2 Real Madrid players who deserved to be in UEFA Team of the Season

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Eder Militao, Real Madrid (Photo by Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images) /

1. Eder Militao

The Brazilian ace, who rose to prominence in Real Madrid only a few seasons ago, was instrumental in Los Blancos winning their 14th Champions League title. The player’s performance throughout the European campaign was commendable, and he was definitely one of the finest in the 21/22 season.

Militao was unable to make the Team of the Season despite providing one of his greatest performances in the Champions League final, when he was easily the best defender out of the eight on the pitch. Not just in the final, but throughout the campaign, his defence was rock strong, yet he was left out for Virgil van Dijk.

Van Dijk did have a decent season with Liverpool FC, but it wasn’t the best or even close to Eder Militao’s. Militao absolutely outclassed the Dutch defender, even while using the criteria that UEFA chose for choosing the TOTS.

When comparing the p90 records of both players according to FBref, Militao has a higher Tackles and Tackles Won statistic of 2.35 and 1.26, respectively, than Van Dijk, who has 0.67 and 0.22 in both categories. Additionally, Militao has a 40% success percentage under pressure compared to 36% for Van Dijk. The Brazilian has data on blocks, shots, and passes saved of 2.02, 1.34, and 0.67, compared to his Liverpool counterpart’s 0.78, 0.22, and 0.56 in the same field. It should be quite obvious that Militao outperformed Van Dijk statistically by a wide margin.

Now coming away from numbers, Militao had a greater role to play in Real Madrid’s road to the UCL trophy than Van Dijk. The Brazilian kept the entire Liverpool attack at bay in the final and managed to keep a clean sheet with collective performances with other defenders and Thibaut Courtois while in the same game, Van Dijk let Fede Valverde’s pass go, which led to the winning goal of the match.

There was nothing Van Dijk did last season that Militao couldn’t do. The Brazilian had a tremendous season and was in no way inferior to the Liverpool centre-back, both statistically and in terms of impact on winning the title.

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