team have a spark to win something. They started their premier league campaign very well under manager Frank Lampard but after few games their performance starts diminishing. People starts raising questions on team’s player and manager’s ability and after few games when Board member lost their patience, they decided to sack Frank Lampard.
After sacking Frank Lampard they decided to bring Thomas Tuchel for managing the broken Chelsea of that time. When Thomas Tuchel join the team, Chelsea was at ninth position in the premier league and in champions league they had to play Atletico Madrid in Round of 16. Everyone thought that Tuchel can’t change the team situation in very less time but Tuchel have another plans. From the very first game Chelsea looked different. They went 14 games unbeaten. They beat atletico madrid in round of 16, porto in quarters finals and Real Madrid in semi finals, in the premier league, from ninth position they climbed to fourth position and booked their place for next UCL season. They beat Man city in premier league and in semifinals of FA Cup. And destiny gave the fair chance to Man City to take the revenge in UCL Final but Tuchel and his company outplayed the tactics planned by Guardiola ( Manager of Man City) and won the UCL second time in their club history.
2. Villarreal – Won first ever europeon championship
Villarreal won their first ever Uefa Europa League under the manage Unai Emery who also known as Mr. Europa League because he previously won the same tournament thrice with Sevilla F.C. . Emergence of players like Pau Torres, Gerard Moreno, Dani Parejo made the job easy for the manager.
It’s not lke that their path to glory was so easy because they finished La Liga on seventh position which means they didn’t qualify even for UEFA Europa League. But their performance in Europa league was consistently improving. In round of 32 they beat RB Salzburg with aggregate 4-1, in round of 16 they thrashed Dynamo Kyiv with the aggregate of 4-0, in quarter finals they find it difficult to beat Dinamo Zagreb by 3-1 but they qualify for semi finals and there they faced Arsenal and beat them with the aggregate of 2-1. After winning the semi final, the biggest clash of their lives against the Manchester United was waiting for them. When the final of Europa League started Villarreal weren’t favourites at all but they fought for the trophy till the end and the match went up to the penalties and they won the Europa League 1(11)-1(10) by barest of margin. They wrote history after winning the title and qualified for the Champions League.
3. LOSC LILLE : Fairytale To Remember
LOSC Lille won Ligue 1 after ten years and show the world that you don’t need big names to win the league. What you need is passion and courage to win the ligue. You need consistency and you have to show confidence in your players and on the manager of the particular team.
During the campaign players like Sven Botman, Burak Yilmaz, Jonathan Bamba, Jose Fonte and Mike Maignan played very well and consistency and confidence was the key for them.
Even they win the league by a point but defeating team like PSG where they have world class players, is one of the biggest news in world football. These type of performance make football more interesting.
4. Manchester City: Toughest Premier League Season Ever
After the sheer dominance of Liverpool in 2019-2020 season, this season of premier league started with the thought that Liverpool can win again but few games later their key player Virgil Van Dijik got injured and out for whole season. But their list of injuries didn’t end there, Liverpool almost lost their all centre backs at one point. Teams like Chelsea, Leicester City, Aston Villa, Manchester United and West Ham United took advantage of the condition and played very well in the league.
On the other hand Manchester City struggle to cope up with other teams and after ten games they were at 13th position but from there Guardiola changed his tactics and started playing team without a striker which means more attacking players in midfield and they can defend at the back when they need to. This tactic helped them and they went 16 games unbeaten. Players like Ruben Dias, Cancelo, J.Stones, Gundogan, Phil Foden, Mahrez and De Bruyne stepped up and take the team to another level and won the premier league third time under Pep Guardiola.
5. Atletico Madrid: You entered in a Suarez zone
When you seal the La Liga title on 67th minute of last gameweek and a team like Real Madrid who kept the pressure untill 90+2nd minute, just think how much the pressure was on Atletico Madrid.
They started the league as La Liga favourites because after few games the gap they created between first position and second position was of 13 points and players like Joao Felix, M. Llorente, Suarez, Hermoso and angel correa performed very well.
But when the dip in performance came they can’t cope up with performance and they reduced 13 points margin to none. At one point there league standing was second but Real Madrid and Barcelona were so inconsistent and helped Atletico to win the league.
