2021/22 was a season of progress for Tottenham who finally look to be moving forward following a major dip in form post-Mauricio Pochettino.
Tottenham have booked a spot in the 2022/23 Champions League with fans no doubt keen to see how they can continue to progress under Antonio Conte.
For now, though, 101 have taken a look back at Tottenham’s 2021/22 campaign.
Player of the season: Heung-min Son
A number of Tottenham stars impressed during the 2021/22 campaign.
Cristian Romero was magnificent at the back, Matt Doherty excelled when given a chance by Antonio Conte before his injury and Harry Kane, after a very slow start that saw him score just one goal in the opening 15 Premier League game weeks, still managed to score 17 and assisting nine in 37 league games overall.
In truth, though, it was Heung-min Son who stepped up to steal the show in 2021/22. The South Korean took on the goalscoring burden during Kane’s slump and continued to bag goals up until the final day when he netted twice vs Norwich to become the first Asian player to win the Premier League Golden Boot.
Young player of the season: Cristian Romero
Cristiano Romero turned 24 on April 27, so he is technically now not in the young player category.
However, the Premier League’s Young Player of the Season award is given to anyone who is 23 or under at the start of a campaign, which Romero was, so we are following the same rules.
And, in all fairness, Romero’s displays this season do deserve some type of recognition, even if Son is the POTS.
The South American took to the Premier League like a duck to water, dominating opposition attackers with his commanding presence and hard-hitting tackling.
The 24-year-old is also often instrumental in starting Spurs attacks, as shown below:
GOAL – Son
ASSIST – Kulusevski
ELITE TACKLES – Romero pic.twitter.com/L1WbUIwA2W— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) May 1, 2022
Goal of the season: Lucas Moura vs Norwich
Tottenham’s goal of the season came in December 2021 vs Norwich.
Lucas Moura picked up the ball near the halfway line before knocking the it past one player, performing a quick one-two with Heung-min Son, making some space for himself and then unleashing a rocket:
What a hit. 🤩
Lucas’ stunner against Norwich has been voted our December Goal of the Month! 🚀 pic.twitter.com/KXES9Ktygz
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) January 8, 2022
Signing of the season: Dejan Kulusevski
Tottenham, somewhat surprisingly, made a number of good signings during 2021/22.
In the summer transfer window, Cristiano Romero arrived from Atalanta and has been instrumental in Antonio Conte’s implementation of a five at the back system.
Rodrigo Bentancur then arrived in January and, with Oliver Skipp’s injury issues, provided some much-needed cover in central midfield alongside Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.
However, the Lilywhites’ signing of the season was most certainly Dejan Kulusevski.
The Swede had an almost instant impact in north London, scoring one and assisting one in Spurs’ huge 3-2 win over Manchester City. He went on to score a further four goals and provide seven more assists in the league and, without the 22-year-old, it is hard to see Tottenham actually making the top-four this season.
Flop of the season: Emerson Royal
On the whole, not that many Tottenham players had a terrible 2021/22. Yes, plenty of them had poor patches of form but by the end of the campaign, most had proved some value to the side.
Emerson Royal would eventually do this and had a number of solid games at the back end of 2021/22.
For the most part, though, the Brazilian’s debut season in England, especially the first half of it, did not go well.
It began with the South American being tortured by Wilfried Zaha as Spurs lost 3-0 to Crystal Palace, and there were plenty of similarly poor displays throughout the remainder of the season.
Did Tottenham meet expectations?
Very much so, yes. If you had told Tottenham fans they would have been in the top-four at the end of this season most would have probably laughed at you.
They were helped out to a certain extent by Manchester United completely collapsing, but they still had to do battle with Arsenal to secure that final Champions League berth.
In the cups, Spurs once again underperformed, enduring another trophyless season and not even making it out of the Europa Conference League group stage. But, on the whole, few can argue that 2021/22 was unsuccessful for Tottenham.
Where do Tottenham need to strengthen?
Despite improvements from Emerson Royal and Ryan Sessegnon, Tottenham could still probably do with some more quality at wing-back, whilst a left-sided centre-back should be prioritised as Ben Davies is their only real option for that spot currently.
Finally, some form of back-up option to Harry Kane will be needed, especially now Spurs are back in Europe.
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