Opinion: The Tottenham half-time awards – Most improved, surprise of the season, and more

After we have reached the 20-game mark in the premier league, I thought it would be a fitting time to do a ‘half-season awards article’.

I don’t know about you, but the Ange era has well and truly reignited the smile on my face and safe to say decimated my wallet as I find it irresistible to cave into the temptation of visiting the lane and supporting the boys.

We find ourselves 6 points off the top of the league, with a squad riddled with injuries. We have lost our depth. We have lost two of our star signings in Maddison and Van de Ven for at least 2 months.

And yet, Ange’s tricky Lilywhites are one point behind “title-challenging Arsenal” with our best players to come back.

Certainly exciting times ahead but there have been a number of our squad who have really stepped up in the absence of others or have taken their game to a different level.

So here are my first half, season awards…

Tottenham player of the season (so far)

Heads up, no Van de Ven or Maddison in this section as they have only played half of our games.

So my nominees for this section are Sonny, Vicario and Porro, in truth I could’ve named three more but I’ll save them for later.

Heung-min Son 

Sonny’s output speaks for itself. 12 goals and 5 assists in the premier league this season. September player of the month.

Our captain has often provided a clinical edge in games this season whether he has been played out on the left or through the middle. It is blatantly obvious to see what impact he has on the pitch and off it.

Nearly every new player has said he’s been the one to help settle them into the club, a proper lead-by-example type of player. He bleeds for this club and has stepped up big time in the absence of Harry Kane.

Guglielmo Vicario

Now I will admit, I was part of the majority that did have to question why we went for the cheap option when David Raya was there for the taking. How wrong was I?

The Italian has been utterly sensational in between the sticks this season. An incredible shot-stopper, who is equally as adept with the ball at his feet, ‘Venom’ has certainly won us all over.

Think back to the Chelsea match where Vicario single-handedly kept the score below 10 and saved from Danny Welbeck, and Joao Palhinha to name a few.

With no disrespect to Hugo, the past few years since he dislocated his elbow have been quite painful to watch at times. It’s been very refreshing to not be covering my eyes when the goalkeeper has the ball and in my opinion, Vicario has been the goalkeeper of the season so far.

Pedro Porro

I remember I woke up bright and early when I was at uni on the 1^st of February to see a tweet from David Ornstein saying the Pedro Porro transfer to Tottenham was called off. Can’t lie I was miserable that day.  I knew he was too good to miss out on.

Probably the most confusing transfer saga in history, the relief I had when I saw his announcement video can’t be described.

I do feel for Porro as everyone associates him with the clip of Tim Sherwood saying he’s the worst fullback he’s ever seen which is a shame because it couldn’t be further from the truth.

The misconception that he can’t defend is false as well. Unfortunately, that narrative only comes from people who don’t watch our games, who don’t appreciate the ability he has.

The Spaniard has contributed massively going forward this season with his 6 assists and his passing range has been key for our successes this season. This man can pick out a 50/60-yard diagonal split the defence type of ball as well as anyone in the league and is undroppable from the starting eleven.

Winner:

It is a very close affair between these three but I am going to have to go for Guglielmo Vicario. Everything starts with the goalkeeper in Ange’s system and he has contributed a lot to how we play.

He has had to face a make-shift defence in front of him more times than not this season and without him in certain games, it would’ve been a cricket score.

Less than 20 million pounds for him might be one of the best transfers the club has made in the last decade. What a player. My player of the season so far.

Most improved this season (so far):

For me, there are only 2 candidates for this.

Pape Matar Sarr has been a key component in our midfield this season whilst Richarlison has turned around his Spurs career with some decent performances, especially in the last month or two.

For Pape, he has taken the starting number 8 position in our midfield and never looked back. It is easy to forget we signed him a few years ago for less than 15 million pounds and until this year he was criminally overlooked in our team selections.

It is an absolute disgrace that the Parmesan Pulis’ (Conte and Stellini) had a midfield pivot of ‘Skippberg’ playing for the second half of the season after Pape’s performance at the San Siro in the Champions League.

The way he covers ground is so unique with those long Yaya Toure-esque strides is quite astonishing and with every game that passes, you can see he is becoming a more complete footballer and one of the key members of our team.

For Richarlison, he had a tough start to the season. He was squandering chances and I know there were people on social media who wanted him out.

