League Focus: Serie A Team of the Season

The 2011/12 Serie A season has been dominated by Antonio Conte’s Juventus side in his first season in charge at the Turin club. It is true that no club drew more games than The Old Lady, and it is also the case that AC Milan actually won more games, but the outstanding fact remains that Juve went a whole league season unbeaten, and they are thoroughly deserved champions. 

Zlatan Ibrahimovic was denied a league title for the first time in nine seasons despite an incredibly successful year on an individual level, whilst Inter stuttered to a 6th place finish. Juventus unsurprisingly dominate WhoScored.com’s Serie A team of the season.

Here, we take a closer look at the standout performers in the Italian top flight, but with some controversial inclusions in a 4-4-2 line-up, it is possibly more accurate to look at a 4-3-1-2 formation – the most used formation in Serie A this season.

With only 20 goals conceded all season, it would be easy to look straight to Juventus’ stopper Gianluigi Buffon for the best goalkeeper in the league. However, with a sturdy defence in front of him, the Juve stalwart only had to deal with 95 shots on target all season, averaging just 2.3 saves per game, while teams lower down the league have allowed far more through on goal.

Lecce’s Massimiliano Benassi has had to deal with significantly more, making 117 saves in just 29 appearances – the second most in the league, at an average of over 4 saves per game, which is the highest of all goalkeepers in the division to have made more than 4 appearances. He also made the second most ‘good high claims’ in the league, rising above defenders to catch a cross on 43 occasions, while also punching the ball clear 29 times – the most in the league.

Inter Milan may have had a distinctly average season by their usual high standards, but Maicon and Yuto Nagatomo fill the Serie A team of the season full-back spots. Brazilian Maicon missed a chunk of the season through injury, giving rise to the argument that Swiss right-back Stephan Lichtsteiner should make the cut. However, Maicon, whose defensive game is often much maligned, made more tackles per game (2), interceptions per game (2.5) and clearances per game (2.8) than Lichtsteiner. The Inter right-back also picked up 2 goals and 4 assists, while making 2.5 key passes per game – more than any other defender in the league and seventh most overall.

At left back, Nagatomo has become a regular fixture for Inter, only missing 3 league games all season. The versatile Japanese player has played mainly at left-back, putting in solid defensive displays with 2.9 tackles, 2.4 interceptions and 4.4 clearances per game, whilst also chipping in going forward, with 2 goals and 2 assists.

The two standout performers in central defence this season are Juventus’ Giorgio Chiellini and AC Milan’s Thiago Silva. Chiellini picked up the third best WhoScored rating in Serie A, with 7.55, which owes as much to his work on the ball as guarding his own goal. He completed the second most passes in Serie A this season, with 1947 passes, an incredibly impressive stat for a centre-back. Juve only conceded 9.3 shots per game, and only let in 20 goals all season, which is, in a large part down to Chiellini’s 124 interceptions, the second most in the league.

Thiago Silva, meanwhile, is in the team largely for his pass completion rate, which was 91%, the highest in the whole league. He also made an impressive 3.4 interceptions per game and 6.9 clearances per game – both very substantial for a team so high up the table.

Andrea Pirlo was somewhat of an unexpected star in Juventus’ title-winning side, with the veteran midfielder topping the charts for as many as 17 different total stats (see box, right). Most notable of those are his league-highs of 2778 accurate and 125 key passes, from which he picked up 13 assists – also more than any other player in the league.

Pirlo has become the epitome of a deep-lying playmaker, dictating play whilst also protecting his defence from his position in front of the back four, averaging 2.1 tackles per game and also 11.2 accurate long balls per game - again the most in the league.

Alongside Pirlo in the team of the season sit fellow Juventus midfielders Claudio Marchisio and Arturo Vidal. The Chilean bossed Serie A opponents, making 178 tackles over the course of the season, which is by some distance the most in the league. Moreover, his box-to-box style of play also saw him rack up 75 shots and score 7 goals in his side’s race for the title. His enthusiasm was sometimes his own downfall, though, as he picked up 12 yellow cards – a tally only topped by Bologna’s Diego Perez.

Marchisio completes the title winning midfield, contributing with an impressive 9 goals – the second most in Juventus’ squad – and also 4 assists, whilst also averaging 2.3 tackles per game and 1.9 interceptions per game, with he and Vidal doing the work that allows Pirlo the time and space to run the game.

In behind the two strikers slots Parma’s Sebastian Giovinco, who has featured 15 times in attacking midfield and 20 times as an out-and-out striker this season. Somewhat surprisingly, though, Giovinco has better goals per game and assists per game rates when playing behind the strikers than he does up front. In attacking midfield he averaged 0.47 goals and 0.33 assists per game, compared to 0.4 and 0.3, respectively, when playing as a striker, justifying his inclusion as the trequartista in our team of the season.

The tricky Italian won more penalties in Serie A this season than any other player, with 4, and also picked up 8 assists from open play, which is only bettered by two players in the whole league - extremely impressive considering 6 sides scored more goals than Parma.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is many people’s player of the season in Serie A, having topped the goalscoring charts with 28 in 32 appearances; an incredible tally but something European football has come to expect of the Swede. He has been deadly in front of goal, converting just under a fifth of his shots (19.9%), with 4 of his 28 goals coming from outside the penalty area.

Furthermore, Ibra has added to the creative side of his game, making the most key passes from open play in the division, with 76, whilst also creating the second most ‘clear cut chances’ for teammates, laying on 15 such opportunities.

Completing the line-up is Udinese’s talismanic forward Antonio Di Natale, who has simply been a constant goal threat this season. He is always looking for an opportunity and that has seen him rack up the rather undesirable status as the player caught offside most times this season, having been caught out 90 times.

However, he has also had more attempts on goal than any other player in the league, having had 167 shots over the season, which saw him pick up 23 goals. He also provided teammates with 7 assists, giving him a total of 30 goals or assists this season, the second best tally in the league, bettered only by his partner here Ibrahimovic.