Champions League team of the league phase: Barcelona’s Raphinha, Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah dominate

The Champions League league phase is done and dusted, a thrilling catalogue of games seeing Manchester City narrowly avoid elimination, Liverpool top the table and big names struggle on their way to the playoffs. But who stood out on an individual basis? Here’s our pick of the best individual performers with a caveat some might feel is unnecessarily restrictive. One per team. That’s all we’re allowing ourselves. Look, if we didn’t, you’d just have the Barcelona and Atalanta attack with Arsenal and Inter’s defense.

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GK: Yann Sommer, Inter

Usually this column begins with an earnest and/or tedious debate about how best to rank goalkeepers over the course of a competition. Do we credit the guy who has made a lot of saves on a bad team or the one who has delivered when needed for a side who might only allow a handful of shots on target in a game?

This time, there’s no need (and yet we’ve done it anyway). It’s Yann Sommer, obviously. One goal conceded in eight games, 21 of 22 shots on target denied, the best save percentage in the competition. If only ever other position here were so straightforward.

RB: Rico Lewis, Manchester City

Look, we’re already a bit hamstrung here because Achraf Hakimi is off the board, for reasons soon to be apparent. Jules Kounde too. It’s pretty hard to argue that Liverpool’s spot should go to Trent Alexander-Arnold too, and I know these are rules I’ve set for myself, but if I won’t obey them, who will?

So here we are, with a right back who Manchester City’s transfer business would suggest is not exactly pulling up trees. The thing with Rico Lewis, though, is when the game is right for him, he can put up the most gaudy of stats. Through the first six games — Matheus Nunes was preferred to him for the last two — only four players added more expected possession value to their team than Lewis. One of those was Hakimi and the other three were wingers.

A marvel of ball progression, Lewis ranked in the Champions League’s top 12 for both passes and carries through the pre-Christmas period. His 2.07 expected assists? Top five. City’s right back created as many chances as Mohamed Salah and Vinicius Junior! It is absolutely valid to say that a great deal of that came from battering little guys like Slovan Bratislava but Lewis plays for Manchester City. A key requirement is battering little guys (for now at least). Poor Premier League form might have cost Lewis his place for the last knockings of the competition but he did enough in the European games that suited him.

CB: Brandon Mechele, Club Brugge

There might have been teams with better defensive records than the Belgians but most of those were serious Champions League contenders who logged significantly more than 41.6 percent possession across their eight games. Club Brugge were on the back foot more often than not and yet they held their position resolutely, driving Manchester City to distraction for 45 minutes having already limited the attacking might of Aston Villa, Sporting and Juventus (hey, don’t laugh) to one goal.

At the heart of that was Brandon Mechele, a ball-clearing machine who ranked in the Champions League’s top 30 defenders in tackles, clearances, interceptions, shots blocked and aerial success percentage. This column will always have room for defenders who defend. Few did so as well as the veteran from Bredene. 

CB: Gabriel Magalhaes, Arsenal

A team that went through their first seven matches without conceding an open-play goal really need some defensive representation and this has rather felt like the season for giving Gabriel his flowers. William Saliba might be the more purely talented but no one better typifies everything so admirable about this Arsenal team. 

A relentless commitment to improvement has turned an error-prone, hot-headed center back into one of the game’s most reliable defenders. He relishes a blocked shot and big tackle with the gusto of a last-minute goal. He absolutely mullers the opposition from set pieces. With Gabi at the back, Arsenal could really win the Champions League.

LB: Alejandro Grimaldo, Bayer Leverkusen

Over two expected assists, 13 chances created, 20 shots: we’re cheating here a bit by jamming a true left midfielder a little deeper into the team but the evidence of the past is that Alejandro Grimaldo can play that role and play it very well. It is worth noting as well that the Spaniard is extremely effective without the ball, averaging over five ball recoveries per 90 and winning 63.8 percent of his duels. This is truly a one-man left flank, up there with Federico Dimarco as the most effective up-and-down left wing back in Europe. And the Inter man didn’t play anywhere near enough minutes to be in the mix.