Ever since this surgery, ‘El Pombo’ ‘s improvement from the start of the season has been like night and day. His hold-up play has drastically improved and now he has finally found his scoring touch with 5 goals in his last 5 games.

We will desperately need Richy to step up in the absence of Sonny when he is away playing in the Asia Cup to maintain our top-four charge.

But despite Richarlison’s pick up of form recently, it is impossible to ignore the improvement of Pape Matar Sarr. The 21-year-old has such a high ceiling and hopefully will go on to establish himself as a Spurs favourite for many years to come. So he is my most improved player.

Performance of the season:

The team’s performances for at least 75 percent of the matches has been a solid 8 out of 10. However, there have been certain players who have come up clutch in crucial matches for us this season.

Maddison vs Arsenal

My word I miss seeing that Madders and Sonny link up and hopefully, it’s not too long until we see that again.

Maddison got 2 assists against Arsenal at the Emirates to get a draw for us and overall had an unbelievable performance in his first North London derby.

Spinning Saka like he wasn’t there and cutting it back for Sonny to finish.

Then to dispossess Jorginho on the halfway line to thread Sonny through for his brace, he cemented himself into Spurs fans’ hearts.

It wasn’t just those two assists though, the positions he picked up with the ball, the way he drove through Arsenal’s spine, it is safe to say he well and truly showed Odegaard who the best-attacking midfielder is.

Kulusevski vs Man City

Cometh the hour cometh the man. Dejan Kulusevski’s performance against the reigning treble winners was unbelievable. Not only for his 90th-minute equaliser, dunking on Nathan Ake to make it 3-3 but his overall play driving through City’s midfield was remarkable to watch.

‘Deki’ playing centrally was something that many fans had been pinning to see in the absence of Maddison and it is fair to say he has delivered, exemplified in that match.

Son vs Newcastle

I think it is fair to say I haven’t seen someone get as torn apart as Kieran Trippier did that day in a long time.

I could’ve said Son’s hattrick against Burnley but I thought his all round play in this match including showing his creative side was more impressive.

Turning Trippier inside and out for the first goal and then running behind our former defender to cut it back to Richy showed a side to Sonny which many had forgotten about since his change to a number 9.

This was also his first game in a while playing down the left and added to his complete performance by adding a very well-taken goal to his 2 assists for the day.

The winner is…

For me, the performance of the season goes to Kulusevski. The way he played in the middle of the pitch constantly driving forward and getting us up the pitch, the ground he covered that day and the fact he got the equalising goal and an assist to top it off was amazing. Performance of the season.

Surprise of the season:

Well if I wasn’t doing individual performances I’d say Ange getting us this close to the top of the table with the absentees we’ve had would be the easy winner but I’ll focus on the players.

For the sake of not repeating myself I won’t go into too much depth on Vicario but he certainly makes this list, as does Sarr.

Destiny Udogie has been a revelation this season. It is easy to forget that Paratici did his finest piece of work last summer on a player that didn’t play for us. An absolute physical beast, Udogie has everything that Ange desires.

Electrifying speed and a dynamic ball carrier, Udogie has won plaudits this season with many putting him in their team of the season.

For someone of his age to transition from the Serie A to the Premier League so seamlessly has been astonishing, let alone play this inverted full-back role that he has never done before.

Picking up positions all over the pitch, Destiny has found himself upfront, as a number 10, a number 8, everywhere and yet hasn’t looked out of place anywhere.

My only slight nit-pick is that sometimes he can be a bit naïve when it comes to getting yellow cards but I’m sure that will improve as he matures.

This next suggestion is a more rogue shout.

Ben Davies. The Welsh James Milner.  A boring does-the-job type of player who is versatile.

I’d admit I thought in the new dawn of Angeball there wouldn’t be a place for Davies. But with Van de Ven’s injury, he has hardly put a foot wrong and dare I say it has been remarkably assured and composed at the back next to Emerson.

His performances have been surprising, to say the least, and he is certainly deserving of recognition since he has been called upon.

For me though, I can’t look past how quickly Destiny Udogie has adapted to English football and I am over the moon he has signed a new contract until 2030. A future world-class player for sure. Surprise of the season.

Overall, I have to say the first half of the season has been a blast. We have a team to be proud of and a manager that we would all run through a brick wall for. Things are only going to get better in the new year and Ange is brewing up something in N17.

What a difference a year makes!

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