Premier League Team of the Season Part 3: The Attack

Harry Kane and friends…

Welcome back to our Premier League Team of the Season. Previously, we named our midfield trio. In this part, we will name the three best attacking players of this season, which, again, were fairly easy to pick. I will not lie to you all, most of this team picks itself.

Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur)

Alright, let us get this out of the way early. The obvious one goes first.

Harry Kane has been the best player in the Premier League this season.

Look at those stats and tell me that I am wrong. Yes, I know Spurs have been awful at times this season. Yes, I know Kane being the media heartthrob in England is quite annoying and covers up how much diving he does. But he is the best player in the league this season, and I think that fact should be obvious.

For starters, he currently leads the league in both goals and assists. As a striker. That is something you do not always see. He has shown just how well-rounded of a forward he is, being able to be lethal in front of goal while being quite comfortable on the ball and still having an underrated passing ability. His per 90 minutes stats also show that he is responsible for a goal, either scoring it or assisting it, basically every game. Which is ridiculous.

As a creative player, not only does he lead the league in assists, he is also second in Goal-Creating Actions. He quite literally does everything for Tottenham. Everything good that happens for Spurs in attack either starts or finishes with Kane. Everything. Without him, Spurs would likely be a mid-table team. I mean, he is directly responsible for 61% of their Premier League goals this season, which is absurd and might be the highest percentage of goals coming from one player of any player in the league (don’t quote me on that, I am not sure whether it is true). By comparison, you can say United are a one-man team and carried by Bruno Fernandes, but he is only responsible for 42% of their league goals this season, which is not even close to how reliant Spurs are on Kane.

I mentioned that if there was a Premier League Most Valuable Player award, I would not be sure if Fernandes would be the frontrunner but would be among the candidates. Kane would be the frontrunner. He is not only the best player in the league and among the best players in the world in his position, but he is the one thing keeping Spurs afloat. Without him, I really wonder where Spurs would be in the table. And we might not have to wait long to find out.

Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)

Salah has had a good season. Not as great as his previous few seasons, but he has still been very good, one of the best forwards in the league and very deserving of a spot in this team.

While Liverpool have been disappointing, and their attack has been one of the biggest disappointments for them, Salah has still quietly been very effective. While he has not gotten the assist numbers that he got in previous years, 20 goals is still a very respectable tally for a player held to the “world-class” standard. His per 90 minutes goalscoring stats is also among the best in the league, being responsible for a goal a little more often than every two games. Which is very good. It is about what the benchmark is for world class forwards, and Salah still fits into that mold.

It has been a difficult season for Liverpool, but their Egyptian King is still easily among the best in the league despite having a disappointing season in his own right. If Liverpool end up finishing in a European place this season, they will very likely have Salah to thank for helping them finish the season on a high note.

Heung-Min Son (Tottenham Hotspur)

It has also been a very disappointing season for Tottenham, but Son has stood out as a world-class talent. Being one of the league players of the month to feature on this list, there should be no doubt do anyone that Son has been phenomenal for Tottenham this season.

He has shown this year to be a dynamic and constantly threatening attacker, able to score at a lethal rate while also being able to supply his teammates. He will likely finish the season with double digit goals and assists, which has sort of become the expectation for top level forwards, and he is also very near the top when it comes to non-penalty goals (for those of you who do not like how many penalties Bruno Fernandes has taken this season).

In a Spurs team that can often be very weak in attack, Son is one of the few players in that team that can make something happen from nothing. His speed, agility, and comfort on the ball makes him a nightmare for opposing defenders to deal with, and he has shown a refined passing and creative ability in his game this season, which allowed him to register that respectable number of assists and register the most key passes of any forward in the league. It seems like him and Harry Kane are just playing two man football at times this season, and it works much more often than not.

While I do not believe Son is Spurs’ most important player, he is probably second-most behind Kane, and I still believe Spurs would be significantly worse off should Son not be in the team. Despite their disappointing season, Son was a large reason for whatever success they did have, and his performances as an individual made him one of the three best forwards in the league this season.

And that rounds out the starting 11 of our Premier League Team of the Season. The team looks something like this…

A bit of an imbalanced midfield, but we will make do.

Tomorrow, in Part 4, we will give a quick shoutout to the players who very nearly made this team, but narrowly missed out for a variety of reasons. Agree with my selections? Think that I left someone out? Let me know in the comments.