CM: Joao Neves, Paris Saint-Germain

You could not have designed better circumstances for Joao Neves to show why he is the coming man of European midfielders than at the Parc des Princes last week. The Champions League was slipping out of PSG’s reach. Their young midfielder dug his teeth into it. As he had been more than once before Manchester City came to town, Neves was everywhere, a true dynamo for an age that doesn’t just demand technique but the athleticism to display it across the pitch.

Neves attacks the occasion with intensity and purpose, one of that rare breed of PSG stars who don’t seem to be weighed down by all the drama at the Parc des Princes. “I’m very happy to be here because the football played by PSG is perfect for me,” he said last week. “It’s the kind of football I enjoy playing the most.” You can tell.

CM: Youri Tielemans, Aston Villa

Playing in this competition for the first time in nearly six years, Youri Tielemans looked like he’d barely been away for an instant, his guiding hand evident as Aston Villa swiftly adapted to Champions League football. Only six players completed more passes into the attacking third than the Belgian, who also ranked in the top 20 for progressive passes. 

His passing is aggressive and he is prepared to throw crosses into the box but he is still prepared to do his off ball work too as a defensive midfielder, ending the league phase with a combined 20 tackles and interceptions as well as 31 ball recoveries. That latter mark is the seventh-best mark in the competition.

RW: Mohamed Salah, Liverpool

The very best of Mohamed Salah (an album I would thoroughly enjoy) has probably come in the Premier League, where he is on a one-man mission to prove that it is possible for a player not named Lionel Messi to put up Lionel Messi numbers. Still, in the Champions League, he has not been too shabby either, his league phase ending a game early with Liverpool guaranteed a top-two finish in no small part thanks to his four assists and three goals.

Almost every one of his direct goal contributions was extremely meaningful, the brilliant brace of assists created as Bayer Leverkusen were put to the sword, a goal scored and provided against an obdurate Bologna. 

CAM: Ademola Lookman, Atalanta

Only picking one Atalanta attacker seems unfair; the Champions League’s most relentlessly fun squad deserve more flowers. If it is to be one though, the numbers say it’s pretty obvious who it must be. With five assists and four goals, you have to go for Charles De Ketelaere, right? Probably not. It was a great performance against Young Boys but it was against Young Boys. Instead, it’s Ademola Lookman, who delivered some of the big performances when Atalanta really needed them. The Nigerian was outstanding in the win over Shakhtar Donetsk and no less impressive in defeat to Real Madrid. The best of a very good bunch.

LW: Raphinha, Barcelona

The guy on the opposite flank is the obvious frontrunner for Ballon d’Or right now but in the Champions League, it is hard to shake the sense he is being eclipsed by Raphinha, who really should be number two with a lock in any serious ranking of contenders. Multiple big Champions League games have already been defined by the brilliance of the former Leeds United man. His star turn against Bayern Munich is probably the best individual performance the competition has seen this season.

His two-goal salvo against Benfica was not quite so exquisite until he hit the button marked Remontada in the last minute. Still, it did have that exceedingly funny moment when a goal kick cannoned in off his noggin, the moment when it became apparent that even Raphinha couldn’t find the off switch to his own brilliance.

ST: Julian Alvarez, Atletico Madrid

Having backed into the corner of not picking Robert Lewandowski, this is where things get fiddly. Serhou Guirassy took a lot of penalties for Borussia Dortmund. Harry Kane stomped on the little guys. Erling Haaland too. 

We’re probably down to three very real contenders. Viktor Gyokores’ display against Manchester City was as dominant as Europe saw this season but on the European stage, he seemed to fade after Ruben Amorim’s departure. Jonathan David has the penalty problem of Guirassy but they were really important penalties as he carried a team no one expected to be in the top eight shake-up on the final day.

In short, this spot is in the eye of the beholder. And this eye likes what it’s beholding from Julian Alvarez. His crowning achievement might well be his two goals to swing the day against Bayer Leverkusen, the first in particular embodying the sheer Scrappy Doo energy that promises to make him a perfect fit for Diego Simeone. The curler against Slovan Bratislava wasn’t too shabby either.

His six goals have come in an almighty xG heater, the 15 shots he has taken worth 2.21 xG. Then again, this isn’t the forum for rewarding underlying metrics. No one is signing these guys, just celebrating them. And Alvarez’s outstanding run through the league phase, one which has gotten Atletico out of a sticky early situation, is worthy of that.