Last two gameweeks were so thrilling because in each game Atletico conceded the goal and keep the pressure on themselves but Luis Suarez always came to the rescue and win the match for the team and helped Atletico to win the title after eight years.
6. Inter Milan : Dethrone Juventus
Ending the nine year domination of Juventus and to win Serie A after 2009-2010 season was a long journey for Inter Milan and for the manager Antonio Conte.
People tagged Conte as the “go the league winner manager” because whenver he joined new team like Juventus and Chelsea, he won the particular league with both of them.
But the task to win the Serie A with Inter Milan was difficult because the main challenge for them is to beat Juventus who have the world’s one of the best player Cristiano Ronaldo and also key players like Dybala, Morata, De ligt but what they don’t have was experienced manager. Juventus just hired Andrea Pirlo and he don’t have even one game experience of managing any team.
On the other side Conte bought and develop his players very well. Lukaku, Achraf Hakimi, Nico Barella and Martinez. Lukaku develop himself as a goal machine and helped the team to dethrone Juventus. They played attacking football throughout the season which helped them to win the title.
7. Bayern Munich : No one can stop them
Even when they perform bad, Bayern Munich can win the Bundesliga title. Even their number one striker Robert Lewandowski got injured for few weeks they managed to win the title.
They perform like they are made for this competition. Each and every player knows his role while playing for a team. Where they lack this season was depth in the team and because of the lack of depth they didn’t go far in Champions League and lose to PSG in quarter finals. But their dominance in Bundesliga continues even when player like Haaland, Sancho and Gio reyna emerge as a house power for Borussia Dortmund.
8. Leicester City : FA Cup Glory
Aftwe winning the Premier League in 2015-2016, Leicester City emerged as a new team who can challenge Big Six teams of Premier league and they continue to do that but didn’t win the trophy. Everybody put the “Keep the pressure on team” tag on them. They managed to win games against big teams but they didn’t finish in Top 4 spot after winning the league.
This year they performed very well throughout the league and till Gameweek 36 they are on third position of the league and in FA Cup final they will face Chelsea.
They creates history by winning their first ever FA Cup and team celebrated a lot but in last two gameweeks of premier league, they bottled, and from third position they end their campaign on Fifth position and qualify to play UEFA Europa League.
9. Robert Lewandowski : Breaking Gerd Mueller’s Record
Last year he scored many goals, won the sextuplet with his team Bayern Munich and won two best player awards and everyone thought that it was a “one season wonder” kinda performance but only Robert Lewandowski believed in himself and he started the season on the same note. This season he scored 41 Bundesliga goals and with the help of those goals he broke the 49 years old record of Bayern Munich Legend Gerd Mueller. He could have scored more goals but he missed few games because of an injury. Now he is looking for more goals as EURO 2020 is coming and his eyes will definitely be on most prestigious individual award which is Ballon D’or.
10. No trust shown in managers
For consistent results team’s Board Member have to be consistent and have to show confidence with the managers of their respective teams. But in last few months we saw, three very shocking exit of Jose Mourinho who was manager of Tottenham Hotspur, Frand Lampard who was managing Chelsea and Thomas Tuchel who managed Paris Saint Germain.
News of sacking Jose Mourinho was so unexpected because his team was not doing well in the league but they managed to reach the final of Carabao Cup where they had to face Manchester City. Just before 3 days of the final they decided to sack Jose and it’s not like they had an option for new manager back then because they bring 29 years old Ryan Mason who have zero experience in managing the teams.
Sacking of Frand Lampard and Thomas Tuchel happened around the same time. First PSG sacked Tuchel because of bad run of form by the team and on the other hand Chelsea decided to sack Frank Lampard after inconsistent performance by the team. Sacking of Frank Lampard was understandable because after spending around 200 million dollars they did not get the results but why PSG sacked Thomas Tuchel wasn’t understandable at all because last year, manager helped the team to reach their first ever UCL final and in this season when his main players like Neymar and Mbappe missed their most of the matches because of injury, they lacked consistency. In my opinion, PSG had to wait for more games because while writing this blog Tuchel won his first ever UCL with Chelsea and proved his capability as a manager.
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The Football Writer 
Wow ajit! To the point, precise and so full of information.
Incredible work! Would love to see more from you. Keep going
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Thankyou for this, amazing piece of writing.
Keep up the hard work
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