The Professional Footballer’s Association team of the year was announced this week, and, as expected with the league table looking the way it does, it was dominated by Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur players.

Most players can’t be quibbled with. However, it seems that the PFA have focused on trying to reward Leicester and Spurs for having great seasons rather than rewarding individual players for having an amazing season.

Take the strikers for example. One of Harry Kane or Jamie Vardy should be able to make the team. They have both had great seasons and scored over 20 goals thus far. But what about the striker with a better goals/minute ratio than both?

Player League Goals Shots on Target Minutes per goal
Harry Kane 24 63% 125
Jamie Vardy 22 58% 135
Sergio Aguero 23 58% 95

Sergio Aguero is the best striker in the Premier League, and although injuries have limited his appearances, he still has played over 2000 minutes. If anything, it is further proof of his ability that Harry Kane, with over 1000 minutes more, has only managed one more goal (and one less assist).

Manchester City have had a mixed season, to be sure. The satisfaction of a trophy in the form of the League Cup and a place in the semi-finals of the Champions League have been tempered by a very early exit from the Premier League title race. However a team of the year is rewarding 11 players for individual excellence in a team sport, and having Vardy over Aguero, while somewhat heart-warming, isn’t right.

A similar argument could be made with the selection of Dimitri Payet. West Ham are a club on the up and up, massively over performing this season regarding their league position, and preparing to move to a fancy new stadium next season. Arsenal by contrast, have had a typically Arsenal season, top of the league in January before a collapse that will hurt all the more this season because it is to an underdog and their North London rivals.

Player Goals Assists Key Passes per game Pass Completion
Dimitri Payet 9 9 3.8 79.8%
Mesut Ozil 6 18 4.1 86.3%
Alexis Sanchez 12 4 2.1 76.7%

First of all, saying that Sanchez or Ozil couldn’t be a winger in an orthodox 4-4-2 is irrelevant as really it should just be around picking 11 of the most deserving players in a reasonable mix. Whether the team of the year lines up in a 4-2-3-1 or a 3-5-2 shouldn’t matter.

According to WhoScored data, Sanchez is the most potent goal threat out of the three and Ozil is by far the most creative. Applying the metric of minutes played still doesn’t see Payet top Ozil as the German has played around 400 minutes more. The fact that Ozil is Arsenal’s most creative hub, constantly playing defense splitting passes and still manages such a high pass success rate is simply amazing.

Player Goals Assists Interceptions/game Tackles/game
Danny Rose 1 3 1.6 2.7
Alberto Moreno 1 4 2 2.9
Ryan Bertrand 0 2 2 1.3
Aleksander Kolarov 3 3 1.6 1.2

Danny Rose seems the biggest beneficiary of Spurs’ fabulous season that’s seen them achieve the league’s meanest defence. While Rose is extremely talented and at still only 25 only going to get better, he’s not been the best left back this campaign.

SEE MORE: Mesut Ozil wrongfully snubbed from PFA Team of the Year

Truthfully, there hasn’t been a really outstanding left back this season with Leighton Baines spending lots of time on the treatment table, but comparing to Rose to some other players in his position he seems middle of the range.

Both Moreno and Kolarov are much better offensively, and Moreno also matches Rose on tackles and betters him on interceptions. Granted Spurs have conceded nine goals less than Manchester City and 18 less than Liverpool but comparing the relatively calm and injury free campaign of Tottenham to those two clubs it would be a stretch to say that Rose was responsible.